The new Seat Leon is here, and it can drive itself

This, ladies and gents, is the new Seat Leon. And save for some snazzier LED lights, it looks quite a lot like the old Seat Leon. But that’s with good reason: it’s been a roaring success for the Spanish company, and it’s the biggest seller in the range.

New stuff is entirely in line with the Leon’s rivals: downsized engines, and lots of extra driver assistance systems.

For the first time you can have a three-cylinder 1.0-litre turbo petrol engine. The 114bhp unit is just like the one you’ll find in the current VW Golf, where it impresses greatly. If you don’t want a Cupra hot hatch, it’s very likely the pick of the range.

The raft of new technology on offer includes a traffic jam assist function, which will accelerate, brake and steer the car in motorway tailbacks. A stepping stone to self-driving Seats, then, though it only works up to 37mph. Probably a good thing for now.

The Leon can also wirelessly charge your phone and the touchscreen media system comes with gesture control. So now that your motorway stresses have been eased, you can put any unused hand signals to use elsewhere in the car.

It’s all a preview of what we can expect from the updated VW Golf when that arrives in the near future, too. The small hatchback is increasingly a very grown up car when it comes to technology.

Rest assured there will still be a mildly silly Cupra hot hatch, though. “A new Leon Cupra will be available in the near future, complete with its own surprises,” Seat cryptically tells us.

A stripped out special to attack the Nürburgring, a la Golf GTI Clubsport S? A four-wheel-drive uber-hatch, to take on the Ford Focus RS? Um, the ability to fly? Tell us what you’d like to see below…