As promised a review of my Leon at 5,500 miles and 4 months
For comparison, my previous car was a Toledo 110 TDi (old, non-PD lump) and my wife?s car is an Octavia 2.0 TDi with the 140bhp engine.
Overall I?m very pleased with the car. It still looks distinctive in a way the Golf never will without being so boy-racer-ish it attracts the wrong kind of attention. The engine has gradually loosened up and is now very free-revving being keen to rev right to 4500 rpm limit and surprisingly pleasant in the 3k+ rpm region in a way my last car never was. Torque does come in with a shove, and it has less torque in 1st than my last car, more tiresome therefore to drive in traffic, as you can?t just lift the clutch to pull away so easily. Need to be above 1500 rpm really, whereas in the 140bhp engine, the torque definitely comes in better from lower revs (neither as good as my old 110 though!)
The performance is (ahem) enthusiastic and the front end grip surprisingly good ? I enjoy driving this car fast on B roads in a way I never have in any other car. It inspires confidence and feels faster than it is. 3rd gear is absolutely stonking.
Kept a check on consumption manually for the first 1500 miles and found the trip meter was never more than 0.5mpg out so stopped bothering with the calculations. I have definitely used the performance more than I anticipated, probably because of the free-revving nature and excellent gearchange. I cruise at 85 on motorway/dual carriageway wear possible, this makes up about 50% of my driving. Climate control never turned off. The average has bearly changed since I got the car: the trip meter now reads 39.8mpg (wifes Octavia estate with 140bhp engine has given 44mpg over last 3500 miles for comparison)
Pros:
Nothing has gone wrong: no squeaks, rattles or annoying glitches. Have put in ¾ litre oil so far.
Performance.
Fuel consumption (I don?t think close to 40mpg is bad, considering the way I drive it)
Very comfortable and supportive sports front seats
Gadget count.
Space (first time I?ve ever driven a car that I didn?t need the seat all the way back: I?m 6?4?)
Looks
Annoyances:
Lack of torque below 1500 rpm
Ride is firm as many have said: great when pressing on and inspiring confidence, less good on poorly surfaced dual carriageway/motorway. Fine for me on well surfaced fast roads. Mine is on the standard 17? rims with Pirelli P-Zeros.
Some interior trim plasticky ? particularly the door cards, and I wish they had made the bit where your elbow sits fabric covered ? very hard to rest your arm on!
Rear view mirror very large!
Windscreen wipes ? clap hands type and I love the way they park vertically, but they are set up for left hand drive, so there is a streak down the drivers side rather than passengers.
|
Many thanks for this - reports like this are really useful and one of the best things about the Backroom.
If you have a moment, Nomag, perhaps you or your wife could do a similar resume of the Octavia. I should almost certainly have had one of those instead of my current Mercedes B-class. (If you've done so already, sorry to have missed it - maybe you could refer us to the date.)
|
We went for the 200bhp petrol FR- nothing else seemed to offer the same performance, kit and looks for £15,294 (from The Deal Negotiator www.thedealnegotiator.co.uk/specialsseat.htm unregistered UK car inc. alloys, climate, cruise, CD, front fogs, ...).
Pros:
Fantastic engine giving great performance (official 0-62 in 7.3); lower max torque than the 170bhp diesel but a good spread across the rev range.
Unfortunately I haven't yet had a chance to fully explore the handling characteristics, but grip levels are high.
We think it looks great- SWMBO decreed we could have any colour we liked as long as it was black, which wouldn't have been my first choice, but I have to admit now that it suits the car IMO.
Feels solid.
Group 13 insurance- by increasing the excess from £100 to £250, I kept our premium the same as for the relatively sedate UK built V reg 2.0 Accord the Leon replaced (with Esure).
Cons:
Ours spent 2 weeks at the dealers waiting for a part to fix the faulty alarm, and I've read that this problem has affected a number of FRs. However we did get a nice Christmas hamper from SEAT as compensation, and a chance to try out a 1.6 Leon courtesy car. The ~100bhp 1.6 turned out to be surprisngly good fun to drive, and being on the wrong side of 40 I found I actually preferred the standard steering wheel and gear knob to the chunky FR versions.
Yes, the ride is firm (standard 17" alloys), but that's probably more of an issue for the passengers than the driver :-)
The trip computer claims fuel consumption of 31-32mpg on indicated 80mph motorway trips, but somewhat less when squirted along A/B roads.
Apart from the uncomfortable window/arm rest and plasticky fascia, the only other minor niggle that comes to mind is not having a permanent clock (it's one of many trip computer display options).
TBD:
We're keeping our fingers crossed on the reliability; hopefully the alarm problem isn't a sign of things to come. The Accord was very reliable, and to be honest we're not expecting the Leon to be as good, but we'd love to be proved wrong.
Sum up: despite the 2 weeks at the dealers, we're more than happy.
John
|
|
Avant - I will post a report on the Octavia as soon as I get a chance to do it properly. I always find these backroom user reports very useful, so thought I would add my twopenneth worth!
|
|
|
|
|
![2020 SEAT Leon 2.0 TSI 290 Cupra Lux [EZ] 5dr DSG](http://images.honestjohn.co.uk/imagecache/url/crop/90x60/https/cdn.uk.prod.group-mobility-trader.com/images/fallback/coming-soon.jpg)
