SEAT Leon hatchback - Reliability & safety
The arrival of new safety kit should reduce the likelihood of collisions
The fourth-generation Leon features too many new parts to say for sure how reliable it'll be, but problems are unlikely to be a major concern. 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
While it'll be some time until we have enough data on the latest Leon to be sure of its reliability, the outgoing model has performed pretty well: 18.42% of owners of SEAT cars (not just the Leon) reported faults in the first 12 months of ownership in our 2021 Driver Power survey, which is around 3% more than those reported by Volkswagen owners. The Leon was ranked 36th out of the 75 cars in the survey overall and SEAT as a brand ranked 15th out of 29 manufacturers in terms of customer satisfaction – that’s two places ahead of parent company Volkswagen.
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.