Taken the plunge (announcement about ordering my car with bluetooth)

[GainfulShrimp]

After umming and arring for a few days, I placed an order today for my first ever built-to-spec car...

I'm getting a Leon Ecomotive 1.6 CR SE in Candy White, with Technology Pack and Convenience Pack. I think I got a pretty good deal - there's already £2,000 off SE list price due to Seat's "Eco-nomics" offer and the nice sales lass agreed to knock a little more off and throw in floor mats, "smoker's kit" and touch up paint pen.
Oh, and I got a free USB stick which apparently contains a "SEAT Emocion Soundtrack", in return for me joining Club SEAT - which I assume is a fancy name for their special offers mailing list? Meh...

I drove into Nottingham on Saturday to go shopping and after an hour or two of city driving and car parks, my poor FR was getting 18mpg average... a perfect example of why I can't afford to keep it, especially given my long commute and petrol prices becoming as silly as they are. If I kept the FR for the next 12 months, I reckon I would spend approx £4,200 just on fuel alone.

So now the long wait begins: I've been given an estimate of 12 weeks to delivery. The sales lass implied that it's more likely to be later rather than earlier than that, but it's not completely unheard of for them to be early. My fingers are crossed that it'll be manufactured before the long summer vacation in the Martorell factory; I reckon that should be OK as I'd expect the last few weeks of the 12wks to be shipping time.
Apparently if the car arrives a short while before September, I can ask them to hold back registering it until September so it'll get a new '60' plate. It's gonna be painful waiting an extra few weeks, if that happens, but it's probably sensible to wait a short time to end up with a car that's effectively 6 months 'younger'.

 

[FAZ]

I was told to be prepared for a 16 week wait, but it arrived after 7 weeks.

Enjoy it when it comes.

 

[jezyg]

Sounds like a nice car and I am sure you will be happy with it and the mpg and less pennies being spent on fuel

 

[Watto_uk]

After umming and arring for a few days, I placed an order today for my first ever built-to-spec car...

I'm getting a Leon Ecomotive 1.6 CR SE in Candy White, with Technology Pack and Convenience Pack. I think I got a pretty good deal - there's already £2,000 off SE list price due to Seat's "Eco-nomics" offer and the nice sales lass agreed to knock a little more off and throw in floor mats, "smoker's kit" and touch up paint pen.
Oh, and I got a free USB stick which apparently contains a "SEAT Emocion Soundtrack", in return for me joining Club SEAT - which I assume is a fancy name for their special offers mailing list? Meh...

I drove into Nottingham on Saturday to go shopping and after an hour or two of city driving and car parks, my poor FR was getting 18mpg average... a perfect example of why I can't afford to keep it, especially given my long commute and petrol prices becoming as silly as they are. If I kept the FR for the next 12 months, I reckon I would spend approx £4,200 just on fuel alone.

So now the long wait begins: I've been given an estimate of 12 weeks to delivery. The sales lass implied that it's more likely to be later rather than earlier than that, but it's not completely unheard of for them to be early. My fingers are crossed that it'll be manufactured before the long summer vacation in the Martorell factory; I reckon that should be OK as I'd expect the last few weeks of the 12wks to be shipping time.
Apparently if the car arrives a short while before September, I can ask them to hold back registering it until September so it'll get a new '60' plate. It's gonna be painful waiting an extra few weeks, if that happens, but it's probably sensible to wait a short time to end up with a car that's effectively 6 months 'younger'.

Nice of them to "throw in" floor mats, as they are part of the convenience pack anyway. . Make sure you get 2 sets of mats. (one set is thicker than the other)Picked up my new Altea today. Same spec as your Leon. The 1.6TDI is pretty good. Fuel gauge needs to calibrate itself. It's giving me a range of just 375 miles. Did the same thing on my old one, so it should sort itself out in a few months.

 

[P0LKR]

After umming and arring for a few days, I placed an order today for my first ever built-to-spec car...

I'm getting a Leon Ecomotive 1.6 CR SE in Candy White, with Technology Pack and Convenience Pack. I think I got a pretty good deal - there's already £2,000 off SE list price due to Seat's "Eco-nomics" offer and the nice sales lass agreed to knock a little more off and throw in floor mats, "smoker's kit" and touch up paint pen.
Oh, and I got a free USB stick which apparently contains a "SEAT Emocion Soundtrack", in return for me joining Club SEAT - which I assume is a fancy name for their special offers mailing list? Meh...

I drove into Nottingham on Saturday to go shopping and after an hour or two of city driving and car parks, my poor FR was getting 18mpg average... a perfect example of why I can't afford to keep it, especially given my long commute and petrol prices becoming as silly as they are. If I kept the FR for the next 12 months, I reckon I would spend approx £4,200 just on fuel alone.

So now the long wait begins: I've been given an estimate of 12 weeks to delivery. The sales lass implied that it's more likely to be later rather than earlier than that, but it's not completely unheard of for them to be early. My fingers are crossed that it'll be manufactured before the long summer vacation in the Martorell factory; I reckon that should be OK as I'd expect the last few weeks of the 12wks to be shipping time.
Apparently if the car arrives a short while before September, I can ask them to hold back registering it until September so it'll get a new '60' plate. It's gonna be painful waiting an extra few weeks, if that happens, but it's probably sensible to wait a short time to end up with a car that's effectively 6 months 'younger'.

Congrats Gainful,

I am loving the fact my fuel consumption has gone from 26mpg average to 43mpg. I am loving the new car and the DSG (fingers crossed its problem free). I thought about the 1.6 cr but the power drop from 240bhp would have been too severe for me. I have a good balance between power and economy with the 2.0L tdi. It would have been nice if it was the 2.0L CR instead of the PD. I am sure the facelift Leon with the PD engine is quieter than the pre FL. I used to have a TDI sport a number of years ago and I remember it being noisier.

 

[SteveTDCi]

what do you think to the 1.6TDi ? i'm about to stick our lot in golf bluemotions and until i can get a weeks demo i just wondered how underpowered they feel (compared to mine obviously)

 

[GainfulShrimp]

Thanks chaps.

I realise it's a huge drop in power after borrowing one as a courtesy car last week, but it's only every now and again that I really get to use the power in my FR to its full extent. Most of the time I'm sat in traffic or cruising on dual carriageways - with a little un in the car seat in the back - so comfortable cruising and economy are the name of the game for me right now. They probably should have been my priority when I got the FR, but I kinda fell in love with it... my head said 'manual diesel' and my heart said 'FR TFSI DSG' - a lesson learned the hard way!

Anyway, I think the Ecomotive feels more sluggish because of the very long gears... it does slightly less than 2k revs at 70mph in 5th (my missus' Accord, which also has what feel like tall gears, does the same revs at 70mph in 6th). So it's a different driving style than a nippy car - rather than quickly progressing through the gears you need to wait longer before changing up (or labour/stall the engine if you don't). You don't really need to change to 5th until 50-60mph, whereas my FR can change to 6th at 40mph or thereabouts if I'm taking it easy.
Between speed bumps, it often feels like constant changing between 2nd, 3rd and 4th in my FR. I reckon most series of bumps would be OK in 2nd with the Ecomotive, maybe switching to 3rd in between if they're far apart.

My guess is that the 1.6CR would actually feel reasonably quick if it was mated to a normal gearbox and especially if it was mapped. Taking the Ecomotive for a test, I found that 1st felt most sluggish but once you're going, it's perfectly fine. I would sum it up as a typical family hatchback type of drive: not hot-hatch but not pathetic like my old 1.2 Nova used to be! The Ecomotive drives similarly to the medium size 'premium hatch' hire cars that I've driven on holiday many times. There's no rush of excitement when driving it like my FR provides, but it's a different class of car really: sensible rather than fun.
This is reflected in the insurance groups of course: my FR is Group 17 (from memory) and the Ecomotive is Group 6. I'm predicting a large drop in my insurance premium.

I'm happy to trade some fun for economy when only a fraction of my driving time provides opportunity for fun anyway. But I haven't become a total masochist; I've chosen a high spec for the new car, adding plenty of toys that I haven't got in my FR, to help sweeten the change for myself.
Compared to my FR, I'm gaining: XDS, auto start/stop, regnerative braking, a USB port, bi-xenons with AFS, parking sensors front and rear, and the media system so I get a nice cartoon of my 'parking progress' whatever that means.
Dunno if I'll like the cornering foglights but I'm sure I can get them disabled if I go off them. The same goes for the auto lights and auto wipers - I'm usually too much of a control freak to get on well with such auto-everything, but we'll see.
My fingers are crossed that they will have improved Bluetooth compatibility with the iPhone 3GS so it won't keep disconnecting every now and then... that'd also be a nice bonus.

And then there's the fact that I've become of a bit of a hypermiling saddo... I spend frankly too much time trying to increase my average mpg on the little computer: experimenting with different approaches and transitions to different roads, when to use the cruise control and when to 'drive with load' etc. If I'm going to play that game, I might as well use a car which rewards my efforts with more than 400 miles per tank.

Interestingly, my mate at work was shown a new Ibiza FR when he went to his local dealer: a cancelled order... Apparently some young lad had ordered it and then done some sums and decided to switch his order to the Ecomotive before the FR even arrived. No idea whether he lost money due to that change of heart, but it's a sign of the times I reckon.

 

[SteveTDCi]

i'll see what our lot think then, company cars tend to get abused rather than concerned about the mpg. The AFS is a great feature and i like it on my cupra, the turn lights are good too, i've had these on a clio hire car. It seems odd when they come on but it does make a difference

 

[CupraR1]

Hi. Ordered Leon Cupra 31st March & was told it would be up to 16 weeks, just had an update today, its built & waiting to be shipped so I could.....only "could" receive it in the next 3 weeks.

 

[P0LKR]

Hi. Ordered Leon Cupra 31st March & was told it would be up to 16 weeks, just had an update today, its built & waiting to be shipped so I could.....only "could" receive it in the next 3 weeks.

Did you order it from RM Fisher?

 

[CupraR1]

No Its on order from Nidd Vale in Harrogate. i think they have to wait untill a container/train etc is full so they can send it

 

[addo]

Hi. Ordered Leon Cupra 31st March & was told it would be up to 16 weeks, just had an update today, its built & waiting to be shipped so I could.....only "could" receive it in the next 3 weeks.

That's great to hear SilverStone, I ordered an FR 1 week after you and can't wait for delivery. The old car has gone due to my insurance expiring and now have only got use of my motorbike. Not so bad on days like today but I'm sure this weather wont last!! Can you keep me updated on yours as I have no direct link with the dealer?

 

[CupraR1]

Ye will do, they could be on the same boat coming over, the dealer did actually phone me yesterday to say "it's going to be delivered around the 7th of April" so I am hoping that means round the 7th of July! I had to give up motor biking cause it was going to kill me lol

 

[addo]

I need this car to come before the bike kills me!!

I'm hoping for a June delivery - the contract leasing outfit I've ordered with are still sticking to the original delivery date of 31st July, I think (hope) they are being very conservative. Would imagine they'll be on the same ship over, fingers crossed!

What colour/spec have you gone for? I test drove the Cupra but was eventually denied it by my boss, I can see his point about it not being a sensible company car!!

 

[CupraR1]

After weeks of reading & racking mi brains I went for Orange with black wheels Tech & con pack. someone on here said they are changing the radio spec & they are fitting DAB radio, it would be great if it came with that. I have a 54 plate Ibiza FR 130 with a tuning box on that does 50odd to the gallon, the wife is having that one so if cost of fuel keeps going stupid I will leave the Cupra in the garage a bit more and use the FR

Steve

 

[GainfulShrimp]

The facelift-facelift (MY11) tweaks, such as including Hill Hold Assist on more models as standard and adding the DAB component to the Seat Media System (not the standard radio though sadly) should apply to any new cars manufacturer in the past couple of weeks. Dealers will have been sent the briefing with exactly what has changed and which factory week number they were introduced on - I believe it was all new cars from 'week 22'... thus should be able to tell you whether your car will be MY10 or MY11, if they know which week it was built at the factory. All new orders from now on will get the MY11 spec.

 

[CupraR1]

Cheers for the info, Just tried phoning the dealers but as per normal poor communications (they have my money now) If I phone tomorrow they may be able to help etc. I could be just outside the 22 weeks by a couple of weeks but it wont spoil the fun I am going to have! I think It would be a sin to drown out the growl with DAB adverts lol

 

[GainfulShrimp]

Pick up my Ecomotive next Tuesday... can't wait! (Have my stag weekend to keep me occupied til then though. hehe)

 

[chrisjgill]

I was told to be prepared for a 16 week wait, but it arrived after 7 weeks.

Enjoy it when it comes.

Yep, same here. Mine arrived with Faz' car afer around 9/10 weeks

 

[chrisjgill]

Also, are you planning to change the sidelight bulbs again? I dont like the small yellowish ones that come on with the xenons!