This is my first car, I got my license back in 2022, and bought this car in 2023, you have more options when you are 30+ years…
This means I have few other cars to compare it to, I drove a 2014 Golf at my driving school, and later my dad’s 2016 Volvo V90. I also got the opportunity to drive a Skoda in Spain in 2024.
The Leon is just the car I need, small, yet capacious, it is very comfortable and fun to drive.
There are some stuff I dislike, some that are unsafe and some that are brilliant.
It has a lot of power for a standard hatchback, 205bhp with both the electric and petrol engines running, to get the most out of it, I have found that I need to put it in sport, and set the car to recharge the battery as you are driving, this keeps petrol engine running and available for fast launches, if performs best when the the battery is at 20-30%, as it has the ability to get power from the battery while using the battery as a dump to shove regenerated power and improve engine breaking, this effect is is great until about 85% charge, when it gradually disappears without warning.
The interior is quite plasticky, but the leather steering wheel is quite excellent, it has great controls for media and ACC.
The rest of the interior controls is a mix of ok, and terrible, most controls are touch that lacks illumination so finding them at night is out of the question, those that has illumination are located awkwardly on a downward slope below the steering wheel to the left, luckily I only need them for demisting.
Plenty of functions are controlled through the infotainment, it is ok, but annoying.
I forgot about everything being on a screen on recent vehicles. It’s that and the beep or tone which makes you have to look away from the road to see what’s going on that are the real problems for me.
This is my first car, I got my license back in 2022, and bought this car in 2023, you have more options when you are 30+ years…
This means I have few other cars to compare it to, I drove a 2014 Golf at my driving school, and later my dad’s 2016 Volvo V90. I also got the opportunity to drive a Skoda in Spain in 2024.
The Leon is just the car I need, small, yet capacious, it is very comfortable and fun to drive.
There are some stuff I dislike, some that are unsafe and some that are brilliant.
It has a lot of power for a standard hatchback, 205bhp with both the electric and petrol engines running, to get the most out of it, I have found that I need to put it in sport, and set the car to recharge the battery as you are driving, this keeps petrol engine running and available for fast launches, if performs best when the the battery is at 20-30%, as it has the ability to get power from the battery while using the battery as a dump to shove regenerated power and improve engine breaking, this effect is is great until about 85% charge, when it gradually disappears without warning.
The interior is quite plasticky, but the leather steering wheel is quite excellent, it has great controls for media and ACC.
The rest of the interior controls is a mix of ok, and terrible, most controls are touch that lacks illumination so finding them at night is out of the question, those that has illumination are located awkwardly on a downward slope below the steering wheel to the left, luckily I only need them for demisting.
Plenty of functions are controlled through the infotainment, it is ok, but annoying.
Overall, I like it!
I forgot about everything being on a screen on recent vehicles. It’s that and the beep or tone which makes you have to look away from the road to see what’s going on that are the real problems for me.