2025 CUPRA Leon Estate 2.0TSI 333PS VZ3 4Drive In-Depth Review

What is it?

This is the redesign of one of my favourite cars. It boasts more power, advanced technology, three engine options, and six trim levels to choose from. Surely, this has something for everyone, but can it beat the MK3 SEAT Leon CUPRA ST 300 4Drive that I know and love?

Exterior

Well, it’s been a while since I had my SEAT Leon MK3.5 Cupra ST 300 4Drive, so you can imagine I had some mild excitement when this one arrived. I’ve also had the pleasure of driving the VZ2 version of the older style CUPRA Leon Estate.

If I had to pick the one thing that everyone seems to like and has grown on me, it’s the paint, even though it’s an extra £2,055. This Enceladus Grey Matte paint does the job indeed, and it’s great for photos, as you won’t end up with your face in the reflection.

I would be very worried about the upkeep however as this being Matte, you don’t have that nice top coat to keep it clear of damage from pesky bird poo, I think you’d have to keep on top of it a lot more regularly than your regular glossy paint, I don’t think I would have it for a daily driver personally.

The front of the car is probably my favourite bit of the vehicle in terms of aesthetics, It’s a massive improvement over the older pre facelift style and dare I say it, I prefer it over the MK3 ST as well, it feels all grown up with that hint of Spanish craziness from that massive open grill, I do wonder if you could suck up small animals and children through the gaps however.

I’m a big fan of them side vents as well, even though they look non-functional for ventilation they still fit the aggressive feel and sit just below the shark nose just below the lights, one thing I’d like to know is that with the wide mouth grills we see, how much more prone are you to damage to the radiator/aircon unit from stones etc? It would also have been nice to get everything in black behind the grill to complement the front, as the bare metal does stand out quite a bit.

Onto the lights, again I cannot fault them even though at this time of year you need to be out at 10 pm to put the LED Matrix to use, I’m pretty sure they’re either magic or very expensive to replace (I just Googled it quickly and found a used Terramar one for £1200 each side, ouch), either way I’m loving the new DRL style with the triple triangle design, and as an added benefit like with all the new CUPRA’s (I’ve driven) you get the lights that turn on automatically when you walk up to the car.

So, above the shark nose overhang we have the now well-known CUPRA logo, someone came up to me in a car park and asked what the car was and then proceeded to tell me that it looks like it’s from Transformers, unfortunately I was on a nappy run (not for me) so time was of the essence, more of a smile and wave scenario.

Next up is the bonnet; I feel that with the matte paint, everything seems to pop a little more, as there are no reflections or light trickery, making things much easier to take in at a glance. Anyway, we’ve the standard two raised lines splitting the bonnet into thirds, almost.

Moving round to the side of the car we pass over the what I think could be the best alloys (‘HAILSTORM’) I’ve seen on a CUPRA thus far, plenty of copper, plenty of space to see the monstrous six-piston Akebono brake calipers paired with 375mm x 36mm drilled discs, unfortunately you’ll never be able to see the full CUPRA on the caliper, I managed a CUPR and that was about it, I also thought that spinner centre caps would be on everything these days so the logo is always pointing the correct way, help us OCD people out please!.

The tyres on this test car were Bridgestone Potenza S005 (235/35/R19 91Y) which has been a pretty standard tyre size for a while now on the 19’s, I’ve never had Potenza’s before but as this is a 4Drive I doubt I would have got much slip even if I tried.

Then, we’ve the side profile, which is classic in terms of bodywork lines. You’ve the main one coming from the front lights and ending up at the petrol cap, creating the start of the rear lip above the lights at the back. We’ve also got some chunky door handles which feel great to open in comparison to my slimline Tarraco ones on my car.

Looking down from the handles, we see some significantly proportioned side skirts, they protrude a fair distance, which in turn makes them look half decent.

Moving around to the rear, we have the impressive LED light bar with the CUPRA logo integrated into the rear lights, which appear staggered in three sections. This is also the only place where the car model is visible, which I think is a nice touch.

One fun thing is finding the boot opening button, this is the first time that I’ve seen one of these mildly hidden buttons, usually it’s right next to the camera but this one’s not, when you know it’s very easy but I imagine a few people having a good look for it then having to use the key fob, want to know where? I think I’ll make it fun for you when you try. Instead, have another image of the rear lights.

Moving towards the bottom we have the standard quad exhaust (for the high end petrol anyway) with a minimal diffuser, it’s nothing new give or take a few minor changes, I’m not sure if I prefer the bigger twin pipes on the MK3 or the new quad setup, the main thing is that all four pipes work, I’ve seen some that have 2 blocked off on other cars.

Lastly we have the roof, usually a roof would be pretty dull, this one however has the fancy £1,000 panoramic roof option, the glass it split in the middle allowing the front half to go over the back half, this does make it a little darker for the rear passengers but for the front it’s rather lovely.

Interior

From what I can deduce, there are minimal interior changes from the previous CUPRA Leon Estate 300 4Drive that I reviewed previously. I suppose the main difference is that I had the VZ2, and this one is the VZ3, so there are a few more tech features. Still, the interior seemed like a slight letdown, considering the extensive changes made to the exterior.

Starting with the leading dash, lots of black with added piano black hints to give that posh feel, after having the same sort of layout in my Tarraco I find it to be the biggest finger print magnet on the planet but it’s pretty easy to clean and doesn’t seem to scratch by looking at it, we’ve got a slightly bigger screen (12,9″) than the previous model (although I don’t have the exact number but it looks bigger), one benefit is now the media system has better buttons for the air temp but I’ll cover that later on because I know it’s the only thing on your minds right now.

Moving around to the door cards reveals a noticeable difference, I think. With the VZ3, you get the Sennheiser sound system (again, I’ll go through this in the tech section); I never had the pleasure of experiencing SEAT Sound in my MK3 Leon. Still, I’ve sat in another car with it, and it was pretty good. I think this one is better. It also features nice speaker grills that showcase the make, which is a nice touch.

One thing I have seen in a few forums and posts about the new Formentor is that the light bar at the bottom of the windscreen flickers and sometimes goes different colours based on what you’re doing in the car, I didn’t see any of that during the week, in fact I didn’t have any issues with the car at all apart from the standard rattle from somewhere near the passenger side.

Seats, I hear you ask? You didn’t? Oh well. What can I say, the CUP bucket seats are not your average sofa cushions; you fit in snugly. I also found that I need to prepare myself for getting in cars now that I own my Tarraco, as everything else feels like I’m falling in. I got the better half to sit in the passenger seat. The first thing mentioned was “it’s a bit huggy,” which, while you’re doing a rate of knots, you want to keep your body in front of the wheel and not in the centre console.

These are brilliant. Still, even though these bucket seats are very comfy, they lose something that you have in a standard one, like my Tarraco FR Sport. All in all, though, the solid seat and the carbon fibre rear look great, but I hope they don’t scratch easily.

Moving round to the rear seats, we have plenty of space for me (6ft2) sitting behind the driver seat also setup for me, the rear of the buckets look well designed to give that little extra space as for when I put in my 360 baby seats (note that the car is now iSize mounts) I found there was less space. I wasn’t able to tilt the seats back when rear-facing; some adjustment on the bucket (electric) may have been needed, but it’s worth noting that with the Tarraco, we have about another 3-4 inches of extra space for tilting with ease.

The rest of the rear seats felt pretty comfortable. You can fold down the middle seat for drinks or open it further for a ski hatch, which is also handy when going skiing or carrying a carpet, as you never know.

Lastly, the boot, it’s pretty big, it handled the weekly shop amongst some other nice extras like 15kg of play sand, in a car like this I’m not sure why anyone would use the higher boot liner setting unless they wanted to fold the seats up for that longer space, one thing I did notice is that even though this is the VZ3 and it had the sub in the boot you get no spare wheel, this sucks.

Engine and sound

Key specifications

• Engine: 2.0 TSI
• Transmission: 7-speed DSG
• Max. Power: PS @ rpm: 333 @ 5,600-6,500
• Max. Torque: Nm @ rpm: 420 @ 2,100-5,500
• Fuel economy (mpg) WLTP: 32.5 – 34.0
• CO2 (WLTP) g/km: 189g/km
• Euro standard: RDE2
• 0-62 mph: 4.8 seconds
• Top speed: 155mph

So, the engine and sound are fruity, with the standard 2.0L we’re all used to, albeit with many variations since my first one with SEAT on the pre-FL MK2 Leon FR.

In terms of specifications, over the last three iterations of the Leon Estate (ST), we’ve progressed from 300PS/380Nm in the MK3.5 that I owned to 310PS/400Nm in the first version of the CUPRA Leon Estate, and now to this review car, which boasts 333PS/420Nm. Hence, there’s a steady increase. Still, then if you check the weight for the identical vehicles the MK3.5 comes in at 1470kg, the 1^st version of the CUPRA Leon Estate was 1640kg then moving to the review car which comes in at 1,651kg, so not much between the CUPRA versions but the SEAT was pretty much 200kg lighter which is quite a substantial difference, I guess that’s the price you pay for less creaking and rattles!

So in terms driving the car you have multiple options, you can use Comfort, Individual, Performance and CUPRA, I assume that most people would stick in the Performance or Comfort depending on the drive type, the reason I say this mainly stems down to being in CUPRA mode makes driving a little bit harder on the ears as the performance mode changes gear at around 4k revs if you’re not pushing it, if you use CUPRA mode then it changes at 5k, which if you’re driving round town or doing low speed driving you make yourself look like a bit of a tool because everyone thinks you’re not changing gears. It’s still a shame that you cannot set your profile to a default, so you don’t have to change it every time. I understand that you start in a driving mode that won’t damage the engine as much if you’ve only just started the car, but hey.

After driving on a multitude of roads from windy B roads to Dual carriage ways I can say that this car is a hoot to drive, in Performance mode the steering is just heavy enough to give some nice feedback from the road, the whole vehicle feels planted which is nice when pushing the beans through the grinder more than usual, one thing that usually bothers me with the Estate/ST models is that you don’t get that same Exhaust note with the pops unless you’re actively trying for it, I always find the hatch version way more yobbish if you so needed it, with this Estate version if you’re in performance and push it to just over 4k and let it drop from a just warm engine you’ll get some pop pop’s. Still, when the car’s warm, it’s nowhere near as easy, one assumes this is down to a change in the exhaust pipes for a longer car and the 4WD system.

After seeing the size and type of brakes the VZ3 had I was very excited to see how they bite and handled some heavy braking, I put them up against the Tarraco brakes in what is nearly the same weight as the Leon, the Tarraco has what looks like a plate you’d put cake on, the Leon however has dinner plates (admittedly with holes in), so everyday driving I found the Tarraco way more sharp even though it’s 2 years old, I got in the Leon after driving both cars. Everything felt a little more squishy until you hit them harder; then, you find what the extra pots get you and the bigger discs. You stop in a much more aggressive manner over the Tarraco. This may also be due to the car’s centre of gravity, but the difference was significant.

In terms of sound, the cold start is nice and bubbly, with a good tone. However, at 7 am, it could be considered loud to nearby neighbours. However, when you’re driving, everything is pumped through the speakers as usual these days. One thing I do need to mention is how awesome the air intake sounds under boost; you get a very satisfying noise, indeed. I approve.

Are you the sort of person who likes to launch cars? I’ve never really seen the point in normal road conditions, but needs must for the review, (I’ve got a tough job right?), I remember doing the Seat Leon ST MK3.5 and CUPRA Leon Estate Launch test and thought the MK3 felt way more raw in power delivery over the CUPRA Leon, this feels much the same, the delivery is punchy but on point, great sound from the launch control then off you pop leaving most of your organs behind, the 4Drive is a game changer in terms of grip and usability from launch and if I get to have another fast car I would try and get something with 4drive/4WD/AWD.

Technology

Infotainment System

This has been one of the biggest downfalls of SEAT’s / CUPRA’s in recent years (and other marques to be fair). Someone decided that we no longer needed push buttons and that everything should be touch-based instead of relying on good old-fashioned physical feedback. With the first wave we got what seemed to be undeveloped touch buttons for the air temperature under the infotainment screen, with this version they have been fixed so we have touch buttons that work as intended (for me anyway), slightly new design in how they’re shown to the user but all in all they worked well for me and look loads better than the flat option we had in the last CUPRA Leon.

In terms of screen size we’ve gone up from 10 inches in the previous version of the CUPRA Leon Estate to 12.9 which is a pleasant improvement, it doesn’t look too small or too big for that matter, the quality of the screen feels much more crisp when swiping around, also the rear facing camera shows things instead of a mix of pixels that show a colour of car, I could read a plate from the screen which is nice, maybe my old ones were just always dirty!

The main layout I used was 1/3 for YouTube Music with 2/3 being Waze, pressing on the smaller one moved it across to be the focus for the driver which is a nice touch, I couldn’t seem to get YouTube Music to go full screen (Waze did) though not that you’d need it but my Tarraco allows me to do it. I found the general use of everything screen-related to be on point and working as intended. Unfortunately, most of our use is within Android Auto, so not much of the standard software was utilised.

Driver Aids (sign recognition)

Just a quick run-through of some of the driving aids I encountered during the week of driving the Leon Estate. First up, and one of the most annoying, is still lane assist. Admittedly, this was way better than the Tavascan I drove, as that didn’t like me at all. Unfortunately I sound like a broken record but I find the car unable to go from a single to dual lane road, as soon as you get that extra line pop up the vehicle tries to steer you into the verge or if you get in the overtaking lane into another car, it does it every time without fail on two roads near me (A47 both way just before Peterborough), I get that it has some significant use cases like someone falling asleep at the wheel.

Next up is sign recognition, now with things like this being forced into cars I find myself wondering how they would cause an issue or accident, for example, in my town we have a section of road that drops to a 20mph during school hours from 30mph, now with the Leon I drove through and it beeped at me to go 20mph at 9 pm on a Sunday even though I was driving at the allotted 30mph, it carried on thinking this was a 20mph zone for another mile or so before it caught up, if these things get forced on us this would cause people to break unnecessarily without realising or people need to sort out the signs so it doesn’t pick them up, either way the system wasn’t happy with me.

A random thing to mention and it’s an OCD thing, but the P that shows up when you can use the auto parking features decides to flicker on and off over different speed when driving through town, it’s like it has no idea what’s going on and glitches out rapid fire at the top of the screen, I found it hard to click on it to see what was going on.

Sound System

If you’ve read any of my other reviews you may know I’m a bit of a metal head, it’s somewhat challenging to truly test a system with drums that never really stop or give you room to breathe so I spun up some Prodigy, Electric Callboy and Lamb of God to spice things up a bit, I was impressed until I went into the sound config equalizer to realise they still have got any presets available for music types, this seems like such a simple task instead of me trying to move individual columns and testing it on a song I’m playing.

As for sound quality, it’s Sennheiser, apart from the sub in the boot which seemed to be plastered with VW codes and nothing regarding the premium brand stated inside, also worth noting that even though this was the top spec Leon Estate (VZ3) I didn’t get a spare tyre, I always thought that if you had a sub you had the tyre for the sub to fit in, turns out I’m wrong.

Bass, it was fine, nothing special but giving it a little extra juice when you pumped up the bass from the equaliser, I imagine with Rap etc you may not need to do this, Prodigy wounded crisp and clear, I couldn’t quite find a middle ground for the mid to high bands with my playlist, something always seemed off, in the Tarraco I have everything set to default (middle across the board) and that seems to function for everything I listen to but with the added sub and better speakers in this VZ3 things didn’t quite match up.

Keyless Entry (lights)

So, this has been around for a while, generally under the KESSY name. Still, there are a few bits for the more modern versions that please me, as with the MK3 (I’m pretty sure), you could unlock the car using KESSY from a much greater distance from the key. Hence, it made it relatively easy for thieves to copy the code from your window and unlock the car and off they went, I think it’s now down to just over a meter so that helps massively (hopefully), also one cool thing when unlocking the car, well, just before is that you can enable the lights to come on as you walk up to the vehicle, such a small thing makes the most significant difference to me, that’s a nice to have but who wouldn’t want their lights to come on as they walk up to their car, I’ve never seen it before lol gutted that it’s not on my SEAT Tarraco.

What’s it like to live with?

Running Costs

I imagine if you’re looking at the top spec petrol engine car for the Leon you’re probably aware it won’t be cheap to run or service etc, it’s got a 55L fuel tank which has been pretty standard for a while now within the Leon models, as of making this review it’s 159.9p/l for V-Power so that makes it around £85 to fill it up from empty give or take price changes.

So, lets talk tax, our favourite subject, this car being quite expensive (£56,000 – As Tested) you have a few tax issues so let’s break it down, CO2 is 189g/km which means that the first year of tax is £2,190 then it’s a standard £195 for the 2^nd year onwards if you pay in bulk, but wait, premium car tax, for those who like nice cars you have to pay an extra £425 a year for 5 years (from the 2^nd year), that pushes the car tax to £620 a year for 5 years after you just paid £2,190 for the first year. Even if you buy the car second-hand or get a discount below the tax threshold, you still have to pay the premium tax until the end of the 5 years.

In terms of a service, you can opt for the CUPRA plan, which at full price is £474 split over 2 years. For cars older than a year, the price is £546 with the same split. This is well worth waiting for, as they usually offer 20% off service plans during Black Friday.

In terms of running the car whilst I had it I managed to get around 32mpg with a few longer drives but mostly single road 40 – 60mph, in terms of the Long term (this car had only done 1084 miles it had 29mpg which for this car and 4Drive isn’t too shabby, you don’t buy it for 50mpg and great round town, it’s also got plenty of time to bed in and get higher mpg like my last Leon did, that or I didn’t give it the beans as much.

Rating – 5/10

Comfort

I wasn’t even sure about including this section, as you don’t buy a car for comfort; however, it does have DCC, so comfort does provide some cushioning. Still, the vehicle is designed to be solid, and the 19s don’t usually help; bumps are bumpy (who would have thought). It’s still better than my MK2 Leon Cupra R, which was like it didn’t have suspension. The seats themselves are great! Nice and snug (for me), some people mentioned that the shape made it a little harder to get out, but no one complained about comfort, considering the car’s intended purpose.

Rating – 7/10

Power

The great word of Jeremy Clarkson, POWER!!!!, It’s no longer a petrol-only race, with the rise of Electric Vehicles, it’s going to be hard for new petrol engines to keep up. This car is quick, no doubt. With the launch getting you to 60mph in 4.8 seconds it would cause most cars an issue but cruising against electric cars it just wouldn’t have a chance, this may put in your mind that electric is better, far from it, I still feel that petrol gives you a connection, the boost anticipation and skill it takes to get it right every time is something you don’t need to have in a Tesla for example, it’s almost cheating! I would of hoped for slightly more power given what these engines are capable of, the price of the car and as the end of petrol is coming, we need some last fun whilst we can!

Rating – 8/10

Cost

This is my most significant sore point for this spec: £56,000 to purchase, with the first-year tax added, it pushes the total to £58,000, which to me is an obscene amount of money for a 2L, 333PS estate. Still, I might just be being a cheapskate, I remember the days of my SEAT MK3.5 CUPRA Leon ST 300 4Drive being £42,000 which was quicker 0-60 on paper and in my basic tests (Torque Pro), admittedly you’re getting some more tech but £16,000 extra in 4 years isn’t ideal in my book, this is only my basic consumer thoughts.

Rating – 4/10

Styling

Love it, the best-looking Leon I’ve seen, I think. And that’s a tough call, as the MK1 and MK2 are absolute beauties! I’m a big fan of the new front end and the LED technology, from the DRL to the rear light bar, is fantastic. Great-looking alloys and just generally nice; nothing bothers me with the looks at all.

Rating – 10/10

Tech

So, if we include the Lane and Sign Recognition assist, then it’s an 8, without them, I didn’t have any issues with anything the whole week, so probably a 9. I found that things are noticeably updated from the first iteration of the CUPRA Leon, which is a welcome improvement. The car is missing some features that I have in my Tarraco, which would have been nice. A 360-degree camera would be a great addition, which also includes a front camera. Additionally, there is no heated windscreen, which I thought would be a standard feature in newer cars now that Ford has lost its patent.

Rating – 8/10

Would I buy one?

It’s a good question and sometimes I wonder why I put this section in as it means I need to make a decision, on the pro side there is the excellent paint which seems only to be available to the VZ1 and above, we have the great petrol engine and fantastic exterior design, things stopping me would be pretty much the same design on the interior as the old model CUPRA, the lack of tech like 360 cameras which I have in my SEAT and the price, it’s mainly the price thinking about it.

These days I like to lease, I don’t know why it just feels easier and less stress when you have a car within warranty for 3 years then get another one, to get this car on lease is £798 a month (VZ2 with the paint upgrade is £750 p/m) on my normal site, my Tarraco FR Sport 1.5 150PS is £400, that’s double the price, do I get double the car?…

I’d struggle to buy or lease this knowing I’d have to use it for the whole family, as we only have one car. I’d be constantly worried about children kicking the CUP seats in the back. I would very much like to own one, but it’s an investment. I would wait for a year or two for the price to drop and maybe purchase that way to avoid the first-year tax.

A brilliant car, though, wouldn’t be for me personally right now.

Test car key specifications

• Trim: VZ3
• Exterior colour: Enceladus Grey Matte
• Length: 4,656
• Width: (including wing mirrors): 1,799
• Height: 1,439
• Wheelbase: 2,689
• Kerb weight: 1,651kg
• Matte paint: £2,055
• Panoramic sunroof: £995
• Benefit-in-kind rate: 38%
• Insurance group: 34E
• Recommended Retail: £52,900
• As Tested: £55,950

Jimbobcook

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