► Mark Walton samples the new Cupra Leon Estate
► An insight into ownership
► Read month 2
So I spent the first few weeks in our Cupra Leon Estate driving in Comfort mode like it’s an ordinary family car, bumbling along. Then I remembered: hey, this is supposed to be a 300bhp, all-wheel-drive, hot-hatch estate. What the hell am I doing?
So I started experimenting with the ‘Cupra’ button on the steering wheel, to explore more of the car’s bandwidth. However, this button is opposite the engine start/stop on the wheel, and yes, I’ve managed to switch off the engine while driving.
If you accidentally press the stop button once it gives you a warning, but I thought I was cycling through the driving modes so I hit it twice and the car died. Luckily you can fire it back up, re-engage Drive and pretend that nothing happened. Eventually, your passengers stop screaming.
When you do get the right button (by which I mean the left one, the LEFT ONE!!) the system stiffens the Dynamic Chassis Control, weights up the steering, sharpens throttle and gearchange responses and turns up the engine sound generator.
First there’s Sport mode and then there’s the confusingly named Cupra mode (you find yourself saying ‘I put the Cupra in Cupra with the Cupra’). This is really a track mode and I find the suspension so stiff the car gets a little rowdy on a bumpy back road, plus the fake sound is about as convincing as a PlayStation game. But Sport mode has a Goldilocks ‘just right’ feel – sharp, responsive, and very fast, and fully capable of that claimed 4.9sec 0-62mph time.
The bits that don’t work are the gearshift paddles. They’re so half-hearted you feel they’ve been designed to put you off manual changes; and while the car feels quick and precise on a winding B-road, I wouldn’t say it’s playful. It lacks that ‘drift mode’ rear diff of the Golf R, instead retaining the standard VW Group Haldex 4×4 system.
Nothing wrong with that, but it means the Cupra Estate is no hooligan. So, let’s just slip it back into Comfort mode again and stop larking about, eh?
Logbook: Cupra Leon Estate 2.0 TSI 4Drive VZ3 (Month 3)
Price £44,845 (£46,825 as tested)
Performance 1984cc turbocharged four-cylinder, 306bhp, 4.9sec 0-62mph 155mph
Efficiency 34.4mpg (official), 28.1mpg (tested), 186g/km CO2
Energy cost 23.5p per mile
Miles this month 906
Total miles 3199