SEAT León

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Thursday – Platform For Success

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Jeremy Let’s get one thing clear from the start – the latest Sportback looks pretty much the same as the last. I’ve just been wandering around the A3 on the driveway and it screams ‘Audi’ from every angle.

It also ticks all the boxes for space, safety and practicality – just what you would expect from the German design team in Ingolstaft. So what makes this car so damn good?

Well, to start with it is based on the VW Group MQB platform, which will be used across the brand’s entire manufacturing line up, from the SEAT Leon to the Skoda Octavia. Same platform, different car on top.

Which means this platform has to be good because it will be incorporated into so many different cars. The A3 is the pinnacle of this particular platform and after just a day behind the wheel, I can tell you that it drives exceptionally well, with high levels of comfort and handling.

The 2.0 TDI we have on test is remarkably quiet on the motorway too, which is probably where it will spend a lot of its life with many company buyers. I’ve driven about 50 miles and the fuel gauge hasn’t even flickered yet!

The styling leaves me cold but the Sportback may well deserve its many plaudits…

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Saturday – Not Your Everyday Benchmark

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Jeremy There’s nothing revolutionary about the design of the new, Mark VII Golf. Driving through Bath this morning, I followed a VII and a VI – tweaks to the light clusters, sharper angles and some minor moulding changes made them hard to separate.

VW has stuck to the philosophy of ‘if it ain’t broken, why fix it’ – an adage that has served them well for almost four decades with the Golf. The only problem for Volkswagen these days is that there are more rivals than ever looking to muscle in on the hatchback’s sales. The Kia Cee’d and the Hyundai i30 are but two…

What the Golf excels at is quality and refinement, blended with superb driving attributes and hassle-free mechanics. This is what has made the VW a benchmark for other hatchbacks to follow – the car against which all others are judged.

Sitting on the same platform as the brilliant Audi A3 and SEAT Leon, you know it will be an excellent drive. The diesel engine is noisy during hard acceleration and there is some body roll when the VW is turned hard into a corner. But as benchmarks go, this Golf is going to be hard to beat, for now at least…