2.0 Hybrid 184 Excel CVT 5dr Touring Sports

ideal with some caveats though

Bought the estate TS Excel 2.0 hybrid and have covered 6,000 miles in 10 weeks so far. It replaced a 2017 estate Seat Leon ST 2.0 TDI (184) DSG FR.

Positives: Powertrain is simply fantastic. Quiet, efficient, punchy, limo-like in stop start traffic, quiet on the motorway, mpg on motorway ranges between 54-59mpg, in town between 48-80mpg. Very roomy for all passengers, especially in the back, boot space is very good at 581 litres. Ride/handling is exemplary, goes over sleeping policemen very smoothly yet is does not wallow. Steering is nicely judged. Power window mechanism is very quiet, build quality is superb. Battery gives between 150-180 miles per tankful, touring range is between 520-560 miles. Excellent HVAC system, quiet and efficient, it has buttons too which is what all HVAC systems should have. Adaptive cruise control and steering is very good, park assist is nice to have, main beam auto function is very useful, boot operation is electric and works faultlessly when my foot moves under the bumper, android auto is handy and works well, cupholders are very well though out. Reverse camera is very good. Seats are very comfortable and are heated, will be handy in cold winter mornings. Boot light is very bright and plentiful, unlike any other car I ever had.

Negatives: Expensive to insure, only 10k miles between pit stops. No room for small items; had to fit net pockets either side of the centre console and a glasses holder where Toyota fitted a grab handle on the driver's side. I also fitted a tray in the centre armrest, there was no room to put coins, chewing gum, keys etc in there. Beep horn is pathetic, a Fiat Panda has a louder horn! No spare wheel in the boot, had to retrofit one. Brakes take a bit of getting used to. No flood lights in footwell despite having ambient lighting in the cupholders! Buttons on headliner are not illuminated either, if you want to turn on the map light in the dark good luck. Interior light bulbs are halogen, it only cost me £6 to buy LED ones and 20 minutes to replace them. Infotainment and sound quality totally sub-par, Android Auto is a total must-have if you need to make phoecalls, stream music and use navigation maps. Only one USB port to connect to Android auto, another one is hidden in the armrest but does not connect to the head unit, it is only good for charging. Trip info is patchy, you cannot see how many miles you have done per trip unless you complete your journey and switch the car off, only then you will get proper trip info for about 5 seconds, then it turns off. App is very useful on this but is hit and miss, some trips are missing. Miles to empty is way pessimistic, metre shows 0 miles left and the tank still holds just over two gallons! Too many irritating bings and bongs, you can eliminate most of them using Carista. Key-fob operated drop down/raise window function was not activated by the factory, Carista to the rescue on this one. Lights will not turn on when you unlock the vehicle, nor will fog lamps at the front illuminate when you turn left or right in the night. Similarly, lights won't switch on if it is raining heavily, no option to activate that. No autolock function above 12mph, I had that function in 2006 Grande Punto for crying out loud!

Overall: it is an excellent car but some convenience functions I had in old Fiats and Seats are missing which I find really strange. Positives however far outweigh the negatives, I simply hope Toyota has addressed most/all negatives in the updated 2023 model, in which case the car will be simply unbeatable. No need putting up with PHEV's reduced boot space and cables, Toyota's self-charging hybrid is simply superb.

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