Hi Guys,
Just been this morning with my parents to look at some new seat leons. Whats your thoughts on them? We are looking at the 1.9 diesel ecomotive versions that are either 59 or 10 plate. Anyone got one? Think the golfs are worth the more money etc.. etc..?
Thanks in Advance.

EDIT: They are looking for a car to replace our range rover (company car) to look at doing long journeys and saving on petrol, these ones are 65mpg combined.

[Edited on 20/6/10 by eddie99]

I've only been in a cupra leon with a big turbo - seemed to be a nice car, seats were comfy, but the back did look a little cramped. As far as Golf's go, I think one of the few advantages is that the VW's seem to hold their price better than the seat or skoda models - but you pay more in the frst place so swings and roundabouts really....

I had a Seat Tdi in Spain last year, full tank lasted me a week blasting about in the Pyrenees and Catalonia.


Good looks and great engines, they have the market cornered for me.

Yeah we thought that leons would drop in price, but we then saw a 2year old one with 25k miles on for about 2grand less so that hinted that they don't drop as much as we had thought. We know that the Golf has better interior but don't think its worth the 3-4k more to start with!

I think the newer Seats hold their value well and sadly a thing of the past that they're much cheaper. I really wanted the newer shape recently for our family car but looked around at loads and they always fetched good money - even with higher miles.

I think they're great cars though - good looking, smart and not that common either. Winner.

Had a mk1 Leon Cupra TDI - loved it and could not find fault with it after 100k hard miles.

Borther in law and work colleague both have mk2 Leon FR TDIs and I've driven them plenty - again excellent all round.

IMHO both models look far better than their Golf siblings too.

One final point now having a VW Passat and having to use VW main dealers for servicing etc, I can honestly say the Seat dealers are soooo much better to deal with, no where near as up themselves.

I replaced my BMW540i Touring with a Seat Leon 2.0TDi on an '07 plate.

Had it from new, it's been utterly reliable, no mechanical niggles at all. It's done nearly 60,000 miles, and apart from an oil change every 10k and new tyres, virtually no other costs (other than glass / paint from incidents!).

When I bought it I looked at the Golf / A3 / A4 / Vaux / Ford Focus / Mondeo and it just felt a nicer place to spend lots of my time / cover big mileage.

I have a twice weekly round trip of 240 miles and it'll do 45mpg at a steady 0.9.....

And it still turns heads, with the BTCC bodykit.

The only thing I'd change would be the big 18" alloys. I'm forever getting punctures and low tyre pressure warnings. I'd be tempted to stick to the standard ones and put the 18"s on for "best".

Mike

A very good friend of mine has the little 1.4 FSI petrol. Its really nice and quick. The best thing is is that it is in a small tax bracket due to emissions but goes like a petrol. I would consider the little petrol one if you want good MPG.

I had a Mk1 Cupra a few years back and another friend of mine had a Golf. He was green with envy. Both old and new Seats are better than the equivalent Golfs. The Leons come with more options for starters.

Regarding servicing. The Seat dealer I used was fast, friendly, cheap and even cleaned my car for me when having a service. Now that is rare!