Long-term report: Is the Cupra Leon the ultimate everyday hot hatch?

Three months in and nearly 3,000 miles covered and I’m still very smitten with my Cupra Leon. Why? Well, I’ll explain.

For the past month and a half, I’ve only used the Cupra sparingly due to a number of short-term press cars. But in the last couple of weeks I’ve taken it on a couple of long trips and I can honestly say, it’s good to be back.

You see, a lot of modern cars lack any kind of personality, with their soggy suspension and dreary designs, but the Leon still manages to bypass all of that on account of it being engineered to put a smile on your face, and it certainly does.

The last long trips up to the Cotswolds and Heathrow demonstrate this car’s capabilities of being a motorway mile muncher, while being fast, eager and very practical. Considering it has sports suspension and the ride can be firm, it’s by no means unbearable on a long trip and its refinement is excellent.

Even though the Leon is fun, it’s by no means a match for some other hot hatchbacks, but where this Spanish counterpart trumps the competition is when it comes to daily driving. The useful rear seats and a very large boot capacity has meant I’ve had no issues at all transporting people and their belongings around.

I’ve started to see an improvement in the economy too. I mean, you’re never going to achieve figures of a hybrid in this car, but on my long runs I’ve seen an average of between 39 and 44mpg, which isn’t bad. Obviously, if you drive it spiritually (where permitted) you’re going to see those figures drop to late teens and early 20s.

However, I’ve encountered a few issues during the last few weeks which has left me confused. The first one of which was the sound glitch. It sounds (no pun intended) bizarre but when I jumped back into the car after a week of it sitting around, the CarPlay connected but my music sounded like it was playing from the bottom of the sea. It was very loud, distorted and had too much bass, to the point you couldn’t even work out what song was playing. I then turned the radio on and had the exact same issue. So, the usual trick of turning the car off, lock and unlock was used, but still the sound wasn’t right. After a couple of swipes on my playlist the sound sorted itself out and hasn’t returned since, but for now I will be monitoring it to see if it decides to play up again.

Another problem that I’ve noticed is the automatic gearbox has a tendency to be very jerky when parking and in stop-and-start situations. It didn’t really bother at first, but now it’s one of those things that now sticks out to me too much. When parking on an incline, having the ‘auto-hold’ function to prevent the car from rolling is great, but it means the slightest tap of the accelerator means the car shoots forwards or backwards.

However, apart from those little issues, I’m still thoroughly enjoying my time with the Cupra Leon. Its blend of performance, stealthy looks and premium feeling interior still makes it an excellent daily driver and in the next couple of weeks, I will be taking it on a few more adventures to see what else it has to offer.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not the most engaging car to drive in this class, with its rather anonymous steering feel and DSG automatic gearbox taking away the involvement of a manual, but the Cupra Leon just does everything well with no drama or fuss attached to it.