I came from a stream of five consecutive Seat Leon Cupra ST’s (or the last one was actually a re-branded Cupra Leon ST), absolutely loving almost every aspect of that model. And was then forced by circumstance (being a change in company car policy from my employer, through which only “low-emission” vehicles are now permitted…..which is a right laugh, seeing as earth will not survive a nano-second longer because Sweden reduces it’s proportionally invisible CO2 emissions) to go full BEV or hybrid for a new company car. Since BEV simply wasn’t an option, with the available model ranges approved, I could only go hybrid. And thought, with past Cupra experience, that the new Leon would be both a further refined but still still sporty car. Already that is highly debatable. But more importantly, this turd of a car is plagued throughout with such poor designs, blatant defects and multitude of minor niggles that it just blows one’s mind. I can’t list them all, but will give you at least the top 30 (in no particular order).
- Whether the battery and/or petrol engine is cold or warm, whenever you go from battery-drive to petrol-drive, and whether you are forced there or do so manually, you cannot go back again until some 5-10 minutes later. So if for instance one happens to push the accelerator a bit too promiscuously and gets thrown into petrol mode, then that’s it. You just have to sit there and wait for what feels like an eternity, for the fuel-saving possibility to return again. I have, fuming with anger, literally stopped the car I don’t know how many times, to shut the ignition off and re-start in battery mode again. Just for the hell of it.
- When cold, the battery cannot manage even the slightest load. Accelerate ever so gently, and you immediately get thrown into petrol-mode. This is especially so when outside temperatures are below zero centigrades, as is the everyday life here in Sweden this time of year.
- In fact, the battery barely manages at all at really low temperatures. Regardless of load, I mean. The car often jumps to petrol-mode more or less immediately after start. So the car is promoted as a hybrid car, but there’s not much hybridity if the battery doesn’t really work, is there…..?
- An “environmentally friendly car” without a stop-start function. When out of battery, as well as when a charged battery is mysteriously not available (see above complaints), the engine remains in petrol-mode idle when the car becomes stationary. Well, in fact, sometimes it does shut down, but after 30.000 miles with the car I still haven’t been able to detect a pattern. So not even a button, or screen interface, to manually engage a start-stop mode. This is just so bonkers it’s quite hard to believe, especially when coming from a manufacturer (ultimately VW) that pretends to be leading in green-tech vehicles. I know many who dislike this particular function, and to them it might therefore be a non-issue. But to me, the start-stop function always made sense.
- This next one is for other drivers who drive actively like me; when in petrol mode, there’s no other way to persistently shift manually unless I set drive-mode to “Sport” or “Cupra”. The stick doesn’t have a manual gate, and if rather than selecting “Sport” mode I just start shifting manually with the paddles the gearbox automatically returns to automatic mode after some five seconds. Just a minor niggle, I know, but WHY THIS?!?!
- Oh, and by the way, there’s no way to set “Sport” as a default drive-mode option, or to have the car remain in whatever setting you ended your previous session in. This too is a minor niggle, but so stupid and easily avoided that it just escapes all belief. If someone knows of a setting I might have missed here, please enlighten me!
- While on the topic, the “Cupra” mode’s unattractive sound at synthetic engine-roar is so pathetic and annoying that I absolutely never choose that. Don’t get me wrong, I love it when engines bark, which is in fact my biggest regret with BEV’s. For instance, I privately own and drive a Porsche 991.1 GT3 RS, to which I have fitted a full-system iPE exhaust with race cats. That car is the loudest you’ll ever hear, and the sound is completely intoxicating. But it needs to be the RIGHT noise. Which “Cupra” mode doesn’t even get close to.
- When, again, in petrol mode and revving hard, no matter what drive mode you’re in the gearbox (if in automatic) doesn’t shift when going past the power peak. It just stays screaming for several seconds at 6.000 or so RPM’s instead of shifting to get down to the torque band. This doesn’t change with the “Sport” mode either, and why should it? Cupra is still part of the performance division of the VW group, but this is NOT a sporty operation. More importantly, it isn’t very environmentally friendly. Not sure it’s fair to talk about that at all, when driving like a hoodlum. But still….
- This is in fact the worst “sports-car” gearbox I have ever experienced also in terms of gearshift speed. Which is the slowest I can remember for any car beyond budget Golf’s. Seeing as this is a low-emissions car manufactured in 2022, one could also argue that it is a disgrace it has only six gears. Especially as its predecessor, beginning from 2018 (if I remember correctly) had seven. I understand that VW, who define the technology contents of all modular platforms in the group, want to save a few bucks on development. But I honestly don’t care about that. This is a self-proclaimed industry leader, so we are perfectly entitled to expect more than their cheapest gear-box off the shelf.
- Petrol-engine cars these days (like the previous-gen Cupra Leon) often have an ECO mode with a coast function, through which the engine shuts down even at speed when you take all load off the engine. Which is fine, as you can normally choose your setting in those cars. Now, this Leon hybrid does this in all settings apart from “Sport”. Meaning that here’s another reason to manually, with no possibility to set defaults, go to “Sport” mode. Another in the endless line of commands to give, in order for your car to work like you want it to. And why get our of “coasting”? Well, I like playing with engine brake, which simply doesn’t work when……
- …...the “engine brake” (recharge state) of the battery is irregular, insufficient at highway speeds and too exaggerated at any other speed.
- When cold, I often experience a several-second lag in acceleration engagement. Almost as if no gear is engaged. This can happen both in battery and, more frequently, in petrol drive. Which is particularly embarrassing if you’re trying to take off from a redlight with a cue of impatient traffic opponents (;-) behind you.
- All modern automatic cars I ever had engage P mode when you turn off the car. Not this one, though. You have to do this manually, and the car doesn’t let you forget. If you still disregard this, because the parking brake is engaged after all, it is not possible to lock the car. VW seem to think it’s a good idea to expose an unattentive driver (there are so many beeps from the car you lose track of what’’s what) to the risk of theft.
- Time window for release of the charging cable is a mere two seconds from when you unlock on the car key. Which is completely insufficient, and unnecessary (what's gonna happen, according to Cupra?!?!). So if I want to start with putting bags into the car without having to put them down onto snow and or rain I have to push the key again to disengage the cable. And this is worsened by the car key being just hopeless. This flush design is what we see everywhere, now, I get it. But it is impossible to feel the buttons through your pocket, so you literally always have to reach into your pocket to feel what you’re pushing. Minor niggle, yes, but it shouldn’t have to be like this. I realise the timing of the hatch might be possible to tweak in the intofatinment interface settings somewhere, but honestly I am not interested in doing a multitude of programming of a product to just be able to use it.
- The instrument cluster is a disaster, with information scattered in a random fashion all over the place and some vital parts missing. Like the possibility to always have trip and life-time km distance displayed. This is rather something you have to bring out with specific commands, but abandon when you want to go back to using for instance the cruise control. Completely bizarre.
