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Sat 25 Jan 2003 22:13

SEAT Leon TDi SE / Importers - RichL

Wended my way to a local SEAT dealer today with the intent of having a nose around an Ibiza TDi130, or at least having a look at the Ibiza in general. The only one they had in the showroom was the bog basic 1.2, in red with a really naff set of plastic trims. Hardly inspiring. I couldnt beleive it was so damn small too. I've been in bathtubs with more interior space.
Outisde however they had a plethora of Leons, including a TDi 110 SE, so I had a drive.
I've gotta say, I was very very impressed. Despite having me, my dad and the salesman in, it drove, rode and handled excellently, the 110bhp motor providing plenty of grunt. And the Leon is considerably bigger and prettier than the Ibiza. Unfortunately its also a couple of grand more.

So I've been looking at importing one. Seems like I can get one imported for about £11500, which is a lot cheaper than the £15000 the salesman quoted for a new one with metallic paint.
Anyone able to reccomend a good importer for SEATs? The copy of Car Buyer magazine (currently lying on my desk at work) listed Morgan Moss as the cheapest for most SEATs. Has anyone had any dealings with them?

TIA

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Sun 26 Jan 2003 05:42

SEAT Leon TDi SE / Importers - Dave_TD

Your BX is very green, isn't it? :-)

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Sun 26 Jan 2003 08:25

SEAT Leon TDi SE / Importers - DavidHM

Don't know about your BX but...

... Trade Sales in Slough has a couple in stock, probably Irish spec, for about £11.5k. As ever with TS, they're going to be pre-registered so you show up as the second owner, but you could have the car within a few days if you wanted to.

www.seatcupra.net recommends www.pruys.nl www.dorst.com and www.autogoedhart.nl , all of which are Dutch Seat dealers.

A lot of people on that site seem to go through www.unitedmotors.net , a Dutch broker, which is quoting EUR 15712 + VAT. On the site they work on an exchange rate of EUR 1.6 = £1, which seems a bit unrealistic and their quote works out at £12,500 or so, plus travel to and from Holland.

So my advice, assuming that the Trade Sales cars are to UK spec (take a long a brochure if you can get down there) is to go for one of those.

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Sun 26 Jan 2003 10:36

SEAT Leon TDi SE / Importers - andymc {P}

I imported my Leon TDi from Autogoedhardt at the end of 2001 and was quite happy with the service. Four month order time was only a few weeks more than the quoted local time anyway, and the car was delivered direct to my door (in N. Ireland) for well under £12k, including all standard UK spec, Flash Red paint and a 6-CD multi-changer in the glovebox, as well as all taxes paid, plus a warranty from Warranty Direct which brought it from 2 years to 4. Currency fluctuations will have the biggest influence on the price - I changed money when there was an excellent rate available (if it ever gets better than 1.58 euros to the pound, change money immediately!) - and this was prior to any price increases in Holland which may have occurred since. I'll probably go the same route when the new Leon based on the Salsa comes out at the end of next year. Send an e-mail to Marc Spauwen (marcspauwen@autostore-holland.nl) for a quote. I was particularly impressed with them because it turned out they had mis-quoted the cost of delivery by misplacing a decimal point, but honoured the quote anyway, at a cost to themselves. He said "That's our problem, not yours." It swung the business their way.

By the way, I had assumed initially that it would have been easier to get this car from over the border in the ROI - it wasn't. The 110bhp TDi wasn't for sale in the south at that time anyway, so they would have been importing specially for me and any dealers I spoke to weren't interested.

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Sun 26 Jan 2003 13:24

SEAT Leon TDi SE / Importers - RichL

Thanks David. I had a look at Trade Sales website but they dont list any SEATs apart from the MPV in stock. Guess I'll have to wait for their site to update or call them in the week.

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Sun 26 Jan 2003 14:30

SEAT Leon TDi SE / Importers - DavidHM

Ah :-( It's on the website that I saw them, haven't been there for a while.

Motorpoint's site is showing some, but they're a little more expensive (£12k) which would still not make it worth importing.

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Sun 26 Jan 2003 13:12

SEAT Leon TDi SE / Importers - RichL

I know :-)

I was told the car was a Ford metallic green, which I assumed was the deep forest green you see on early Mundaneos. I was a little suprised when I turned up and the lairy beast smacked me between the eyes. Still, as it had under 60k on the clock I wasnt going to complain about the shade.
You get used to it.
Eventually....

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Sun 26 Jan 2003 14:09

SEAT Leon TDi SE / Importers - howard

My wife used Morgan Moss to import her VW golf- I was so pleased with their service that I e-mailed "What Car" magazine in the latter part of 2001 saying how good they were- we got a mention too! They were reccomended to us by a VW dealer in Ostende when we were pushing them for a better price.

Howard

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Sun 26 Jan 2003 14:23

SEAT Leon TDi SE / Importers - JamesH

While looking for Leon prices I came across www.1stopleasing.co.uk/
They do UK dealer cars with quite small discounts but also import have imports.

James

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Sun 26 Jan 2003 22:10

SEAT Leon TDi SE / Importers - RichL

Thanks Howard!
Morgan Moss actually offer to deliver to a port that is closer to me than my nearest SEAT dealer! I think I shall make a few enquiries on Monday :-)

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Mon 27 Jan 2003 19:19

SEAT Leon TDi SE / Importers - JimmyB

Rich,

Best place I've found is www.unitedmotors.net based in Holland. They've got a great car configurator on their website to play about with options (met paint etc). Or...

...If you're feeling very adventurous and want to cut out a dealers commision try www.seat.be the Belgian site and get a list of dealers and email them all for a quote. I mailed 10 and got 5 english replies, not bad going on price either.

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