A strange role for the SEAT last month: deputising for a Lamborghini Murciélago in the Top Gear studio. ‘Cos, obviously, a diesel hatchback is regularly confused for a V12 Italian hypercar… OK, so it was only there because the LP640 was busy out on the track and something car-shaped was needed for camera rehearsals, but even so I couldn’t help but think my fake BTCC car looked rather good under the studio lights.

On a less enjoyable note, the Leon’s interior literally stinks. I stupidly lent it to a Beeb colleague who used it to ferry a film crew around on a TV shoot and, for reasons I can’t explain, nothing makes a car interior pong like a film unit. Imagine rolling a wet dog in stale crisps and you’re somewhere close to the lingering fug that has made me contemplate one of those tacky air fresheners that hooks to the air vents.

None of this is the SEAT’s fault, of course, but the interior does seem to be particularly bad for attracting those weird bits of unspecific upholstery dandruff that build up in cars if you don’t get busy with the hand vac every few weeks. Worse than that, I’ve noticed that some of the plastics are already looking shabbily scuffed, adding weight to last month’s suspicion that evil Uncle VW has forced SEAT to use cheapo trimmings. Maybe that’s why the Leon’s interior works best when all you can see are the attractively glowing red displays. In other words, best driven at night.