The new year brings a new long-termer, as I swap the B-Max for our Leon ST. Having covered 7,000 miles since the B-Max was delivered in August, the change
was welcome.

It’s not my first time with the Leon – it helped me move house recently – but packing it full of household goods doesn’t always make the most representative long term test. It did a good job then though, so I’m expecting good things.

Our particular model is the ST Ecomotive, based upon the SE trim level. It has a generous spec, is a generously-sized estate that’s got a lot going for it, and over the next few months in my care I hope to be able to explore them.

My first impressions of the car without all my worldly goods weighing it down are good. The eco engineering appeared subtle, with streamlined roof rack, solid radiator grille, and eco tyres adding to the efficiency, resulting in an impressively low 87g/km CO2 emissions level.

The tweaks don’t appear to have massively impacted on performance, with the car feeling at home on the couple of motorway journeys I’ve done.

Economy while pottering around town hasn’t been great so far, but my driving style is likely to be more to blame there. It reached the high 50s on the motorway run which, while good, isn’t close to the official combined figure of 86mpg.

Christopher Smith