Yesterday, JOE’s Oisin Collins was down at the Aviva Stadium to check out the all-new Seat Leon and he hasn’t shut up about it since.
It was a bit surreal being led through the belly of the Aviva Stadium yesterday, seeing as I was there for a car launch. But everything would eventually make sense.
We first had to make our way to one of the VIP boxes situated above the pitch itself. To be honest, it was my first time in The Aviva since it became ‘The Aviva’ so I was more than impressed by it.
After a quick cup of coffee we were then led down to the home changing room, and to really make it a memorable occasion the lads from SEAT Ireland had our names printed on Shamrock Rovers jerseys hanging up on the walls.
It was nice little touch and safe to say it’ll be the one and only time I ever see my name on a jersey hanging up in the home dressing room of The Aviva. After a brief press conference we were let loose on the all-new SEAT Leon. Not too long ago I was in Barcelona to check out the Leon’s smaller muscular brother, the sporty Ibiza Cupra, so I had an idea what to expect.
The Leon handled superbly on our short test drive and it features a nice spacious cabin that has quite a few mod-cons as standard such as, air conditioning, multifunction steering wheel and on board computer, Media System with 5” Colour touch screen (MP3, USB/SD card/Bluetooth/ CD/Aux-in) and 6 high quality speakers.
The most striking car on the day was definitely the Leon FR. The FR is the top spec model and it features a rake of cool features like, Aluminium FR door step in the front doors, lights sensors, rain sensors, auto dimming rear-view mirrors, rear park distance control, dark tinted windows, SEAT Drive Profile which adjusts steering response, throttle response, multicolour ambient light in door panels (red for sport, white for comfort), leather FR steering wheel, leather gear knob & hand brake, Dynamic 17” alloy wheels, a visible chromed double exhaust pipe, FR suspension, full front and rear LED lights with LED daytime running lights, electric heated and folding exterior mirrors with parking position, 2 Zone Climatic Air Conditioning, 5.8” Colour touch screen and 8 speakers… just to name a few.
All in all I was seriously impressed with the Leon and it looks like it’s going to do well against the likes of the Golf and the Ford Focus. It’s big, spacious and a really fun car to drive. Better yet, the Leon starts from €18,995 for the 1.2 TSI Reference, €20,995 for the 1.6 TDI Reference 90bhp and €21,675 for the 1.6 TDI 105bhp. The Style model starts from €21,395, with the FR specification starting from €26,825.
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