I am a little confused here. Admittedly i am not an expert on the different Leon's, however a Google search on Seat Leon TSI ACT throws up, amongst other things, a 2014 Autocar roadtest. You don't say your budget, but the cheapest of these (which you say you can't stretch to) i can find on Autotrader is just under £8.5k,

www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/20190129441...1

The cheapest higher powered 2.0TDI (of similar miles, >80k), apart from a private sale, is £8.5k,

www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/20190126431...2

Which you appear to be saying you can afford?

Ignoring that though, your stated mileage puts you in the position that diesel could be OK for you, but maybe not essential. According to your figures, your commute (assuming you are working 5 days a week and 4 weeks a year holiday) works out at 7200 miles. Plus 300 miles per fortnight (assuming it is every fortnight) adds another 7800 miles, so 15k total.

I have also heard plenty of horror stories about that engine and indeed the reason i run a VW Caddy 2.0 SDI (non turbo) for my business when i could have bought a 1.6 TDI for the same or less money, was because of this. So i certainly wouldn't be keen at all on the smaller engine. But, from what i have read, both on this forum and other sources, the 2.0 TDI is a much stronger engine. For this reason, if it had to be diesel, i'd go for the 2.0.

However, without the constraints of having to choose a Leon, for less than the price of either of the two above, i'd take a Civic 1.6 turbo diesel instead. It is one of the few modern diesels which does not seem to suffer from the usual maladies, that of emissions equipment problems. In addition, it will do 70mpg, has a more spacious cabin and boot that a Leon plus free road tax (94g/km). You could actually get into an estate for £8k with an even bigger boot if that is a factor, such as this,

www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/20180221394...1

Edited by badbusdriver on 16/02/2019 at 21:30