The most unlikely fan of SEAT? Any American!

While our LED obsession is well-documented — it is not just the available full LED headlights that are big turn-ons for the Leon.

We love the latest SEAT car style, value proposition and brand statement. Any favorites in the ten-strong SEAT range?

We are huge Leon admirers especially. Why? Check out the (mid-range) Sports FR Kit below and tell me it is not incredibly sexy.

Three reasons to crave the SEAT Leon:

1.) — Value: Versus the VW GTI, the Leon is significantly more affordable for new-car shoppers, both in actual transaction prices and for every cascading price like options, service and included equipment.

2.) — Style: This is not a pretender’s car. It looks far better than even the forthcoming Mark7 GTI that is still not here in America after arriving to Europe in late 2012. Versus our GTI and Golf? (Or Jetta or Passat?)

This Leon Cupra is from a different planet altogether. A planet that typically, for American shoppers, is in the Audi RS and S price ranges from $60,000-plus. But this is not just an insular battle between the Volkswagen Group’s brands.

3.)– Objective appeal via performance and tech capabilities: the Leon is also a far more accomplished technical achievement than nearly any other hot hatch out there.

The Renault Megane is clearly a fun machine to flog around racetracks, but is very slow in real life comparisons versus just about any ‘warm’ or ‘hot’ hatch variant one can name.

With the new Leon Cupra 280 — Seat has leap-frogged over all French competitors — all of which are stubbornly limited to under 250 horsepower.

Usually far less than that, in fact. Which bites on day one and every day afterward, too.

Therefore, the 280-horsepower of the Leon means *much* appeal beyond its looks and easy pricing.

But the four-aced trump card for SEAT? Style that feels worth twice the price. Mouse-over the embedded 360-degree turntable below of the Leon Cupra — which is initially offered as a three-door layout.

 

New SEAT Leon Cupra

 

Sidebar: what is the deal with these spinner? Why care? They are fun, informative, exciting and can plant a real seed of purchasing desire. One upside/downside of my auto-play ones is that they run forever (and ever) but cannot actually be paused or resumed or rotated the other way at will.

The major downside of OEM website versions is that they generally suck. Ford has much work to do in this area. I spent 60 clicks on the C-MAX hybrid’s before giving up because the graphics are so appallingly-bad, and every (click-initiated) movement a giant think-over for the website. Dear Ford: Hire me! =]

The brand-new Leon five-door is, we think, even better-looking and a far more practical companion for loading up with Ikea flat-packs, dogs and buddies.

For the curious, pricing is from about 15,500GBP for the Leon line, which directly equals about a $25,500 base price in US Dollars. A Fiesta ST, for comparison, is priced from about $23,000 in America before any options and down about 80 horsepower versus the larger SEAT.

‘Turns Heads, Melts Hearts’ Indeed!

But for those with access to SEAT’s hottest-ever Leon Cupra? Act now or forever hold your tongue…!

Further information and configurators are definitely enticing and located at the below link. Special thanks to DigitasLBi in Edinburgh for the head’s-up on the new embed-able graphics of the Leon Cupra.

http://carconfigurator.seat.co.uk/seat-cc/desktop-desktop-006_DEFAULT-en-normal.view?msk=1#carline

For even more SEAT’ed fun, check out some of our latest articles below.

http://www.car-revs-daily.com/2014/03/13/2014-seat-leon-cupra-280-sets-ring-record-leon-sports-styling-5dr-calling/

http://www.car-revs-daily.com/2014/01/21/configuring-my-seat-leon-fr-the-case-for-fast-fashion-cars-in-usa/