2008 Seat Leon FR DSG review from UK and Ireland

Multi-function display would cut out for no apparant reason, leaving no trip computer info, no outside air temp and no info on what gear the car was in.

One of the rear speaker tweeters would vibrate and resonate on bassy music.

Rear tyres wore excessively on the inside edges, this was cured by changing tyre brand to a softer compound.

Bright yellow and bad ass is my overriding thought of this car.

This was my wife's company car, though I drove it every chance I could get, and replaced a Saab 9-5, so initially the ride quality was a bit of a shock but we soon got used to it.

We had the 200ps 2.0 turbo petrol coupled with the DSG gearbox, and this thing absolutely flew!

0-62 was quoted at 7.2 seconds I think, but as the dealer pointed out, the DSG box changed gear so quickly that for someone driving a car with a manual box, they'd have to be a pro driver to match the DSG on quickness of changes. I also think the above's a bit conservative; when Autocar tested the slightly heavier Skoda Octavia vRS with the same engine and a manual box, they quoted 0-60 as 6.6secs.

The other thing I noticed with the DSG box is that it's awesome for pulling out from a slow moving lane of traffic on the motorway for example into a much faster moving lane with no worries, floor the accelerator and it's instantly into 3rd or 4th and you're rocketing up to whatever speed you want, far quicker than someone in a manual could slam from 6th into 3rd or 4th. This meant I could actually drive properly on the motorway and pull back in whenever I'd overtaken something, knowing I could just rocket back out in front of someone with no problems.

Handling was very good on this car; it cornered very flatly, steering feel was good, and the bucket seats held you in place very firmly.

One criticism I do have is the ride quality, it's very hard and I've got to say you do notice every little bump, especially if you're hacking down a crappy backroad surface. Interestingly the facelifted FR has had its spring rates softened by about 15%, obviously I'm not the only one that noticed!

We also chose this car for its looks, my wife went for Crono Yellow, and it looked awesome, we got no end of looks driving round in it, the only other car I've ever had that got close was a mk1 Nissan 300 ZX turbo.

She specified the optional satnav and multi-media system, which had a kickin stereo, shame about the above speaker issue though, and the touchscreen satnav, which was OK.

Fuel economy early 30s on average; OK for how hard it was driven.

She left her last employer and unfortunately the car is now with some other lucky so and so, however we now have a Skoda Octavia vRS 2.0t with a DSG box, fun factor's nearly there, but it's so much more refined than the Leon.

Overall, Leon FR, 8 out of 10, fun factor, 10 out of 10!