Our fleet: Seat Leon 1.6 TDI SE - December 2013

It’s been a puzzle for months, but the mystery of the 'skittles' has been solved!

Unlikely as it seems, an image of what look like bowling pins on the dashboard of our Seat Leon turns out to be a reminder to fasten rear seatbelts, according to the manufacturer.

The image replaces the trip distance mileage recorder after the ignition is turned on and displays for about half a minute before the recorder returns to the normal readout.

The car’s handbook makes no mention of the display, which bears no relation to the usual seatbelt warning symbol.

“It’s a prompt to remind the driver to tell passengers in the rear of the car to fasten their seat belts, as is required by the law,” says a spokesman.

There’s no ambiguity about the rest of the dashboard, which is a model of clarity and puts all safety-related information ahead of the driver and not too far below his or her direct line of vision.

The £115 safety pack option that includes the ‘skittle’ display provides a tiredness recognition system that sounds an alarm gong and displays a teacup in the centre of the instrument panel when it suspects the driver could be ready for a break.

At £430, the optical parking system is a more expensive dashboard display, but is proving useful as festive season shopping puts more pressure on parking and leaves even less room for manoeuvre.

It’s a boon to have a visual representation of objects nearby as well as a display of the predicted path of the car based on the position of the steering and takes all the guesswork out of manoeuvring into the few spaces that are available.