Category: Small Family 
Price Range: £13,345 to £20,485
Prices, equipment, styling, TDI diesels, comfort, solidity
Competent but dull handling, tightish rear space, lack of recognition
Accomplished car but not as sporty as it looks. No problem; check out the value it offers instead!
Like the Golf but not Volkswagen prices? You'll be wanting a Leon, then. The Mk1 Leon (for more on the new-generation models, launched August 2005, check out our separate Road Test) was based on the last-gen Mk4 Golf, with the same platform, the same engines, even more equipment and a much more stylish body, yet model-for-model cost less than the equivalent Golf. The same value is now holding true on the secondhand market; there's no catch, save for the loss of the VW badge's cachet.
Yet even this may be no hardship. Seat is a manufacturer on the up, as Volkswagen employs a strategy to 'sportify' its Spanish subsidiary, with a motorsport programme and carefully-targeted advertising. For now though, we've got the Leon as five-door family car, if one complete with an Alfasud-like rear and a set of the most distinctive tail lights in its class; despite the launch of the all-new range, this Leon still looks great. It may not exactly be cutting-edge technology now, but where else can you get German engineering for so little? Unless you buy a second-hand Golf...
Latest Readers' Drives About the Seat Leon
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