Euro hatches getting hotter

SEAT Leon Sport
VW-owned SEAT's Leon is marketed as "sporting, emotionally appealing, yet affordable" compared to Audi A3's "luxury", VW Golf's "dependable conventionality", and Skoda Octavia's "value-for-money practicality". Range-topping Leons are powered by the same 2.0-litre turbocharged FSI unit, but with only 185 h.p. Cut through all this marketing crap, and if you see a cheaper, yet sexier Golf GTi, you're not alone
Chance of importation We can get nearly identical packages in the current Audi A3 2.0T and the forthcoming four-door VW GTi, but there's rumbling that the struggling VW Group is contemplating bringing the SEAT brand to our shores to ad spice where VW has failed
Hot-hatch Rating 4/6

BMW 130i
Conventional wisdom says your hot hatch need to be front- or all-wheel-drive with a four-banger slipped sideways in the engine bay. I guess nobody told the gang in Munich, because their hot hatch has a 265 h.p., 3.0-litre straight-six mounted lengthwise in the front driving the wheels in the rear. Sure, the backseat is tight, what with the driveshaft hump and the low roofline, but with from 0-100 km/h acceleration in 6.1 seconds and a top speed of 250 km/h, your complaints will fall on deaf ears around here
Chance of importation With the MINI safely ensconced as BMW's North American hot hatch, rumour has it we'll only get a two-door coupe/cabrio 1 Series sometime in '07
Hot-hatch Rating 6/6

- John LeBlanc, Publisher, www.straight-six.com
photo:John LeBlanc