Tempted away by deals on Seat Leon 1.5 PHEV estates

Having had Skodas for over 20 years, I've been tempted away by this month's deals on Seat Leon PHEV estates. I like an estate and wanted to try something I could plug in to charge.

But the Superb IV, Passat and ID7 Tourer are physically too big for my driveway, and the MG5 and estate versions of the Astra/308 don't have much rear legroom.

Although I believe the Seat Leon hasn't been facelifted lately it does get the latest 1.5 PHEV powertrain as seen in the Superb and Kodiaq. As well as a significantly higher claimed EV range than the older 1.4 TSIs, the 1.5 powertrain has faster charging at home and supports fast DC charging at a service station or similar at a claimed 50kW. If you want a PHEV, these VW group 1.5 TSI PHEVs seem to be one of the best powertrains out there at the moment.

The Seat has a claimed WLTP 80 miles of pure EV range (slightly worse than the bigger Superb, curiously), and from the one journey I've driven so far, I reckon 70 miles will be a realistic target to aim for in summer.

But for some reason Skoda hasn't seen fit to put that powertrain in the Octavia; which is a shame as I'd have been very tempted if they had.

Maybe the lack of facelift (I think?) for the Seat Leon (unlike its Cupra cousin) is why they are on sale at big discounts - there were a few on Autotrader but you might need to be quick as they needed to be registered this month.

I still prefer some of the Simply Clever Skoda stuff, and would definitely consider a Skoda in future, so not intending to delete my account here though.

Edited 30 March, 20251 yr by DavidY
Over optimism