Should I buy a Diesel Leon?

[BillyCool]

My experience with my Leon FR ST 184 is very positive. No car is perfect but for me I think it ticks the most boxes for my budget.
Cheap to run - £30 tax and I get 55-60 mpg on my commute to work at 25 miles each way which I would say is mixed driving with traffic and A roads. (Have seen 70mpg on a few gentle journeys)
Pulls like a train, feels like a powerful engine in a light body. It's no race car - but for an everyday commuter I would struggle to justify more power/torque per weight.
Big boot. (bigger than my previous Audi A4 B6 Avant)
Drives nice, slightly lacking steering feel and brakes are a little too assisted for my liking (but that's similar to most modern cars) and you get used to it.
Looks nice (to my eye - and it's growing on me) LED rear lights look ace, only ones which look better to me are the Volvo V60 rear lights.
I don't really notice DPF regens - seems to be about once a tank full. Sometimes when I stop the engine fans are whirring away (wish there was an idiot light telling you it was doing a regen) I normally do approx 600 miles to a tank which I think is arround £50/55 (from memory as now i'm mainly working from home i'm filling up very infrequently) By all accounts the DPF system is reliable - well as reliable as a DPF can be!

Only problem I have had is the heater matrix issue which is well documented on here - which could be expensive if you can't fix it your self, and i'm probably due some rear shocks at 95,000 miles (oil misting). Just done my timing belt which Diesels need at 5 years.

The 184 does have more than just a more powerful engine over the 150. Bigger brakes, better rear suspension (independent vs beam) bigger diameter dampers, bigger turbo, stronger clutch, alloy suspension knuckles (vs iron). For me and the 150 and 184 I was getting insurance quotes with less than a £5 difference! so it was a no-brainer.

Can't comment on the 1.4 tsi, except to say my parents-in-law have this engine in their TRoc and it seems very smooth and refined. They get 40-45mpg but only doing very short trips to work.

When I was looking for my next car (a couple of years ago) the only cars which came close to the Leon were the 320D touring and Volvo V60 D5, which were both more expensive and considerably smaller boots, and the BMW can have expensive timing chain issues. Glad I got the Leon looking back on my choice. The Leon is also 200 - 300kg lighter than those two! I would have had a golf GTD estate but the prices for those were crazy!

Nice write up.

Ref the DPF regen `light` - I would seriously recommend the Carista OBD dongle and VAG DPF app. You can then either have a quick look to see how close the car is to a regen or actually monitor it in real time to see when it's doing one and make sure it's finished and cooled down before you turn it off. Now I'm working from home, doing shorter journeys and gone from 22,000 miles to about 5,000 miles, it's really useful to have.

 

[black_sheep]

You might also want to look at the Octavia VRS or Golf GTD that both use the same 184 ps engine.

The VRS also had 4 wheel drive versions if you wanted something a little different.

 

[Mr Pig]

You might also want to look at the Octavia VRS or Golf GTD that both use the same 184 ps engine.

The Golf badge is nice to have, I'd get another one, but the extra cost is hard to justify. You're paying a lot for a slightly better cabin really.

 

[R4CK5]

we bought my wifes car recently they just handed us keys, was the best test drive ever

Our neighbour is a general manager for a large car sales firm and they are open, remarkably

I did this with a cupra at my local just before the tiers came in. When he told me he couldn't come with me I could barely contain my excitement. It was a bloody awesome test drive made all the more enjoyable with a rather spirited drive with a focus rs.

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[R4CK5]

On topic, when I had my 1.4 eco tsi FR I regularly did 20k a year returning a general average of around 47mpg. On a run from East anglia to the lake district I think I even managed low 50s.

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[Sam Wainwright]

I know this thread is a couple of weeks old but just wanted to share my experience as I found this forum very helpful when I was looking to buy., I've had mine (150 TDI ST) for almost a year and around 8000 miles (had anticipated it would be double that but working form home and covid to thank for that) and it's been great. I had exactly the same dilemma re the TDI or 1.4 but eventually went for the diesel as I'm used to diesels, hauling all sorts of musical gear and camping paraphernalia around and had concerns the 1.4 may have struggled with this, although it did feel pleasantly pokey when I went out for a test drive in one,

I've had no issues with the DPF despite hardly using the car currently other than the odd weekend trip out (my other half is taking it to work a couple of times a week, mixed town and dual carriageway commute) and it's still averaging mid- high 40's mpg). The only indication it is even regenerating is the stop start system stops working and the idle speed increases slightly, and the engine fans run on for a few minutes when you stop the car.

We took the Leon on a 3 week 4000 mile road trip last summer around Holland, Belgium and France and it was excellent, plenty of oomph from the TDI, high 50's mpg (low 60's in places) even when giving it some beans on the auto route. I find the TDI to be a really nice engine, very responsive and less of a 'laggy' feeling than the two other diesels i've had (Focus and Volvo V50). The spec is very good on the FR model ( mine has satnav, lane assist, parking cameras etc) and the boot is huge. I still feel as if it's a 'new' car as I hardly drive it currently due to working from home, so am looking forward to being able to drive it more regularly! If you haven't got one yet, shop around for a good one and you wont regret it!

 

[Jay5959]

Yes! I have a 16 plate 184 and it’s a cracking car. Pulls strong, handles well, £30 tax a year and great mpg. It’s a lot of car for the money. The dpf “issue” has been talked to death, but in my opinion it’s hardly noticeable and infrequent on my car. I’ve had issues, mainly clutch system related but this is/was an issue across the VAG manual transmission range, not just diesels (all taken care of on warranty). I haven’t and still won’t be getting rid of it anytime soon.

 

[Mr Pig]

I think that realistically you should only have DPF issues at high mileage or if the car is not being used in a way that lets the DPF system operate as it's designed to. And if that is the case it's not a Leon-specific problem, all cars with DPFs will respond in a similar way.

 

[caledonian]

Well just to update I had been looking out for a Leon ST for a while after your reassurances on here Im glad to say Ill be picking up the Keys to a 2017 Leon ST FR tdi 184 on Wednesday. There's not a lot of these about and was a little alarmed at the colour description as Purple but on viewing it its quite nice actually . Thanks again for your help

 

[Seriously?]

Well just to update I had been looking out for a Leon ST for a while after your reassurances on here Im glad to say Ill be picking up the Keys to a 2017 Leon ST FR tdi 184 on Wednesday. There's not a lot of these about and was a little alarmed at the colour description as Purple but on viewing it its quite nice actually . Thanks again for your help

Congrats on your purchase. Boheme Purple is quite a rare, I think mainly because it never looked all that good in the brochure pictures. But in the flesh on a sunny day it's a stunning colour. Enjoy

 

[TripleBob]

Very nice - enjoy!
Picked my 184 ST DSG a couple of weeks ago, absolutely zero regrets it's a cracking car. Quick enough 90% of the time, pulls well and effortless overtaking. Just done a 500 mile round trip, getting high 50's mpg and will see about 600 miles from a tank of fuel

Test drove a 150 manual Xperience in Boheme Purple - it's a really nice colour in the flesh!! Couldn't find a 184 ST in purple or the orange, so ended up with monsoon grey

Did you manage to find one with a decent set of options on?

 

[caledonian]

Very nice - enjoy!
Picked my 184 ST DSG a couple of weeks ago, absolutely zero regrets it's a cracking car. Quick enough 90% of the time, pulls well and effortless overtaking. Just done a 500 mile round trip, getting high 50's mpg and will see about 600 miles from a tank of fuel

Test drove a 150 manual Xperience in Boheme Purple - it's a really nice colour in the flesh!! Couldn't find a 184 ST in purple or the orange, so ended up with magnetic grey

Did you manage to find one with a decent set of options

Thanks guys I dont think it has many extra options other than the tech pack, I will miss all round sensors and reversing camera from the civic but I will just have to suck it up and get better at parking . Gray would have been my choice of colour if there was a choice to be made.

 

[Jay5959]

Thanks guys I dont think it has many extra options other than the tech pack, I will miss all round sensors and reversing camera from the civic but I will just have to suck it up and get better at parking . Gray would have been my choice of colour if there was a choice to be made.

There’s loads of retrofit options for these cars. Could easily fit more sensors and/or a reverse camera

 

[TripleBob]

Thanks guys I dont think it has many extra options other than the tech pack, I will miss all round sensors and reversing camera from the civic but I will just have to suck it up and get better at parking . Gray would have been my choice of colour if there was a choice to be made.

Yeah tbh there don't seem to be a huge number of ST 184's about - lots of ex motability 150 TDI's, but not much selection in the more powerful model. Guessing people that wanted more power than the 150 TDI or 1.8 TSI went full Cupra...

Mines only got the tech pack and convenience pack plus (auto wipers/lights and coming home lights). As above though lots of easy retrofits - I'm going to retrofit front sensors and rearview camera when money allows.

I'd hugely recommend picking up an obdeleven dongle or similar to allow you to tweak the enabled options on your car - for me at least enabling Park Pilot (graphical display on the nav unit for the rear parking sensors) made a huge difference to ease of parking... As you can actually see how close you are and on which sensor, rather than play 'guess what the beeps mean'. Coming home lights can be switched on without any extra hardware. Afaik the auto wipers etc are about £200 for the hardware

 

[Cuprabenwytm]

No buy a cupra you know you want yo really

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[caledonian]

No buy a cupra you know you want yo really

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Nooooooo mate with my heavy size 14s Id be getting lamposts to the gallon, got a 2 year old and and another on the way I need to at least look like Im buying a sensible family car

 

[caledonian]

Yeah tbh there don't seem to be a huge number of ST 184's about - lots of ex motability 150 TDI's, but not much selection in the more powerful model. Guessing people that wanted more power than the 150 TDI or 1.8 TSI went full Cupra...

Mines only got the tech pack and convenience pack plus (auto wipers/lights and coming home lights). As above though lots of easy retrofits - I'm going to retrofit front sensors and rearview camera when money allows.

I'd hugely recommend picking up an obdeleven dongle or similar to allow you to tweak the enabled options on your car - for me at least enabling Park Pilot (graphical display on the nav unit for the rear parking sensors) made a huge difference to ease of parking... As you can actually see how close you are and on which sensor, rather than play 'guess what the beeps mean'. Coming home lights can be switched on without any extra hardware. Afaik the auto wipers etc are about £200 for the hardware

Oh **** i'd just assumed it would have auto lights and wipers my last 4 cars have all had that

 

[caledonian]

The dongle sounds great Ill definitely do that, I was looking at adding a rear camera saw those mirror ones but not sure if Id be better just biting the bullet and getting one retro fitted to the touchscreen

 

[Jay5959]

No buy a cupra you know you want yo really

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We all want too! I’m too poor

 

[caledonian]

Is there anywhere I can check factory spec + options with the Reg?