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By Jonathan Crouch

The CUPRA Leon Estate combines practicality with panache, thinks Jonathan Crouch

Ten Second Reviewword count: 46

The CUPRA Leon Estate might be close in concept and execution to a SEAT Leon Estate but it brings to that design a different dimension of style and speed. This Spanish station wagon shopping rocket comes with a choice of conventional petrol turbo or PHEV powertrains.

Backgroundword count: 101

Want a fast but compact-sized estate? There aren't that many options but quicker versions of Ford Focus, Volkswagen Golf and Skoda Octavia station wagons are all possibilities. Here's another option to add to that list, CUPRA's Leon Estate. As you'll probably know, CUPRA is a marque created by SEAT in 2018 for its sporting models. Recently, it's been creating its own cars (the Formentor SUV and the Born EV), but this CUPRA Leon Estate isn't much different to a SEAT Leon Estate - expect that you can have it with sportier styling and more powerful engines. Let's take a closer look.

Driving Experienceword count: 129

For a more focused drive though, you'll need to concentrate on the two fastest variants, probably the 'TSI 310' derivative we mentioned, which shares its 2.0-litre TSI engine with Volkswagen's well-regarded Golf GTI Clubsport. That's tough competition, but if anything, the CUPRA feels a touch better tuned than its Golf counterpart - the snap you get from the seven ratios of the DSG paddleshift auto gearbox for instance. And the impressively un-intrusive intervention of the VAQ Limited Slip Differential, which through the turns kills almost any trace of torquesteer and allows the grippy Bridgestone rubber to almost always incorruptibly get enough traction down to the bitumen to fire you from bend to bend. This car just grips and goes. Very quickly as it happens, making 62mph in just 4.9s.

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