• Same amount of space as a Golf
• Generous up front, neat in the back
• PHEV model sacrifices boot space

How much space is there?

You get the same amount as the standard SEAT Leon, which is slightly bigger than the Volkswagen Golf. That means you get loads of space for those up front, but a slightly more cramped experience for those sitting in the rear. Our six-foot tester tried sitting behind his own driving position and found his knees were brushing into the seat ahead.

At least headroom is good everywhere. The current Leon’s roof is 1mm lower than the previous model, but even our six-foot testers didn’t need to crane their necks to fit under the roof when sitting in the back. The middle seat offers less headroom than those either side of it, but the same can be said of almost every other car in the class.

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The Leon compensates for these minor foibles with its wealth of storage pockets. These include a wireless smartphone charger in the centre console, door pockets than can hold litre-sized water bottles a massive storage bin between the front seats that can hold everything in your pockets and still have space for a bag of sweets.

Boot space and storage

Unsurprisingly, considering the two cars share the same body and platform, the Cupra Leon has the same 380 litres of boot space as the SEAT Leon. Just bear in mind there’s quite a long drop from the lip of the boot to the boot floor, which can make loading heavy items a little tricky.

We should also flag that you’ll lose an awful lot of boot space by opting for one of the Cupra Leon PHEVs. The battery pack chops capacity down to a paltry 270 litres, which is a massive 85 litres less than you get from the SEAT Ibiza supermini from the class below. If you need something practical, you might want to consider the Skoda Octavia instead.

Is it easy to park?

Of course. The Cupra Leon comes with front and rear parking sensors as standard, while a rear-view camera is fitted from V2 models and up. That means it’s a doddle to reverse into tight spaces. You can also specify the car with exit assist, which warns you about any oncoming traffic when parked. It can help prevent you from opening your door into the path of a cyclist, for example.

The windows are wide, the pillars are relatively thin for a modern car and the dashboard is set fairly low, which means you don’t need to crane your neck to position the car in a space. The door mirrors are big, too – and there’s a handy function that automatically dips the mirrors when you’re reversing so you can see how close the alloys are to the kerb.

Safety

• Five-star safety rating (when new)
• Loads of driver assistance tech
• Lane assist can be irritating

Euro NCAP’s score for the Cupra Leon is based on the (incredibly similar) SEAT Leon. Thankfully, the SEAT achieved an impressive five stars, thanks to its strong adult occupant protection, exceptional child protection and high levels of standard safety technology.

It’s worth mentioning the car was last tested in 2020 and Euro NCAP’s safety regulations have since become far more stringent, with greater focus placed on protecting vulnerable road users such as motorcycles and pedestrians. For that reason, the Leon might not score as well if it were retested today – but we reckon it’d be just as safe in a crash.

You get loads of standard safety equipment, including automatic emergency braking, traffic sign recognition, adaptive cruise control, and lane keeping assist. The latter piece of tech can be a little irritating on a narrow country lane, as it’ll fight you if you try and steer the car in the verge to avoid oncoming traffic.

What’s even worse is that Cupra’s engineers have binned off Volkswagen’s excellent toolbar at the top of the touchscreen that allows you to jump directly to the driver assistance menu and switch off lane assist with a single poke.

Watch the Cupra Leon Euro NCAP crash test video