SEAT Leon review - Reliability & safety

The Leon shares all of its engines with other VW Group models including the Volkswagen Golf and Skoda Octavia. It's also loaded with the latest driver assistance features to improve safety.

SEAT Leon reliability

The Leon didn’t feature in the top 50 cars of our 2024 Driver Power owner survey, but the brand came in 24th place out of 32 manufacturers in the most recent edition. 25% of owners reported a fault in the first year of ownership, which is an increase on the 21% figure from the year before – that’s also the highest rate of faults compared with its sister brands: Volkswagen, Skoda and Audi.

Safety

The Leon is available with more safety technology than ever before, including 'CartoX' cloud-based software that can give warnings of precise local information, such as the colour of the traffic lights ahead and accidents in the vicinity using real-time information.

Driver aids are also prevalent, from Predictive Adaptive Cruise Control, using sensors around the car and navigation information to know when to slow down and speed up, to traffic sign recognition. As predicted, the Leon scored the same five-star safety rating as the Volkswagen Golf when tested by Euro NCAP, and it delivered with impressive scores across the board. Results of 92% and 88% in the adult and child occupant protection categories respectively are particularly impressive.