This facelifted third generation SEAT Leon is a Focus-sized model that now offers smarter styling, improved media connectivity, extra safety provision and some fresh new engine options. If you’d been overlooking it, this Spanish contender might now be worth a second glance.

As before, Leon buyers choose from either a five-door hatch, an ‘ST’ estate model or an ‘SC’ three-door coupe. In all three cases, SEAT says that visual style was one of the key reasons why people bought the original version of this car, so it wasn’t necessary with this facelifted version to change the aesthetics too much. A few tweaks though, have been made. At the front and rear, there are revised bumpers and bodywork with sharper, more assertive lines, plus there’s a smarter chromed front grille.

Under the bonnet, things are much as before, though there has been a change at the foot of the petrol range where a 1.0-litre TSI three cylinder 115PS unit slots in above the existing 1.2-litre TSI 110PS four cylinder powerplant. Other petrol engine options include a 1.4-litre TSI unit with 125PS and a 1.4 EcoTSI variant with 150PS efficient Cylinder-on-Demand technology. As before, Cupra versions get the 2.0 TSI petrol engine from the Golf GTI, but in an uprated form developing up to 300PS. Most Leon buyers though, will want a diesel. Here again at the foot of the range there’s a fresh option, a 115PS version of the VW Group’s familiar 1.6-litre TDI unit. Above that sit the usual 2.0-litre TDI units, offered with either 150 or 184PS. When it comes to gearboxes, the range includes five or six-speed manual options, all well as double-clutch DSG auto ‘boxes with six or seven-speeds.

This Leon remains a strong but often overlooked contender in the family hatchback segment and it’s been usefully improved in this facelifted guise. Buyers will appreciate the smarter safety and improved media connectivity and the 1.0-litre TSI petrol engine is a unit that many diesel buyers ought to have looked at first.

Overall, on a pure value-versus-quality basis, this Leon has long been the pick of the offerings in this sector, and that also makes it one of the key segment benchmarks outside the Wolfsburg family of brands. Which in turn, makes it a very good car indeed.

CAR: SEAT Leon
PRICES: £17,455-£34,485
INSURANCE GROUPS: 12E-33E
CO2 EMISSIONS: 102-164g/km
PERFORMANCE: [1.0 TSI] Max Speed 126mph / 0-62mph 9.6s
FUEL CONSUMPTION: [1.0 TSI] (combined) 64.2 mpg
STANDARD SAFETY FEATURES: six airbags, 3-point seatbelts with pre-tensioners, ESP stability control
WILL IT FIT IN YOUR GARAGE?: Length/width/height mm 4282/1816/1459mm