When you turn the key in the ignition of the Seat Leon FR, the phrase Infotainment flashes up on the dashboard. These days, dashboards never stop firing messages at you, usually doling out advice that tends towards the nanny-ish: whenever you reverse, the Seat Leon suggests you "LOOK AROUND!", a handy reminder for anyone who tends to parallel park with their eyes shut. But while Infotainment is the kind of phrase used almost exclusively by the irredeemable, you can see why Seat have plumped for it to draw your attention to the Leon FR's combined satnav, Bluetooth audio streamer and DAB radio. They think it sounds futuristic, and the Leon is apparently all about being futuristic.

The blurb describes the car as "an advanced level of advanced", perhaps for the purpose of instilling anyone not already sufficiently irked by the whole Infotainment thing with the desire to track down whoever writes Seat's advertising copy and run them over.

Still, you can't blame them for going all-out down the futuristic path: it's an image, and Seat has an image problem. Not in the sense that Lada had an image problem. But, without wishing to venture into the terrain of talking about a car having a soul, most best-loved marques speak of something wider than getting you from A to B. An Audi comes with intimations of pitilessly efficient Teutonic technology. A Volvo stands for safety. Even Seat's estranged relation Fiat has once more started to invoke ineffable Italian cool, a hint of la dolce vita in Sainsbury's car park.

As for Seat, the company's slogan "auto emocion" is clearly meant to evoke hot-tempered Latin passion, but it somehow doesn't fit with the actual cars they make. No one ever looked at a Seat Ibiza and was put in mind of Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz yelling at each other as a prelude to impressively athletic boffing.

I'm not sure the Leon FR is going to solve the problem. It looks OK, it's economical, the interior's well-finished – if a bit dingy in the back – and it's cheap compared with its competitors, notably the VW Golf it's based on. All these are selling points that override the image issue. But the one thing it doesn't feel is particularly futuristic to drive, largely because the ride isn't terribly comfortable.

Still, there's always the Infotainment system, with its plethora of digital stations. The first thing I found was a station exclusively broadcasting Christmas music in November. I switched it off with a yelp of horror: still, for the brief moment it was playing, the Seat Leon had finally succeeded in its aim of catapulting me into the future.

Seat Leon FR+ 2.0 TSI

Price £23,100
Top speed 145mph
Acceleration 0-62mph in 6.9 seconds
Average consumption 37.7mpg
Co2 emissions 174g/km
Eco rating 7/10
Cool rating 4/10