| Week at the Wheel | SEAT Leon FR TDI |

Inside & Out:

Believe it or not, this is the facelifted SEAT Leon. Hardly a Ford Scorpio of a makeover, granted, but at least it won't infuriate those who've just bought a pre-facelift car. You'll probably be aware that we ran a SEAT Leon Sport from December 2008 until August this year, so if anyone is qualified to detect post-facelift changes, it's us. They're discreet: the centre console is the same, as are the door cards and the main bulk of the dash.

That's only half the story though, because while visual changes are limited to minor aesthetic smatterings across stuff like the heater controls, instrument binnacle and some outer panels, there are some important mechanical changes. We'll get to those. Ultimately, the Leon still looks sharp, particularly in FR form with its tasty 17-inch alloys, dark rear tints, chromed mirror caps and FR badging. The new seats are great too - grippy and good-looking.

The problem is that tactility hasn't improved at all, so it's still blighted by too many square inches of hard plastic, despite the blanket of soft-touch material layered across the dash top. VW's budget brand Skoda is knocking its cabins together with tangibly better plastic these days - which is probably much to SEAT's chagrin.

Engine & Transmission:

The engine is one of the major changes brought about with the facelift: the FR TDI now gets common rail diesel power as opposed to the old Pumpe Duse technology, which brings with it a noticeable and welcome chunk of refinement. It's still quick, because it's got 258lb.ft of torque, but it's delivered more smoothly across a broader rev range.

Unfortunately, the 170bhp unit never quite lives up to the FR billing. It always feels strong, but it sadly runs out of steam more quickly than is ideal for a hot hatch, which means constant reaching for the next gear. Fortunately, as was the case with our long term Leon, the gear change is typical of a good VW 'box - tight and with a positive action, if a little notchy at times.

Ride & Handling:

And so here we have the other, and possibly most major, couple of changes bestowed upon the revised Leon. First the suspension - which was the bane of our backsides during out tenure with KR58 DJZ because of its unyielding firmness. Mercifully the setup of the FR, which has an equivalent setup and rims of the same 17-inch diameter as our car, has been tangibly softened. The result is that, while the Leon still corners will all the sticky alacrity it did before, it's now far more pleasant to chug about in at low speeds. It could still do with being dialled down a touch, but it's no longer a glaring thorn in the car's side. On the other hand, the steering could do with being sharpened up a little, especially around the first few inches of wheel travel, where it feels lifeless and slack. Turn-in quickens up progressively, though, and it's still a communicative rack.

The next, and last, major change is the addition of the XDS electronic limited slip differential found in the Golf GTI. As opposed to having a mechanical device in place of a standard diff, the XDS is a brake-based system that senses when the front wheels are losing grip during cornering, then slows the inner wheel, which sends power to the other and has the result of quashing understeer by pulling the car around. As in the Golf, the system is highly effective and can actually be felt changing the direction of the car, making faster cornering easier because it allows you to pin the accelerator through the turns and let the system do its thing - within reasonable limits and the laws of physics, of course.

Equipment, Economy & Value for Money:

Despite our remarks about SEAT being usurped in the quality stakes by its budget brand stepsibling, let's not forget that the Spanish maker is a bit of a budget brand itself, in the non-pejorative sense. This TDI FR will set you back £18,440, which is a lot of car for the money - particularly when you consider that our Leon Sport - with its less powerful engine and general vibe of 'normality' (as opposed to the hot hatch radiance of this) - cost about the same with a couple of options. An extra 30bhp, a flat-bottomed steering wheel (albeit flattened with a tube of horrendously hollow plastic), sporty body kit, unique alloys, twin chrome tail pipes and a set of lovely seats is a whole lot of extra kit for a mere grand over a TDI Sport 140.

Economy wise it hardly loses out either, despite its extra shove and smoothness. Officially it returns 53.3mpg combined and spits out 139g/km of CO₂.

Overall:

Forget about that fact that the Leon FR TDI is supposed to be a hot hatch and it's a very justifiable car indeed. It looks great, drives well, has a strong, flexible engine and is relatively cheap to run. However it's on the 'performance car' side of things that it goes a bit awry, because it just doesn't have the necessary oomph to match its looks. That might not bother you if you're just after a warm hatch with more bark than bite, but we'd urge you to stretch to the 208bhp TSI petrol FR if you like your Spaniards hot.