Cupra Leon review – interior and tech
Poor digital UI hinders an otherwise likeable cabin design
Being a contemporary VW Group MQB derivative, the Leon’s interior is defined more by what’s missing than what’s there. A near-total reduction of physical buttons might clean up interior design, but you’re now forced to interact with the touchscreen infotainment for nearly all key tasks. The 12.9-inch screen is more responsive, with a revised interface, but the basics are no better than the still-frustrating units found in the updated Golf, backlit temperature controls and all.
The rest of the interior is much more encouraging, though. Material quality is good – in places better than that found in an equivalent Golf, but the design is more interesting with the use of textured plastics, copper-coloured stitching and metallic-effect finishes. The signs are there right away in the updated car that this is a more special driving device than the VW. Open the door and you’re greeted by the pair of very serious-looking carbon-shelled bucket seats, normally the preserve of very expensive fast Audis – last we saw them was in the Audi RS4 25 Years. The speckled, disparately perforated recycled microfibre trim might divide opinion but as you drop into and adjust them, the perfect driving position is easy to find.
A glance around the cabin reveals that the only notable change, apart from the seats and some more upmarket trim, is the new larger 12.9-inch infotainment screen. More responsive and with higher fidelity it might be but it’s still bereft of physical climate controls. A few taps through the ‘Clima’ menu (as it’s labelled by Cupra) and a graze of the now backlit temperature controls gets the cabin atmosphere where you want it – it’s an improvement over the previous, fiddlier, interface but still only tolerable at best. Speed and lane warnings are of course now a given, though relatively easy to switch off via buttons on the steering wheel. One thing the Cupra could stand to borrow from the latest Golfs is the VW’s pair of paddle-shifters, either the standard finger-indented items or the full-on optional paddles from the R.
A highlight is the full-width LED ambient lighting feature that runs along the base of the windscreen. This simple configurable lighting element gives the whole interior a much more premium feel at night, and works brilliantly with the clear and responsive digital instrument cluster that can be configured in a myriad of different ways.
Overall space and visibility is also impressive, all adding up to a near premium experience that’s one of the few distinct improvements made over the previous-generation Leon.
