Cupra Leon Estate VZ1 - long-term review

After nine months, many thousands of miles, several trips to Europe, countless days acting as chase car to the latest hypercar being filmed for Top Gear’s YouTube channel and hence covered in mounting brackets and cameras, I’ve concluded that every household needs a Cupra Leon Estate VZ. It’s just so damn useful: just fast enough, just the right size, easy to live with but still pretty sharp when you want to cover ground and have a bit of fun. And tough as old boots. Estate cars rule. Especially ones that discreetly carry a big stick.

I guess this car was always going to be right up our street. We are enthusiasts and so honour-bound to champion estate cars and deride SUVs, after all. With 328bhp, four-wheel drive, a dual-clutch gearbox and a clever torque-splitter rear differential the Leon just seemed to tick so many boxes. And the reality lived up to the spec sheet. Head of video Charlie Rose was this car’s first keeper and has never forgiven me for stealing the keys…

Charlie spec’d the car with Dark Void premium metallic paint (£995), a panoramic roof (£995) and an 'Immersive by Sennheiser' sound system with ‘AMBEO Concerto’ software (£600). That took the price to £50,160, which sounds a lot of money. However, we live in crazy times and that actually makes the Leon something of a bargain compared to a well-specced Audi S3 Sportback. Over my time with it, I came to realise its breadth of capability was such that the entry price was extremely reasonable indeed.

How so? Well, take my very last six weeks or so with the Cupra. It took me to the Nürburgring, averaging 36mpg on a pretty brisk journey through France, Belgium and into Germany. On the return leg I hit 165mph on a derestricted autobahn and cruised for over an hour at speeds of 120mph+. A week or so later it was time for Le Mans. Then a Pirelli trackday at Silverstone, followed by a run to Spa-Francorchamps for its own 24-hour race. Modern cars truly are a wonder. It eats miles, handled Silverstone with real fluency, showed no signs of fatigue and also acted as school run hero in between these trips. To me a ‘one car solution’ sounds vaguely nightmarish, but there’s no question that the Leon is a compelling real-world choice.

Complaints? Well, it might share an engine and four-wheel drive system with the aforementioned S3, but it doesn’t feel quite so composed or as nimble. In Comfort mode the body control is too relaxed but as you click up through the modes it can start to feel brittle. Incredibly, delving into the Individual mode unlocks 15 damper settings, plenty to find a good compromise. Yet I could never settle on the true Goldilocks preset. The Cupra also suffers from a slightly lazy-then-rampant throttle action away from a standstill – a trait shared with most VW Group cars on this platform.

Even so, the car really did worm its way into my affections and still scrubs-up like brand new. It’s a quality item. A few more physical buttons would be nice. A little more brightness and maybe some more imaginative materials in the interior (why are fun, funky interiors reserved exclusively for EVs?). Overall though, the Leon estate VZ is a bit of a cracker. It will be missed.