Seat offers buyers a new X-Perience

We've been waiting, some of us on tenterhooks, for the arrival of Seat's first SUV. The Spanish brand has been working for almost a decade on a compact 4x4, a rival to Nissan's Qashqai, but so far nothing has made the long walk from motorway stage to showroom.

Seat is now at last able to offer its customers a four-wheel drive option though – in the shape of the Leon X-Perience. Ignoring the rather tortuous name (sounds like a sub-Kanye rapper. . .) the X-Perience is all about the practicality of life in the country.

Serious terrain

Because it's based on an estate, it doesn't suffer the usual CO2 penalties of a bigger, taller, bulkier 4x4 yet it has enough ride height (an extra 27mm over a standard Leon ST estate) to be able to tackle some surprisingly serious terrain. Power comes from the familiar VW Group 2.0-litre four-cylinder TDI engine in either 150hp or 180hp forms.

You can have the 150hp version for €32,495 – which is notably cheaper than the €33,795 price tag of the mechanically identical Skoda Octavia Scout. There’s no penalty – just a few piffling litres of boot space.

Standard equipment includes 17-inch alloy wheels; rear park distance control; cruise control; 5-inch colour touchscreen with USB and Bluetooth phone and audio streaming; sport seats with unique upholstery; leather steering wheel; gear knob and handbrake along with two-zone Climatronic air conditioning.

To drive, the X-Perience is entirely conventional. A quick spin showed that the Haldex four-wheel drive system offers the sort of traction you'd expect and it felt rather pleasingly reassuring given the frosty, snowy conditions of our Wicklow test route.

It retains the standard Leon’s nicely weighted steering, and the extra ride height and weight of the four-wheel drive system doesn’t seem to have penalised the Leon’s dynamics any.

New market

Niall Phillips, brand director at Seat Ireland, told us that “this car opens up an entirely new market for Seat, offering all the versatility of our ST estate car, with the benefits of capable all-wheel drive traction, all in a high-specification, good-value package.

“The addition of a 1.6-litre TDI version later in the year will offer all the looks, equipment and presence of the all-wheel drive version in a two-wheel drive package that will come in under €30,000.”

It’s not the proper SUV that Seat needs to really start making proper sales inroads, but it’s another solid entry in the Leon family.