SEAT Leon 5 doors test drive since 2012 Hatchback

Turn the lion

How long can you make friends with a lion? With the king of animals - for two years, with a neighbor in the garage Lev Benzovoino -Vich - in five years, and that is not a fact. But with the Spanish Seat Leon, we understood each other at a short time ten minutes of communication.
We do not understand why we have a huge number of Volkswagen Golf IV on the roads and there is practically no Seat Leon. The cars are the same. Although not twins, the twins - look different, but the genes are almost the same. And who will say that Golf has bad genes?
The car taken was scarlet. We do not know how with bulls (they say they have black and white vision), but this color excited us. The car looks excellent. No wonder the body of sportsmen is usually painted in these tones.
The design of the machine is quite aggressive. Directly some body. A powerful front bumper with stylized air intakes and homophocal fog fog at the edges. Narrow headlights. 15-inch wheels in huge wheel arches. The line of the side glasses is slightly lifted to the stern. Wide rear racks. Spoiler above the glass of the fifth door. Hefty rear lights with the same sections of the stop-signals. The weighty skirt of the rear bumper ... Yes, all this is impressive: it looks great and fit just perfectly.
The salon is no less qualitatively and beautifully decorated. The sports three -spoke steering wheel is not only pleasant to the eye, but also lies well in the hands. A pretty instrument shield, a central console with a climate control and a radio, and the air duct deflectors are made in the same style and organically complement each other.
Only the texture of the plastic from which the torpedo is made is somewhat alarming. It has a fine -mesh shape, which is probably impractical: dust will be collected very quickly. Although, perhaps, we are mistaken. But the button that opens the gas tank hatch is certainly out of place. It is located near the gear handle, on the right. You accidentally hit, and the hatch will open.
To make it convenient for all passengers, you will have to look for a compromise. Front, the rear will have nowhere to put your legs. The back will stretch his legs, the front will pick up the knees into the glove compartment, and you will not open it anymore. After some time, the three still managed to come to the consensus: the navigator pushed his chair back to the maximum, and the second pilot took a place behind the commander of the ship. The fact is that the driver's seat is adjusted in height. It is worth lifting it, and the rear passenger has a space for the legs. The seats themselves are very convenient, equipped with good lateral support and have a long dynamic trip.
A couple of words about the trunk. More precisely, about how the driver sees and feels him. As it turned out, not bad. One of the advantages of hatchbacks and station wagons is that the car ends where the glass of the fifth door ends. This helps a lot with reversing maneuvering, especially in constrained urban conditions. But - only if the headrests of the rear seat do not interfere or, worse, the heads of passengers.
In the Seat Leon, neither one nor the other is a hindrance. The lower boundary of the rear window passes exactly along the upper edge of the head restraint. Even if the entire rear row is filled with people, the glass for the driver remains clean.
The luggage compartment itself is quite spacious. Naturally, the back of the rear seat folds, and then you yourself decide what to load in the car - a bicycle or a couple of bags of potatoes. By the way, the shelf covering the cargo compartment is very durable - you can also place a weighty luggage on it. It is also convenient that the keyhole of the fifth door is hidden under a plate with a proprietary logo, which is a door handle. It is equipped with a microlift, and when you let it go, does not clap, but returns to its original position with dignity. The same microlifts are installed on salon handles as at the head of the head.
Before starting the engine, we drew attention to the fact that something else has something that has the size of a matchbox and resembling a case for the front panel of the radio. And it turned out. Of course, there was not the entire panel, but only the part on which the radio stations selection buttons are located. It seems to be a trifle, but pleasant: there is practically no place, but without this panel a music center is just a set of radio components, which is unlikely to be behind anyone.
Although, if the thieves hear the sound of a stereo system, then, perhaps, it will be fired without a panel, along with the speakers. The quality is amazing! The bass to the full - and the pack of cigarettes begins to jump on the roof of the car.
With one motion of the joystick responsible for adjusting the external mirrors, we open them and under our own summer, winters ourselves (perhaps better about the climate and you won’t say) we start the car. The needs to muffle the sound and listen to how it rumbled 1.9 tdi, no. We already somehow rode Golf with such a motor, and he left us the most pleasant memories: dynamic, noisan, no vibrations.
The engine did not disappoint this time. Our Seat behaves absolutely the same as his brother. The same flat thrust is at almost all revolutions, a barely audible turbine war and - cannon acceleration. Honestly, we observe from the side of the start of the car, we would not have believed that it is diesel. You can’t even determine by the smell: the high efficiency of the catalyst affects.
One problem: there are no gas stations in the center of Moscow! Soon the fuel level sensor fell to zero. (This was most likely due to our plague driving: whatever the start is in spar, whatever it is a hundred - this is how this leon is so that it is a sin not to tear yourself away!) The route computer, the number, is the prospects: the number, numbers, The showing the rest of the distance to the required refueling first turned from two -digit into unambiguous, and then into a hole from the bagel.
It seemed that everything was finish. But the car continued to patiently move from one gas station to another in search of food. Only after 15 kilometers it was possible to feed our lion. Well, it turns out, the computer is lying? It turns out yes. But this lie is good. He leaves us, careless, a chance of salvation.
Putting back the tank for another tag, we go further.
The second pilot to the second pilot seemed tall. However, after some time he had a word and stopped paying attention to her. The main thing is that her move is not too large, and the clutch takes when necessary - neither earlier nor later. They would like to complain, but nothing to.
The time of our acquaintance has expired. It was time to take pictures as a keepsake, and then we dreamed. In the title picture, I wanted to see the following: a steep turn, from which a car in a completely plague roll, almost on disks, with all the headlights turned on, comes out directly to you.
As you can see, the staged frame did not work out - our Leon is not cracked. We are already in a good way, and so. And the gas was thrown, and, conversely, were braided in a bend. And he stands as if dug, and that’s it, although the suspension is not particularly tough. As a result, it remains to be content with side wiring and static pictures. But, you must admit, the Leon looks spectacular on them.
Good car. Naturally, he, like any other, has disadvantages, but we honestly talked about them. In any case, about those who were able to identify during the day of acquaintance. Of course, with long-term operation, some flaws will come out. But nothing is forever under the moon. And Leon will eventually be covered with rust. But only after 12 years - the manufacturer's guarantee.
Text: Oleg Kalaushin

A source: Magazine 5 wheel [11/2001]