This is not Seat's all-important first ever SUV. This is still not the car that will, hopefully, take on the hordes of competing mid-size crossovers in the European market and finally drag Seat from loss-making to profit-making. This is still, technically, a concept car.
This is the Seat Leon Cross Sport Show Car and at least we know now what the name of Seat's SUV will be. With the success of the Leon as a hatchback and estate, it would seem to make eminent sense for Seat to piggy-back its crossover onto the Leon range to give it instant brand recognition.
And there’s no surprise underneath – it’s using the same PQB chassis setup as the Leon, the Golf, the Octavia, the A3 ad nauseum. So that means it will be sophisticated, probably good to drive and we just have to hope that the engineers have cracked the issue of tyre noise that plagues other MQB models.
Engines will range from 1.4-litre TSI turbo petrol with 150hp to 1.6 and 2.0-litre diesels with 120, 150 and 190hp. Seat is showing off the car in Frankfurt with the same 290hp 2.0-litre turbo petrol which is also debuting in the Leon Cupra 290, tweaked here to bring it to a round 300hp. It seems unlikely that this engine will ever fid its way into a production Leon Cross Sport, although there will certainly be mildly-sporting FR variants.
But why is Seat still insisting on showing us a concept version, with a three-door body based on the Leon SC coupe? Yes, it looks nice and all (especially in the metallic orange paintwork which is meant to mimic the warm, Barcelona sun) but surely the Spanish firm should just concentrate on actually putting this crucial new model on sale now?
“The Seat Leon family is not only incredibly successful, but also exceptionally multi-faceted. With the Leon Cross Sport, we are testing out a new idea – the performance of the Leon Cupra with the many possibilities offered by an all-road vehicle, says Jurgen Stackmann, Chairman of the Executive Committee, Seat, S.A. “The Leon Cross Sport is therefore a perfect match for the brand and for a young, multi-faceted lifestyle. And, as a compact two-door, this crossover fits well into the urban jungle.”
Of course, it is being used to demonstrate something arguably more important than any new engine or chassis – Seat's new Seat ConnectApp, which adds another layer of hands-free operation to the central touch-screen's Apple CarPlay and Android Auto setups. The ConnectApp reads out incoming messages, while answers can be dictated via voice recognition.
