CUPRA Leon E Hybrid first thoughts...

[.Griff.]

Ah right, thanks. Very helpful.

You're very welcome!

 

[Firaxis]

You've sidestepped the part where I made a point of saying "depending on what figures you believe". I checked a few sources and the mean difference between weights specified was 80 KGs. Having owned a plethora of cars I know it's a bit naive to take one source at face value when it comes to car weights (dry, wet, with/without driver etc). I prefer to go with a consensus approach.


It wasn't my intention to arouse annoyance, which I suspect I did, merely to counter your experience with my own. If any prospective owners want real-world examples of fuel economy I'm more than happy to discuss that with them and I'll continue to update this thread with more data as my ownership continues.

No annoyance here just countering your counter .. Usually an extended test drive should be enough to gather information before committing to a purchase and becoming potentially locked into it.

Most of us have owned a plethora of cars, I change mine every year or so and have a project car that I built up from a mere shell and chassis. Can't say I've ever weighed one though so I go with whatever the manufacturer states irrelevant of how "naive" that is. The figures quoted are from the Cupra Official website.

Back to the E-hybrid though. @Sarah, sounds like the e-hybrid is a perfect match for your driving scenario's..

 

[Sarah]

Thanks. I hope so too. I'm going to look more into the percentage use of the battery and what settings to set it at so that it uses more petrol and keeps the battery for the extra zip when it's needed. The above post explaining it was very interesting to me. I don't keep my cars long for one reason or another, I'm hoping to with this one. I do think the mk 4 Cupra looks really really special.

Out of the cars I've been looking at, A4 avant 40 tfsi and merc c class (would be my 5th), the Cupra at the moment seems the best deal.
When I'm looking to buy a car, I always put the asking price into an online valuation site to see how far away the asking price is from the trade in price. The Audi and merc are coming up at £4k less than the asking price but the Cupra is actually showing a higher trade in value than the £28k that 2 dealers are asking for.
I hope we haven't hijacked Ollie's original thread

 

[Firaxis]

Thanks. I hope so too. I'm going to look more into the percentage use of the battery and what settings to set it at so that it uses more petrol and keeps the battery for the extra zip when it's needed. The above post explaining it was very interesting to me. I don't keep my cars long for one reason or another, I'm hoping to with this one. I do think the mk 4 Cupra looks really really special.

Out of the cars I've been looking at, A4 avant 40 tfsi and merc c class (would be my 4th), the Cupra at the moment seems the best deal.
When I'm looking to buy a car, I always put the asking price into an online valuation site to see how far away the asking price is from the trade in price. The Audi and merc are coming up at £4k less than the asking price but the Cupra is actually showing a higher trade in value than the £28k that 2 dealers are asking for.
I hope we haven't hijacked Ollie's original thread

Here you go, page 219 onwards: https://www.cupraofficial.co.uk/con...ownload-documents/2020/manuals/cupra-leon.pdf

 

[Sarah]

Thanks, that's great

 

[Stebb]

Here's another poser: The manual covers 'running in' the engine for 1000 miles. Since I can get to the shops and back on electric power alone, its gonna take forever to reach 1000 miles on the engine itself!
Things are improving though, 50 miles journey this morning left me with 20% battery at 148mpg - mix of A and B roads between here and Ludlow. The Ateca would have done that on a gallon of fuel if I drove with an egg under my foot, encountered no tractors, traffic lights at red or caravans: just. Definately not run in yet either.

 

[Sarah]

Does anyone know if there is a record on the car on how often is has been launched? The manual just tells you how to do it and not if it keeps a record.

 

[Dave5118]

Got my eHybrid on Friday, only done 62 miles, so early days yet. Corners way better than my Ionic PHEV and is a lot more comfortable ride.
The only thing that is bugging me is the annoying 'speedcam' alerts, can't seem to find anywhere to adjust the volume or mute them altogether.
So far really like the car.

 

[Weeman32]

I’m test driving one tomorrow and looking forward to seeing what it’s like. My situation sounds similar to yours Ollie. I’ve had 2 GTI’s and this will be my 1st venture into electric. Hoping it’s got similar grunt to what I have but the efficiency as we really dont do any miles since the pandemic as WFH. I also don’t drive as enthusiasticly like I used to, more about having some grunt to overtake but rarely go looking for B road nirvana. Anyway, I’ll know tomorroW, fingers crossed.

 

[Ollie]

Hope you get on well!
My car ticked over 1000 miles today. Still got just over a quarter of a tank left in it (filled it once when it arrived on 40 delivery miles) and averages 150mpg, but of course my daily commute is within electric only range.
I am over the moon with it. Okay, it feels a bit heavier in corners - but straight line performance I think you'll find no difference between your GTis.

Realistically... How often do we push cars to their limits in terms of cornering potential!!

Definitely feel I made the right choice. But out and out petrol heads... Won't be for them I think!

 

[Weeman32]

Hope you get on well!
My car ticked over 1000 miles today. Still got just over a quarter of a tank left in it (filled it once when it arrived on 40 delivery miles) and averages 150mpg, but of course my daily commute is within electric only range.
I am over the moon with it. Okay, it feels a bit heavier in corners - but straight line performance I think you'll find no difference between your GTis.

Realistically... How often do we push cars to their limits in terms of cornering potential!!

Definitely feel I made the right choice. But out and out petrol heads... Won't be for them I think!

Well we signed all the paperwork today! We drove the estate but even that was a load of fun. In Cupra mode it’s certainly not far off the GTI and even after recharging the battery and a really mixed 30 miles it returned 75mpg. It’s like you say, how often can you push a car these days, I certainly don’t anymore as I’m either stuck in traffic or watching average speed cameras. I liked it, laughed at the sound actor noise. The DCC is useful, car was comfortable and quiet when needed and then a bit more spirited when required. Hoping to run mostly electric too.

 

[Sarah]

Good for you. How long do you have to wait or is there one in stock and what colour?

I'm enjoying mine and for a grey estate it gets a lot of attention. I was driving around an estate slowly looking for an address on Friday and I heard too little boys saying oo that's a nice car. I've had much better cars than this and never heard that before.
It suits me as I didn't really use the power of previous cars (C43, cla45) and I like the new interior and exterior and I haven't seen another one yet. The infotainment isn't as tricky as I expected it to be without buttons and most of the problems I read about seemed to be with the ACC which I never use anyway.
The voice control triggered the other day while I was singing though asking me what I wanted

 

[Ollie]

Good for you. How long do you have to wait or is there one in stock and what colour?

I'm enjoying mine and for a grey estate it gets a lot of attention. I was driving around an estate slowly looking for an address on Friday and I heard too little boys saying oo that's a nice car. I've had much better cars than this and never heard that before.
It suits me as I didn't really use the power of previous cars (C43, cla45) and I like the new interior and exterior and I haven't seen another one yet. The infotainment isn't as tricky as I expected it to be without buttons and most of the problems I read about seemed to be with the ACC which I never use anyway.
The voice control triggered the other day while I was singing though asking me what I wanted

The graphene grey is definitely different! Glad you're enjoying it!

 

[Sarah]

Hi Ollie, yes I'm enjoying it thanks. You helped me to decide with your advice

 

[Weeman32]

Good for you. How long do you have to wait or is there one in stock and what colour?

I'm enjoying mine and for a grey estate it gets a lot of attention. I was driving around an estate slowly looking for an address on Friday and I heard too little boys saying oo that's a nice car. I've had much better cars than this and never heard that before.
It suits me as I didn't really use the power of previous cars (C43, cla45) and I like the new interior and exterior and I haven't seen another one yet. The infotainment isn't as tricky as I expected it to be without buttons and most of the problems I read about seemed to be with the ACC which I never use anyway.
The voice control triggered the other day while I was singing though asking me what I wanted

It’s a Graphene grey which they have in stock, hopefully pick it up next weekend. They have a black 1st addition with spec coming but the grey is what my better half liked. Can I ask, has anyone taken out a service plan? Think it’s gonna be around £700 as we aren’t taking a pcp, think this covers 3 services. That’s quite a lot compared to VW. There’s my tightness coming out again

 

[Sarah]

It’s a Graphene grey which they have in stock, hopefully pick it up next weekend. They have a black 1st addition with spec coming but the grey is what my better half liked. Can I ask, has anyone taken out a service plan? Think it’s gonna be around £700 as we aren’t taking a pcp, think this covers 3 services. That’s quite a lot compared to VW. There’s my tightness coming out again

I don't like being in debt either so have always paid cash plus whatever part exchange I have. I bought a First edition ST ex demo in graphene grey last Sunday with 6k miles on.
I asked them to perform it's 1st service (it showed on the dash that it was due in 40 days) so that takes me to Sept ish 2022.
Even though I don't like debt, they said if I took just £3k out on hp, I would get 2 free services so I did that (they said they would cost £500 as hybrid servicing is dearer) so they take me to Sept ish 2024. I've got the cash to pay it off so going to pay it off as soon as I can when I'm sure that I won't lose the 2 services.
I haven't kept a car longer than a year for a very long time so hoping to keep this one

 

[Harryws]

Evening all...

I've had my CUPRA Leon E Hybrid VZ2 in Graphene Grey for just over a week now and thought I would post my thoughts on how I've found it.

I got rid of my previous Leon CUPRA 290 Lux (the copper badged version) simply because I got it heavily discounted (23.5k new) and managed to sell it to WBAC for 23k. My commute to work has decreased and the amount of times I truly put my foot down means I can't justify keeping it!

First thoughts are that the interior is a big step up in terms of quality. The digital dash is more responsive, generally the trim pieces are fitted better, the wraparound lighting and copper details just make it feel that bit more special and exclusive.

The major downside, which everyone knows, is the infotainment and lack of climatronic - I miss it, I expected that to be the case, but I'm getting used to it quickly. The screen generally is much more responsive, but lots of menus within menus which the MK3.5 was never really exempt from either!

I love the look of the car - graphene grey which is one of the special metallic - and have had plenty of people asking what it is etc. Not a fan of the fake copper exhausts - but can't have it all! Nice to still get 19 inch rims and some sports styled bumpers.

The CUPRA app works really well, have had no issues with it - can set departure times, temperature, defrosting (useful for winter) and send directions via the app so I can jump in and go straight away. It's a big step up and is without bugs for me!

KESSY works just as my MK3.5 did, no issues. The lighting and puddle lights with the CUPRA logo are a nice touch in the evenings, as is the upgraded ambient lighting.

The drive select mode is good, especially Individual which let's you adjust the dampers very specifically. I do miss the VAG DIF but as I said - the amount of times I used to drive on the edge that much, I'll barely notice the difference!

Straight line performance is good - very torquey and for any GTi owners it's on par. The electric motor gives a good instant boost. The sound actuator can be turned off in individual mode if you don't want to sound like you're enroute to the next Apollo mission.

Charging is easy, already have a 7kW wallbox as the better half has a fully electric car. The Leon can only charge at 3.5kW and nothing higher, so no fast charging or similar.

The intelligent braking is very very clever and accurate. It uses the mapping function to tell you when to lift off when approaching a roundabout, a descent etc - I was really impressed and the battery is efficient at recouping energy through the regeneration.

My commute is 32 miles, I have managed to get there and back and generally return on 8 percent battery. That beats what CUPRA quote and includes back roads and single lane A roads at 60mph. I am very impressed, but would expect this to decrease significantly over winter (maybe 20 miles?)

Dynamic driving is good - you do feel the extra weight - so don't to expecting this to be a full on CUPRA if you've owned a proper one before. I went for this model because its geared towards efficiency, but has enough grunt to outpace most things on the road and doesn't leave a hole in my pocket every 280 miles.

So far I've done 400 miles and used a quarter tank of fuel.

For those of you truly set on a proper CUPRA like my last one - this won't be for you. But if you want something with nice styling, something unique, efficient and your round-trip commute is 30 miles or less - this may well be for you.

I have to admit I love it and don't regret changing. Just be sure you're making the right decision if you're thinking of buying one... I've yet to see another on the road so it's nice to feel exclusive - but that will come by having the 300PS Cupra Leon too.

Happy to field any questions for prospective buyers...!

Happy driving & stay safe...

Ollie

I placed a deposit on a CUPRA Leon E Hybrid VZe here in Australia with no extras. It will arrive in 14 weeks. It is currently on the high seas - Indian Ocean. I am so excited I was in the market for a Polestar 2 but the support and TCAM problems totally turned me off that brand. After a second test drive of the PS2 I drove to Cupra and placed the order. Soooo Happy

 

[Desire red]

I placed a deposit on a CUPRA Leon E Hybrid VZe here in Australia with no extras. It will arrive in 14 weeks. It is currently on the high seas - Indian Ocean. I am so excited I was in the market for a Polestar 2 but the support and TCAM problems totally turned me off that brand. After a second test drive of the PS2 I drove to Cupra and placed the order. Soooo Happy

Thx for all info, have to buy the Cupre lion hybrud insted of a Born. Full electronic can wait few years.

 

[Harryws]

Thx for all info, have to buy the Cupre lion hybrud insted of a Born. Full electronic can wait few years.

In NSW Oz the infastructure is sparse and I am too impatient to wait to charge while travelling distance

 

[Desire red]

In NSW Oz the infastructure is sparse and I am too impatient to wait to charge while travelling distance

Not sure what you meen, english not my language. I'm impatient too, thats part why i think the 1,4 hybrid is better for me but what does 'in NSW Oz infrastructure is sparse??