Leon 1.2 DSG - Thoughts, a month in

[Eth]

Hello all, I've just got my first Leon so I'm new here. Mine is a SE 1.2 TSi DSG with tech pack on a personal lease and I thought I'd post some observations after having it from new for a month.

The good..

It looks great, and is super smooth to drive. The gear changes happen so fluidly - pull away and a few seconds later it's up into 4th or 5th and I've never noticed it changing.

The engine is very good for a little 1.2 - a lot more low down torque than you'd expect ! I've come from 3 diesels so am used to having pull on tap.

The media system is excellent and the BT hands free phone is great. Voice control is a little gimmicky but usually works, and I'm a geordie ! Certainly a lot easier to find an artist in a 64GB sd card than by scrolling through the screen.


The not so good...

Hills. The combination of stop/start, a manual handbrake and the creep on the gearbox is not great. My last car had a similar semi-auto but had an electronic handbrake. If you stop on a hill you just put the handbrake on. To move off you just mash the accelerator and the car did everything else. Perfect. With the Leon it's like you have to do everything in exactly the right order to not roll back. It's like having a manual and a clutch again ! Yes it takes some getting used to and I'm sure I'll get it perfected in time. The worst of this is that my wife won't drive the car now as the car lurched to a stop on a hill and wouldn't move off. She probably wasn't giving it enough gas or something but I'm not telling her she's wrong - I've learnt that much over 30 years.

Tyre pressure sensors - either I have a slow leak or the sensor is not working on one wheel. This is a bit of tech I don't really need.

The sat nav - it's not great compared to free ones I can get on my phone / tablet. Seems a bit too fussy when trying to enter a destinationt. It's not terrible, just it's not as good as I'd hoped.

 

[opher50]

It's kinda weird that you are having issues with hills as the car has a "Hill Hold Assitance" system. Could it be defective?

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[Eth]

Possibly - I have definately noticed the hill hold working and definately noticed the hill hold NOT working. I suspect it might be related to how fast I'm coming off the foot brake, but I've not really tested it somewhere quiet.

My last car had hill hold as well so I'm used to it - that one was simple and straightforward, 1s of holding it on brakes however you took your foot off the brake, but in that one it didn't creep - it only went when pressing the gas.

 

[Eth]

I have a 18 mile commute each way into Newcastle and only 1 hill start (coming out of Jesmond Dene if you know it) - I've got into the habit of turning off the stop/start for that hill as it makes life a little simpler.

 

[opher50]

I have just realized you've been using s&s the whole time.. That would definitely affect the car's ability to launch in a hill.. When using manual its much more simple because the car ignites itself once engaging the clutch pedal.

I'd advise you to disable the Start & stop anyway since researches proved it barely saves on petrol and may harm the engine and it's compartments.

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[Eth]

I've not been using s/s - it was deactivated when my wife had the problem doing a hill start. I've had the car a month and I turn the ignition key, switch off s/s without really thinking about it now.

 

[opher50]

In that case I'd just recommend you and your wife to drive this car as if it was a manual one, specifically during traffic and hills - don't crawl. Always have enough distance from the car infront of you in order to allow yourselves to push the throttle..
Would also preserve the expensive gear and clutches for the long run.

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[devJORD]

I'm surprised to see you're finding the 1.2 engine to have good low end torque. That was the reason I traded my 1.2 Ibiza in for a 1.4 leon. It just really struggled with hills if you're not over 2500rpm. It did drive me nuts more than most people because I live in the country, my drive to work is up 3 big hills and down again. All in the space of 4 miles.

I have always said, if you need a car that's cheap on insurance and isn't half bad on flat ground, then go for VAG's 1.2tsi engine.

For reference, mine was a 1.2tsi 105 with a 5 speed box. I know they have moved to 110 with a 6 speed, so maybe that's better?

 

[Eth]

110 with 7 speed DSG - it pulls up hills really well (once you can start on one lol) but I don't have really big hills around me (Northumberland) - it's mostly flat or rolling

 

[JACUPRA280]

I'm surprised to see you're finding the 1.2 engine to have good low end torque. That was the reason I traded my 1.2 Ibiza in for a 1.4 leon. It just really struggled with hills if you're not over 2500rpm. It did drive me nuts more than most people because I live in the country, my drive to work is up 3 big hills and down again. All in the space of 4 miles.

I have always said, if you need a car that's cheap on insurance and isn't half bad on flat ground, then go for VAG's 1.2tsi engine.

For reference, mine was a 1.2tsi 105 with a 5 speed box. I know they have moved to 110 with a 6 speed, so maybe that's better?

I had VW Polo 1.2 TSI 105 SEL with a 6-speed manual and it was an outstanding car. Ate hills for breakfast.

 

[opher50]

I'm surprised to see you're finding the 1.2 engine to have good low end torque. That was the reason I traded my 1.2 Ibiza in for a 1.4 leon. It just really struggled with hills if you're not over 2500rpm. It did drive me nuts more than most people because I live in the country, my drive to work is up 3 big hills and down again. All in the space of 4 miles.

I have always said, if you need a car that's cheap on insurance and isn't half bad on flat ground, then go for VAG's 1.2tsi engine.

For reference, mine was a 1.2tsi 105 with a 5 speed box. I know they have moved to 110 with a 6 speed, so maybe that's better?

Well I can tell you that as a guy who switched from atmosphere 1.6 to the 1.2 Leon that the 1.6 engine will work most of its time above 2000 RPM, and not even on a hill so...

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[Eth]

right, I tried it out this morning.

On a steepish rise - the hill hold kicked in. Held the car without a trace of roll back. Never used handbrake, just off foot brake, go

On a slightly less of an incline, but still definately one you'd need to do a hill start it didn't - car rolled back 6inches to a foot before it caught it.

The thing is - there's no indication of if hill hold is active and the difference of incline was very small. Seems a poorly implemented system unfortunately.

I'll get the hang of it no doubt - I noticed if you ease off the footbrake slowly you can feel the clutch being engaged (and the car raises rpm automatically from 750 to 1000) , but it's tricky to explain to her "well if you're lucky the hill hold will work but don't count on it, so sometimes do handbrake, bite, go"

 

[Luckypants]

I think it depends on how you use the brakes. To get hill hold to catch you seem to have to press quite firmly, which you naturally do on a steeper incline. On the road outside my house, which is only a shallow incline, I need to press the brakes more firmly than I would normally to get the hill-hold to take.

 

[Eth]

ah ok - I'll try that , thanks

 

[KXL]

I think it depends on how you use the brakes. To get hill hold to catch you seem to have to press quite firmly, which you naturally do on a steeper incline. On the road outside my house, which is only a shallow incline, I need to press the brakes more firmly than I would normally to get the hill-hold to take.

2nd that, I had a 2.0 TDI 150 DSG Leon, fully depress brakes (to the point where if S&S is active, engine turns off) hill hold is there.

If you light press the brake (to the point where if S&S is active, engine doesn't turn off), hill hold is usually not 'activated.' Found out as I was half up a 'raised pedestrian crossing' and stopped for them to cross, front part of car higher than rear part, thought I don't want S&S to kick it, so didn't press fully the brakes, let go, the car rolled back a bit. mashed the accelerator and the wheels spun

However starting on a incline from engine just re-awaking from S&S, hill hold has always been there for me