You know which carmaker is woefully unknown in America? SEAT, from Spain. The company started out making license-built Fiats (including some unique variations of their own) and then was absorbed into the global amoeba of the VW Group, where it remains to this day. SEAT has been sort of the VW Group’s sporty-focused arm, but it remains a mystery to most mainstream Americans. I suspect a lot of the problem comes from difficulties in Googling car-related things with the word “seat,” since that often ends up in results about, well, car seats. But there are lots of important things to know about SEAT, including the detail I want to talk to you about today: the second-gen SEAT Leon’s amazing rear door handles, which were partially integrated into the rear side window glass.
Why hasn’t this method been incorporated into every supercar since this time? It feels so unexpected and cool! Let’s take a deeper look at this.
Also, it’s worth noting that the Leon I think is one of those cars that would be great to import in a few years’ time, once it’s legal. Same platform as the VW Golf, and there were hot versions with up to about 260 hp and a six-speed manual. These were seriously fun little hot hatches, and would make a great GTI alternative. Plus, SEAT had fun in the ads for these, getting all sinister:
Other ads got weirdly philosophical:
Back to the door handles, though. Here’s a closer look:
What’s incredible about this design is that I think it is unique in the whole grand automotive world; integrating functional elements onto glass has always been sort of a show/concept car fetish. In the real world, the grim truth about the difficulties of manufacture usually make this sort of thing unlikely. In fact, one of the only other remotely analogous examples I can think of is the Maserati Khasmin, which mounted its taillights on a piece of glass at the rear:
The Leon’s rear door handle is different, though. Like a number of other usually sporty-tinged four doors, the rear door handle has been hidden on the C-pillar, in the upper door frame itself. In most applications, this type of door handle is usually handled something like this, as in this Toyota C-HR:
This is just one example, but a lot of cars take a similar approach. There’s a sort of half-assed attempt to hide the handle in the door trim or on the pillar somewhere, so as not to break up the lines of the car, but the result usually looks a bit clunky and the handle can be hard to find.
The other really common way to do this is just put the door handle, in black, on a little black panel that could have been a window, if there was anyone around who cared enough to spend the extra money, which there wasn’t. A great example of this is that Chevy Sonic up there. This prevents the handle from marring the overall design, but still looks and feels kind of partial-buttock’d.
But, the Leon’s approach doesn’t try to hide the handle, really. Well, it does in part, as the latching mechanism is hidden, but the part that’s important – where your fingers need to go – is obvious, and yet somehow doesn’t break up the lines of the car because it’s integrated into the side quarter window glass itself.
It’s subtle, but striking at the same time, not an easy pairing to achieve. I remember I first noticed this while walking down a road in Barcelona, and that little scalloped area of glass caught my eye immediately. I’d never heard of this before, but once I noticed it I couldn’t get it out of my head.
So, how the hell did SEAT pull this off? The sharp, deep concave section isn’t the sort of thing you can normally do with automotive glass, right? I did a bit of digging, and found a press release from 2007, from GE Plastics, that explains it all. Here, look:
“To streamline the Leon with a “dynamic line,” SEAT decided to add a rear quarter window with a built-in recessed hand grip that provides access to a hidden door handle. This design would eliminate the traditional, obtrusive rear door handle. The integration would also provide part consolidation.
However, the quarter window’s recessed hand grip and curved shape exceeded the limitations of glass. This application required a material with exceptional design freedom to create the unique window shape. The search for a better material also offered the chance to find a lighter-weight replacement for the glass to promote better fuel economy.”
Ah, it’s not really glass at all! So, what is it?
“SEAT selected tough, crystal-clear Lexan LS2 polycarbonate (PC) resin, matching the glass color of the vehicle, plus a silicone topcoat for weathering and abrasion resistance. Lexan resin is widely used in the automotive industry for complex glazing and lighting applications that do not lend themselves to glass. In addition, Lexan resin is significantly lighter in weight than glass, helping to improve fuel efficiency.
“GE worked closely with Freeglass to enable the success of this challenging application,” said Volker Kessler, Automotive Industry Manager for Body Panels and Glazing, GE Plastics. “We added value to the design and manufacturing process with predictive tools such as part fill simulations, and color-matching services. Our Center of Excellence for Glazing in the Netherlands played a key role in this collaboration.”
It’s Lexan! A resin! This is not especially common in production cars, so that makes it even more novel. Plus, of course the Center of Excellence for Glazing in the Netherlands was involved here. Who among us hasn’t had some sort of glazing-related run-in with that Dutch Center of Excellence before? If there’s some crazy shit going down in glazing, you know those crazy motherespecters are in the mix, somehow.
What I don’t get is why this hasn’t been picked up by more carmakers? It seems like there’s a lot that could be done with Lexan windows like these, right? Imagine a tailgate where the window was huge and incorporated the rear badge/handle right in the glass? That’d be cool as hell! Or lights in the glass! Why are we sleeping on this?
Oh, there’s another cool, under-appreciated thing about the Leon. See if you can spot it in this picture:
See what I’m getting at? No? Lemme help you:
The wipers. They park vertically at the A-pillars! They’re even enclosed in the pillar a bit there. It’s cool as hell, and, even better, I bet it keeps the wipers from getting all clogged with leaves and pine needles and crap like they do when they’re at the base of the windshield. Again, why has no other carmaker parked wipers this way? I mean, it seems the eventually-upcoming Tesla Cybertruck will have a vertically-parked wiper, but that implementation looks a lot clunkier than the Leon’s.
This little hot hatch is full of great design details, and, from everything I’ve read, is a blast to drive. It’s time we gave these little SEATs some thought here in the US. These will be available for import in 2032; that’s not so far away, really!
I had absolutely ZERO IDEA that such a thing has ever existed Jason, and am so severely delighted by it that I now want to own a Seat Leon JUST because of this single feature. 🙂
So, if you’re in the pocket of the Deep State’s get-Americans-to-import-semiobscure-Eurohatchbacks-for-some-unknown-reason, consider your mission accomplished. 😉
When I took a SPE course on thermoforming the instructor relayed the story of his firm having trouble certifying a new fighter jet canopy. An independent testing lab must do bird strike analysis. This was not his first canopy contract, not sure about the lab, definitely some new staff. He showed a film of previous testing, using an air cannon to fire a bird carcass near mach 1 into a mock up of the front of the jet, with the canopy mounted to the actual hardware, and a test dummy pilot. I was surprised at how much deflection the PC composite withstood, and was allowable, to within inches of the pilots helmet. So this testing lab calls, tells him it’s failing, and he asks, too much defection? No, no deflection, smashing right through. THIS CAN’T BE, arranged to be present for the next text. Turns out they neglected to thaw the birds.
Sounds like the cybertruck unveiling
Amazing post, Jason!!! Well, as usual…
You’ve finally convinced to me to become a cheap bastard member, ha, ha.
Greetings from Barcelona, glad you’ve been here in the past.
> the part that’s important – where your fingers need to go – is obvious
The opposite IMO. They look cool, but they make the door look like it has a birth defect, and guarantees fingerprint oils and dirt will be all over the rear windows forever. Especially if you have kids with grubby hands opening those doors.
Looks cool, hard to use, and deleterious to the automotive experience. It’s like Jony Ive designed it.
As somebody who owned the 2007 Seat Leon 1.6 I feel I should respond. This didn’t figure in our decision to get this car, but the rear door was never hard to use, it didn’t get any more dirty than the rest of the car and even with a small kid it was never an issue.
Fair enough!
Are the rear external door handles electric? It looks like it from the pictures.
External door handles were mechanical.
I’m sorry, but this a lot to do about nothing. As you mentioned, other car companies have been “hiding” the rear door handles on cars for years. Nissan Pathfinder comes to mind, as does the Xterra. The new Prius has tucked the rear door handles up beside the windows to smooth the design? Let’s get back to obscure tail light treatments! How about an article on sequential tail lights! Was the 66 Thunderbird the first? Probably not. Ball’s in your court!
I don’t know if I like it but it’s definitely creative.
@Jason Noiles, BTW, the really cool Maserati mentioned is “Khamsin” not “Khasmin” It looked weird to me right away because the name translates to the number “Fifty” in Arabic.
“Imagine a tailgate where the window was huge and incorporated the rear badge/handle right in the glass? That’d be cool as hell! Or lights in the glass!”
Torch have a close look at the rear hatch and lights on David’s i3, tho I assume you’ve noticed already… lights under glass! The BMW Megacity Concept had exactly what you describe, a giant glass hatch with floating lights and a badge, the constraints of production and crash protection obviously left the i3 without a giant see-thru hatch but the full glass idea still made it to the street.
It’s a hideous, bloated, corpulent stomach of a car and no amount of hidden wipers or rear fucking door handles in the glass can change this unalterable fact.
Thank you Adrian. I never liked those, and to me they just are the cheaper option for the one who wanted to lower a Golf and tint the glass dark as F.
WOW!
We didn’t ask you for your partial-buttocked opinion!
oh, it’s always welcome! I appreciate Adrian’s cranky-Brit-designer input on everything!
TOO BAD! I’m a designer AND I love the sound of my own voice.
Touché!
What’s your opinion on the first gen?
I always had a weird liking for the Cordoba/Ibiza and then the first gen Leon, but I definitely see what’s not to love about this one.
Better than this one by a lot, but I’m not sure why you’d choose one over a Golf.
“but I’m not sure why you’d choose one over a Golf.”
Because it’s cheaper than a Golf. And the 1st Gen Leon had the same interior as the 1st Gen Audi A3.
I never liked the rear of the 1st Gen Leon though, the rear ended abruptly you could really see where they’d sawn the end off the Toledo saloon
Exactly this. If you want a cheap Golf, you get a Leon, if you want an expensive Golf, get an A3. If you want an even cheaper one, get a Skoda.
This is why I just don’t “get” VW. If I want a German Civic I either want the cheap one, or the posh one, or the sporty one, but never the VW one.
Most likely I’d just buy the more reliable Japanese one, but if all the options the VW makes least sense.
Yeah, a valid point still, but I’d never openly own a VW, so hiding behind a badge and buying an old Cordoba would be my go to.
Had a friend in high school in the 80s in a rage death metal band called Corpulent Stomach. Good times.
John Peel voice: two more from them later.
RIP…
At least de Silva tried to make it interesting. The Leon has been hideously boring ever since.
Never change.
Once rented a Leon for a week in Andalucía and can confirm they are an absolutely cracking hot hatch. I’m making my calendar for 2032 now!
Also, “motherespecters” is my new favorite curse word. I’m going to rewatch Pulp Fiction and substitute it in every time Samuel L Jackson opens his mouth.
I’m pretty sure SEAT has been selling their cars in Mexico for a long, long time. Are those also subject to the 25 year import rule?
I’ve seen a couple Ibizas through my years in the US but I dunno how easy it would be to bring a different model up the border for good.
Yes, the “25-year rule” concerns importing into the US – it doesn’t matter from where. Importing a SEAT from Mexico is obviously cheaper, and easier, than doing so from Europe. But I’d want to compare specs (e.g. important stuff like airbags) and I’d like to know if the shell is the same. It is sometimes the case that the version of a car built in a secondary market (e.g. India, Mexico) does not have the same integrity as the original version, with money saved on welds.
Gonna catch the next flight to Spain so I can find one of these and put my hand in there (clean up yr minds pervs). Incredibly appealing.
“Oh, there’s another cool, under-appreciated thing about the Leon. See if you can spot it”
My eyes immediately went to the asymmetrical object in the lower grill and I can now see nothing else.
I’m not alone! That’s all I saw.
That “asymmetrical object in the lower grille” is the anchor point for installing the towing eye, a mandatory feature in Europe.
Walter de Silva was in charge of the design of both the Alfa 156 and the Leon so he definitely had a thing for hidden rear door handles. Funnily enough the concept for the Altea (Leon’s big brother) had the same integrated door handles, while the production variant has ordinary door handles. The Altea was targeted as more of a family oriented MPV which probably explains the design decision..
The Altea and Toledo had the vertically-parked wipers too, so certainly a recurring theme.
Anyone got a picture of what that Lexan looks like after nearly 20 years?
That being said, that shape appears achievable with glass; likely they just didn’t want to pay what it would cost.
I mentioned the 42-year-old Lexan in my Freeway below but I wasn’t all that specific about its condition. It looks pretty much like new, despite having led a far from pampered existence. Polycarbonate seems to do much better than acrylic in this sort of application.
Wow! I wish Smart went with that instead of whatever crap it got from Webasto. In 2008, it was discovered that the Webasto polycarbonate roofs started crazing and delaminating within two years. In 2013, Webasto supposedly improved the formula. Then, they started failing after four years, just in time for the warranty to expire.
I’ll have to check when I get home but I believe HMV used genuine Lexan for the Freeway’s windshield but I don’t recall whether the specific type is marked on it.
It’ll look like an uncared for molded headlights in twenty years if not treated with a UV-resistant coating. And even then, after twenty years the UV-resistant coating wears off. As that is what plastic headlights are made of. My 18 year-old Aveo has them and i have a hard time seeing the bulbs behind the plastic.
Tip: I have a 2004 Toyota product which suffers from hazy headlites. Tried the kit…meh…. Had some Mothers Mag Wheel polish in my trunk. Only use it once in a while. Lucas detail products are my main chemicals. But I thought, hmm this polish has fine grit in it and…grabbed an old towel (don’t tell my wife), tore off a piece and swirled some of the mag wheel polish on the head lites vigorously! Maybe 5 minutes per side. Used a clean towel piece (Honey, hope this wasn’t your favorite towel Lol) polished them out and voila! Could see all the detail of the bulbs and reflectors. Used some Turtle wax to seal and polish headlites. Impressive results for small investment. In my case none! Next time ( if I have time!) maybe shoot some clear over the plastic. Have to redo them every 3-4 months but what the hey? Can tell a big difference at night! We all want more lumens!
Brilliant! And a perfect use for Lexan in an automotive application.
However, I must protest the unequal and inconsistent treatment of FIAT. Like SEAT, FIAT is an acronym, and the company always capitalizes it. Yet at the Autopian, you never give FIAT the all-caps treatment it richly deserves, relegating it instead to a low-class spelling as if it were merely “Ford” or “Lamborghini”! SEAT, otoh, always gets the respect it deserves. Come on – treat FIAT fairly!
Fellow person who feels strongly about name stylisation, if you check their website (Italian for example), you’ll see that they don’t always capitalise the FIAT. In fact, going from their press releases, when in a model name like “Fiat 600” it’s not capitalised, but when referring to the company on its own, they use the capabilities “FIAT”, which might be due to trademark reasons.
Interesting, but immaterial, IMHO. On the FIAT US website (as well as the FIAT Canada website), they always capitalize, even when referring to specific models. Since The Autopian is a US website, I feel strongly (in case you haven’t picked up on it) that FIAT should always be capitalized here, just like SEAT is. And before anyone says it’s just to avoid confusion between “SEAT” and “Seat”, the same potential point of confusion exists between “FIAT” and “Fiat” (meaning a declaration of authorization or sanction).
I will never rest in the pursuit of fairness for FIAT!
🙂
You know what, you convinced me!
Long ago, I was taught to ignore company name stylization when the name is in all caps, all lowercase, or uses special characters. So, I would write “Smart” not “smart.” Likewise, “IKEA” becomes “Ikea.” The exception to the rule is for names where you say each letter, like “BMW.” At least, that’s how the Associated Press wants you to write out company names.
So, by the AP’s logic, “FIAT” is supposed to be “Fiat,” since you don’t spell out each letter. “SEAT” should then be “Seat.” But…this piece shows we don’t care about the AP sometimes, so, screw it.
Side note: The AP only recently relented on its fight against the Oxford comma. Yay!
Justice has been served! My work here is done 😀
Thanks Mercedes, and also that’s great news about the Oxford comma.
“…difficulties in Googling car-related things with the word ‘seat,’ since that often ends up in results about, well, car seats.”
I own a KV, a Freeway, and an American Microcar. I wouldn’t mind owning a SEAT simply for the purpose of continuing my struggle with this type of search result.
Add a new
KNKIA to your list too!You could include who started that whole “hidden” doorhandles on rear doors thing. As far as I remember it was the Alfa Romeo 156, which had some very beautiful mid sixties looking door handles, BUT ONLY TWO OF THEM, because of some silly idea about making it coupé looking by hiding the rear ones.
Also, the simple ones, where you just stick your hand in a hole, like on the Renault 5 (was it first?) and Fiat Panda mk1, are just the best. Just keep it simple.
Walter De Silva led the design of both the Alfa 159 and this Seat Leon
“but still looks and feels kind of partial-buttock’d.”
Torch you must have taken the previous ass comments to heart to come up with this wonderful synonym. No one can say you parital-buttock anything.
That latch design is really cool, but it gives me Bene Gesserit pain box vibes, too.
Its the only way to know if you are Lisan al-Gaib
Thankfully, there’s no gom jabbar needed for entry.
SEAT’s made since the VW merger have always been very appealing to me and would have taken minimal effort to make them FMVSS/EPA compliant in the US. I actually prefer the Leon to the Golf in most instances.
I wonder if Lexan/polycarbonate side windows are DOT compliant?
I would assume so given the various track focused Porsches and other brands that have done polycarbonate rear and side glass in years past for weight reduction have sold stateside
I had a talk with some people at VW USA before and the reason given to me about why SEAT isn’t available in USA/Canada is simple. It would steal sales away from VW or since the cars would have to be imported(US factory don’t have capacity to make VW&Seat) it might actually be more expensive. Oh not to mention that VAG has no interest in making another dealer network.
Seat, the one car I wish we got here in the states. Always loved this company.
The factory windshield in my 1981 HMV Freeway is Lexan. After 42 years it’s holding up much better than the factory side and rear windows, which are Plexiglas.
More specifically, mine is very much like the dozen or so other Freeways I’ve seen over the last fifteen-ish years. Windshields remain practically unscathed whereas the side and rear windows are either badly scratched and cracked or had been recently replaced because the originals were (surprise!) badly scratched and cracked.
Mine aren’t quite to the point that I feel the need to make new ones. Yet.
If people have trouble finding the door handle on the CH-R (which I’m pretty sure I’ve heard they do) they’d be completely lost with one of these where there is no handle visible at all.
That said, I think people are ridiculous for complaining about that so I’m all for this.
I wonder if the vertical wiper parking would have a positive or negative effect for clearing (heavy) snow in the mornings. Either way I think it’s a pretty cool solution, and I wonder why it’s not more common?
As someone who lives in the Great White North and has a car with a rear wiper that parks vertically, it’s annoying. I frequently catch a glove or sleeve on the wiper when I’m trying to brush off snow.
I imagine it’d be worse, since the first motion of the wipers would be to compress the snow down into the base of the windscreen, instead of push the snow off the side. If the wipers could even complete this movement, the snow will be packed on the bottom of the windshield where it can block the cabin HVAC air inlet (commonly at the base of the windshield to use the high pressure zone there), and will force the HVAC to work harder to defrost the windshield since it’ll be sitting right on it, absorbing that heat to melt. Then, once the windshield finally begins warming up, the snow would then be prone to blow up over the windshield, obscuring the driver’s view. So… at least for the multitude of drivers that I see around here in SE MI that only partially clear their windshield, it seems like it’d be significantly worse.
EDIT: taking a closer look at the picture, it may even be worse than that, since the pillars stick out further than the glass to partially hide the wipers, so the only way for snow to slide off the windshield would be up and over – it couldn’t slide off the sides. As anyone who’s driven through an ice storm will tell you, when conditions are right the driver’s side wiper can build up a ridge at the end of its travel and once that is there, it very quickly grows and hurts the ability of the wipers to really clear the windshield of snow and slush. This design would have that ridge already there, built in as part of the A-pillar.
Or they could be top-hinged with a turbo mode that would fling the snow high over the car!
An electric defroster grid for the wiper park might help mitigate the second issue, I’d think.