Some of you will know that all of the lower-medium hatchbacks among Volkswagen brands underwent updates this year.

The latest iteration of Volkswagen Group's MQB platform began with the Golf earlier this year, with the new Audi A3, Skoda Octavia and Seat Leon arriving in the UK now - if you've been lucky enough to receive a delivery for an early order.

Later in 2020 we'll see the Cupra Formentor, but for now our focus is on the more accessible Seat Leon.

We were meant to drive this car in Barcelona, late in March, but lockdown restrictions put a stop to overseas travel, and with the knock-on effects on vehicle supply we have only been able to try pre-production right-hand drive versions of the Leon. More on that later.

The new Leon has a striking design. Clearly related to the Tarraco large SUV with the headlight and grille signature, it has a more distinct, flatter front end than its predecessor, and a full-width rear light cluster. The Leon, it seems, wants to stand out a little.

Some showboating additions on our test car was a scrolling light signature at the rear when unlocking - perhaps inspired by sister brand Audi - as well as a puddle light that exclaims 'Hola!' on the ground.

Inside, the Seat Leon has a much cleaner dashboard than before, with the central screen standing at the top, rather than integrated as it was previously. Air conditioning controls are touch-sensitive, below the screen and offer haptic feedback. But something chunkier and analogue would be more intuitive and easier to operate while driving.

The instruments are part of the virtual cockpit configurable instrument display, and this latest version includes some new graphics and screen view choices.

The cabin can easily accommodate four or five adults in reasonable comfort, and boot space is good for this size of car.

Our pre-production car was a little glitchy: the climate control would insist on blowing warm air through the vents on one side of the vehicle, choosing to vary which side on a whim. The only way to guarantee it wouldn't happen was to set the climate control to its coldest setting on both sides. There were one or two other minor irritants - the satnav lost its signal for the whole of one 20-minute journey, and a few times after unlocking and before starting the Leon made a deep grinding noise, like when a vacuum cleaner sucks up something that gets stuck.

We can only hope (and expect) that when we try a proper customer-spec vehicle in the UK these issues will have been resolved.

We were given the 130hp 1.5 TSI, which offers slightly lower CO2 emissions than the 150hp version, and falls into a lower benefit-in-kind tax band. It was in high-end (for now) FR grade, and had the standard six-speed manual transmission.