This sort of forum is often the first port of call for potential buyers and existing owners may also be interested, so I thought I’d make a few notes about my latest wheels. Enjoy!.....
Intro/ Choosing
My Leon is a company car. To cut a long story of bewildering but ultimately favourable management decisions short, I went from expecting to get a bum basic Passat wagon to being allowed a Leon FR TDI with a bit of budget left over to raid the options list. It replaced a useful but dull Pug 406 estate, so I was pretty chuffed!
First decision was the colour. After looking at this forum for general info on the Leon I noticed that Candy White had just been introduced. I’ve always disliked white cars so it surprised me to find the idea of a white Leon growing over time. Probably partly to do with all the white 911s and Lambos appearing in Evo every month, but anyway I decided to take a risk and go for white. Actually, it wasn’t that simple as it turned out that the lease company and the local dealer weren’t aware that white is an option (“we don’t sell white cars sir”), but I eventually set them right!
Next was the options list. Xenons were must, having had them on a previous car. Also, I really liked the idea of the pointing-around-corners function! Bluetooth was rejected as I don’t use the phone in the car (which I partly regretted, see later). I got used to the auto wipers and lights in my old Pug, so the convenience pack was in. USB connection seemed like a good way to be rid of a huge pile of CDs. The 17” rims look rubbish so I went for the better looking 18s. There was a bit of budget left for the multi-heated delights of the Winter Pack so that was also chosen.
After a painful 4 month (!) wait it finally arrived. First impressions were good, here are my thoughts 9000 miles later:
Performance/ drivetrain
Well it’s certainly the best diesel engine I’ve driven, although not perfect. Power is strong and the very undiesel-like way it revs to (and beyond) the red line is refreshing. There’s a certain perverse pleasure to be gained from watching the TC light blink away when you put you’re foot down in 2nd gear.The downsides are that the lag below 2k rpm can catch you out if you’re lazy with gear selection and the noise at idle is still a bit too Transit. Once up to speed engine noise is not a problem, however I’m a bit bemused by comments from other owners on this site saying that it’s a nice sound! The gear box is fine, although those that complain that 1st gear is too short for a quick and smooth getaway have a point.
Ride/ Handling/ Chassis
The ride and handling of this car have given me a lot of food for thought. I’ve concluded that from the point of view of someone looking for an interesting company car choice it is more entertaining than the usual suspects. From the point of view of those looking for ‘the thrill of driving’ it’s not the sort of car that gets you up early on a Sunday morning.
So specifically, what’s good and bad? I can’t help but think that while the 18” wheels look great they have a negative effect on the ride comfort. I haven’t driven the FR on 17s so it might just be that Seat did a slightly ‘Friday afternoon’ job on the spring and damper selection. Whatever the reason, the ride is noticeably stiff over bumpy roads. This doesn’t really bother me, but I can’t help but think that a little more time spent on chassis development could have yielded better ride comfort while retaining cornering ability. Corning ability, it has to be said, is good and in combination with all that torque makes for great cross country pace. On a recent drive I was surprised how long it took a following 997 Turbo to find an overtaking opportunity. I’m under no illusions as to the gulf in performance between these cars, but the plucky Spaniard put in a better than expected effort.
If there was one thing I could change in this area it would be to improve the steering feel. While it’s certainly not Punto-with-girly-button-on vague it’s not a torrent of communication either. In the wet it can be tricky to accurately gauge the available grip.
Styling
I have to say that I’m really pleased with the look of this car and the colour has really grown on me. When kids on BMXs shout ‘cool car!’ it shows that it does attract attention, whether that’s a good thing depends on your outlook of course.
Interior/ equipment
Let’s get a couple of beefs out of the way; the first is the rubbish trip computer thing you get if you don’t go for the Bluetooth. All the info I want is there, but it really irritates me that you have to scroll through function by function to find the one you want. Why don’t they make it clear in the sales literature what you are going to get? Why can’t you get the Bluetooth style multi-function display without paying for the phone features (a la VW, Skoda etc)?
The second is the USB connection; although it sometimes takes a while to initialise it is quite reliable and I love having 8GB of tunes at my disposal. But why can’t they enable song titles and artists to be displayed? It’s not a problem if you just want a random mix, but finding a specific song/ album is pretty tedious when there are 100+ albums on there. Grrrr.
Apart from those grumbles it’s a nice enough place to be with lots of handy features. Of course it’s not an Audi, but a MkV Golf is only slightly superior.
The FR seats are very comfy and I’m enjoying their heaters as winter approaches. Other nice-to-haves that make life a little easier include the auto-dimming mirror, folding wing mirrors and those funny red lights on the under-side of the rear-view mirror that initially seem rather weird and bit pointless but are actually dead cool.
The stereo (which I assume is the same as the Cupra) came in for criticism in a recent edition of Evo and while it’s not really any worse than most mass-market cars the guy has a valid argument. I’m no hi-fi buff, but you have to get the treble and mid-range right down in order to get a bearable sound. I can’t quite bring myself to gaffer-tape the rear tweeters but I can see (hear) why he did it.
Costs/ problems
Like most cars the Leon has it’s issues and mine has most of the commonly reported issues, and others. It has ‘wet windows’, there’s a rattle in the dash, there’s a rattle from the rear seat, it did have the metallic rattle (exhaust?) to begin with but it’s gone away now, the folding mirrors squeak (silicone spray provides a temporary solution) and the passenger side fog light has been fogged up from day 1. We’ll have to see how many of these are fixed at the upcoming first service.
It’s early days to assess overall running costs but I can comment on fuel economy; mpg averages at low 40s, with maybe 45mpg on a steady long motorway run. It’s not great, but acceptable when you consider the available performance. Hopefully it will loosen up a bit with more miles and improve.
Summary
It may seem that there are a lot of negative comments in the above, but none of them are major issues and I’m actually very pleased with the Leon. It’s a car I look forward to driving and one that I would recommend
Intro/ Choosing
My Leon is a company car. To cut a long story of bewildering but ultimately favourable management decisions short, I went from expecting to get a bum basic Passat wagon to being allowed a Leon FR TDI with a bit of budget left over to raid the options list. It replaced a useful but dull Pug 406 estate, so I was pretty chuffed!
First decision was the colour. After looking at this forum for general info on the Leon I noticed that Candy White had just been introduced. I’ve always disliked white cars so it surprised me to find the idea of a white Leon growing over time. Probably partly to do with all the white 911s and Lambos appearing in Evo every month, but anyway I decided to take a risk and go for white. Actually, it wasn’t that simple as it turned out that the lease company and the local dealer weren’t aware that white is an option (“we don’t sell white cars sir”), but I eventually set them right!
Next was the options list. Xenons were must, having had them on a previous car. Also, I really liked the idea of the pointing-around-corners function! Bluetooth was rejected as I don’t use the phone in the car (which I partly regretted, see later). I got used to the auto wipers and lights in my old Pug, so the convenience pack was in. USB connection seemed like a good way to be rid of a huge pile of CDs. The 17” rims look rubbish so I went for the better looking 18s. There was a bit of budget left for the multi-heated delights of the Winter Pack so that was also chosen.
After a painful 4 month (!) wait it finally arrived. First impressions were good, here are my thoughts 9000 miles later:
Performance/ drivetrain
Well it’s certainly the best diesel engine I’ve driven, although not perfect. Power is strong and the very undiesel-like way it revs to (and beyond) the red line is refreshing. There’s a certain perverse pleasure to be gained from watching the TC light blink away when you put you’re foot down in 2nd gear.The downsides are that the lag below 2k rpm can catch you out if you’re lazy with gear selection and the noise at idle is still a bit too Transit. Once up to speed engine noise is not a problem, however I’m a bit bemused by comments from other owners on this site saying that it’s a nice sound! The gear box is fine, although those that complain that 1st gear is too short for a quick and smooth getaway have a point.
Ride/ Handling/ Chassis
The ride and handling of this car have given me a lot of food for thought. I’ve concluded that from the point of view of someone looking for an interesting company car choice it is more entertaining than the usual suspects. From the point of view of those looking for ‘the thrill of driving’ it’s not the sort of car that gets you up early on a Sunday morning.
So specifically, what’s good and bad? I can’t help but think that while the 18” wheels look great they have a negative effect on the ride comfort. I haven’t driven the FR on 17s so it might just be that Seat did a slightly ‘Friday afternoon’ job on the spring and damper selection. Whatever the reason, the ride is noticeably stiff over bumpy roads. This doesn’t really bother me, but I can’t help but think that a little more time spent on chassis development could have yielded better ride comfort while retaining cornering ability. Corning ability, it has to be said, is good and in combination with all that torque makes for great cross country pace. On a recent drive I was surprised how long it took a following 997 Turbo to find an overtaking opportunity. I’m under no illusions as to the gulf in performance between these cars, but the plucky Spaniard put in a better than expected effort.
If there was one thing I could change in this area it would be to improve the steering feel. While it’s certainly not Punto-with-girly-button-on vague it’s not a torrent of communication either. In the wet it can be tricky to accurately gauge the available grip.
Styling
I have to say that I’m really pleased with the look of this car and the colour has really grown on me. When kids on BMXs shout ‘cool car!’ it shows that it does attract attention, whether that’s a good thing depends on your outlook of course.
Interior/ equipment
Let’s get a couple of beefs out of the way; the first is the rubbish trip computer thing you get if you don’t go for the Bluetooth. All the info I want is there, but it really irritates me that you have to scroll through function by function to find the one you want. Why don’t they make it clear in the sales literature what you are going to get? Why can’t you get the Bluetooth style multi-function display without paying for the phone features (a la VW, Skoda etc)?
The second is the USB connection; although it sometimes takes a while to initialise it is quite reliable and I love having 8GB of tunes at my disposal. But why can’t they enable song titles and artists to be displayed? It’s not a problem if you just want a random mix, but finding a specific song/ album is pretty tedious when there are 100+ albums on there. Grrrr.
Apart from those grumbles it’s a nice enough place to be with lots of handy features. Of course it’s not an Audi, but a MkV Golf is only slightly superior.
The FR seats are very comfy and I’m enjoying their heaters as winter approaches. Other nice-to-haves that make life a little easier include the auto-dimming mirror, folding wing mirrors and those funny red lights on the under-side of the rear-view mirror that initially seem rather weird and bit pointless but are actually dead cool.
The stereo (which I assume is the same as the Cupra) came in for criticism in a recent edition of Evo and while it’s not really any worse than most mass-market cars the guy has a valid argument. I’m no hi-fi buff, but you have to get the treble and mid-range right down in order to get a bearable sound. I can’t quite bring myself to gaffer-tape the rear tweeters but I can see (hear) why he did it.
Costs/ problems
Like most cars the Leon has it’s issues and mine has most of the commonly reported issues, and others. It has ‘wet windows’, there’s a rattle in the dash, there’s a rattle from the rear seat, it did have the metallic rattle (exhaust?) to begin with but it’s gone away now, the folding mirrors squeak (silicone spray provides a temporary solution) and the passenger side fog light has been fogged up from day 1. We’ll have to see how many of these are fixed at the upcoming first service.
It’s early days to assess overall running costs but I can comment on fuel economy; mpg averages at low 40s, with maybe 45mpg on a steady long motorway run. It’s not great, but acceptable when you consider the available performance. Hopefully it will loosen up a bit with more miles and improve.
Summary
It may seem that there are a lot of negative comments in the above, but none of them are major issues and I’m actually very pleased with the Leon. It’s a car I look forward to driving and one that I would recommend
