SEAT Leon hatchback - MPG, running costs & CO2

One way in which the Leon became more sophisticated for this generation was the wider range of powertrains available, but SEAT has recently chosen to slim down the engine lineup. The plug-in hybrid is no longer available, and your choice is now between a couple of petrol engines, mild-hybrid petrol variants of each, and a diesel engine. 

Petrol models will be better suited for short, urban trips – mild-hybrid assistance is only fitted to the automatic models and gives a negligible improvement to mpg and emissions, so if you don’t need an automatic, we’d stick to a six-speed manual given its lower price across the board. Diesel will work best for drivers with a higher annual mileage who spend lots of time on the motorway.

SEAT Leon MPG & CO2

The mid-range 1.5-litre TSI petrol with 128bhp will return up to 51mpg, dropping to 48.6mpg for the 148bhp model. The smaller 1.0-litre petrol should top 50mpg in real-world driving, with a maximum official figure of 51.2mpg. Meanwhile, the 2.0-litre diesel engines gets official fuel economy of just over 65mpg in 113bhp guise, or 63mpg in 148bhp guise.

The 1.0-litre and 1.5-litre petrol are available with 'eTSI' 48-volt mild-hybrid technology, but only in combination with a DSG automatic gearbox. This will harvest energy under deceleration and store it in a small battery, ready to power the car during engine-off coasting and provide a small boost under acceleration – these cars actually offer just a negligible improvement to mpg, or not at all in the case of the 1.0 litre TSI vs 1.0-litre eTSI, so will appeal solely if you want that automatic transmission.

The mild-hybrid assisted petrol engines shouldn’t be confused with the plug-in hybrid, which used a 1.4-litre TSI petrol engine, a potent electric motor and a much larger 13kWh battery pack. It was discontinued, however, but that’s shame for Company car buyers, as the e-HYBRID was capable of 217.3-235.4mpg and CO2 emissions as low as 25g/km, keeping BiK (Benefit-in-Kind) tax rates low. Charging it at home or via a public charge point should provide an electric driving range of up to 38 miles. 

All this technology made the plug-in hybrid one of the more expensive Leon models to buy, and was overshadowed by the Leon e-Hybrid offered by spin-off performance brand Cupra. This version is still on sale and will appeal more to company car buyers with its higher power output, higher spec and low emissions putting it into a lower BiK (Benefit-in-Kind) tax bracket.

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Insurance groups

Insurance groups span from Group 11 for base SE specification cars, to Group 19 for top-spec FR Sport models out of 50 groups. This means the Leon shouldn’t cost too much to insure. It’s slightly less expensive to insure than the Volkswagen Golf, which spans groups 14 to 23, and insuring a Ford Focus should cost about the same, as you’ll find it in groups 13 to 17.

Warranty

SEAT typically offers a three-year/60,000-mile warranty with its cars, which matches Volkswagen and Ford, but falls short of quite a few rivals. For instance, the Toyota Corolla and Hyundai i30 both come with a five-year/100,000-mile warranty, and the Kia Ceed gets seven years of cover.

Servicing

SEAT servicing can be paid for monthly to help spread the costs of maintenance, and usually buyers are offered different servicing packages depending on their annual mileage and driving habits.