I asked about the Cupra R too and they just said look at past models: the R came 2-3 years after the Cupra.
I don't work in the car industry but marketing is the same across different industries (including where I work). If you bring out a new product, it has to remain new for a significant time. If you supersede it too quickly, or even improve the specs too quickly, you annoy those people who have just bought something they thought was new and exclusive. Plus, you need to keep the market interested. The current Leon's been around for a while now, and although it's had great
reviews, interest has dwindled, as is to be expected. The launch of the Cupra has reignited interest and while this event was about the Cupra, the hype they hope it will create will filter down to other models.
A couple of years down the line, this will have dwindled. SEAT will have moved onto other cars by then, but will revisit the Leon, probably with a facelift and a Cupra R.
To be honest, you just need to look at what they did with the last model, what they did with the
Ibiza, what VW did with the Golf, or what pretty much all the car manufacturers do.
What's really changing is the increased use of social media and the internet to promote things. They're not the only ones: you may have noticed the reduction in album adverts on TV recently, compared to a few years back. A lot of people watch far fewer TV ads than they used to, mainly because they can fast forward them. And people live their lives on the internet now.
Holding back on the R and having us talking about it on threads like this will sell more Cupras and Cupra Rs in the long term and not telling us will do them more good than telling us would.
The Cupra's been kept subtle for a reason: it will sell more. I test drove a
K1 a few years back and while I liked the drive, I thought the car looked daft. Interior was nothing to shout about and the exterior looked like it would appeal to a 10 year old. Others may disagree, but the new one does it for me. I don't want to attract attention and they're far more likely to sell one of these to me than they will a 10 year old.