Seat Leon

[lfc958]

I have had 4 days with a Seat Leon 1.6 Petrol in Black ( Hire Car )

Having done 500 miles in it here are my thoughts:-

Looks:
Everyone has seen the Leon, IMHO it looks really nicely designed.
The back door handles whilst a copy do work to keep the sleek looks of the car.

Interior

The seats were well supportive for the long drive, no bottom or back ache, lumbar support worked very well and didnt feel as though a hard lump was pocking you in the back.
It was quite dull light wise inside, but the slightly lighter roof lining didnt make the car feel dark.
The overall interior was pleasant, however the plastic trim that surrounds the radio was quite cheap, but for this overall interior was pleasant and reasonably practical - I could live with this interior.
The biggest bonus i personally found with this car was that ereything was there that you NEEDED and was simple to use, and if it wasnt necessary then it wasnt there. This car had an aux input for MP3 player and it wasnt annoyingly in the glovebox.

Drive
Well if you have an Octy or a Golf the basics are there, except this has tighter suspension, prob not quite vRS hardness. Ride is comfortable and not too hard consdering its sporty pedigree.
The 1.6 engine whilst needed to be pushed was not too intrusive even at 5.5k revs but it lacked the oopf of a sporty car. It was reasonable economical covering just over 1 full tank of fuel for just on 500 miles, keeping to 75 mph on the M'Way where possible ( most of journey).
The only minor let down was the steering - it was quite soggy when turning the wheel and the response was quite slow to respond.

Overall
Yes I would have one, and yes I would recommend taking one for a drive as an alternative to it rivals, VW ,Skoda, Ford, Vauxhall.


P.S. will post my thoughts on the 57 plate 2L Petrol Mondeo when I have given it back.


EDIT - It appears that the 1st line of post published before completion, which isnt the 1st time its happened.

[Babs]

That interesting, eh?

[Tom_vRS]

One hell of a pointless post that!

Today I have mostly been eating chips.

EDIT - the above comments were posted then the complete review was "I have had 4 days with a Seat Leon 1.6 Petrol in Black ( Hire Car )", so apologies for seeming a little off-topic

[Jon TDI]

......and how was it??

[ag.morley]

Originally Posted by Tom_vRS

Today I have mostly been eating chips.

Shifty's..?

[Jon TDI]

Ah! Theres's more!!

Good write up.

One thing I would add ref the suspension. The sport suspension is very hard, sometimes too hard.

[lfc958]

Originally Posted by Tom_vRS

One hell of a pointless post that!

Today I have mostly been eating chips.

If you cut down on the saturated fats the arteries to your brain would allow you to be able to be more constructive in your comments.

[ag.morley]

Originally Posted by lfc958

If you cut down on the saturated fats the arteries to your brain would allow you to be able to be more constructive in your comments.

[sharkrider]

I see you have a 500.... most people "diss" the fiats steering for being too light... but now (after a year and 38k in the GPS) I find the steering in all the VAG cars too unresonsive and lacking in reaction... how to explain... i.e. you have to turn the wheel WAY too far before anything happens...

and I recently test "flew" an octy II vRS (thanks jeanette), and although a great car, it was too slow to react with the steering in the twisties.... a shorter ratio between steering wheel, and wheels is in order in my opinion .....

[Tom_vRS]

Originally Posted by lfc958

If you cut down on the saturated fats the arteries to your brain would allow you to be able to be more constructive in your comments.

When I replied the only text in the post was "I have had 4 days with a Seat Leon 1.6 Petrol in Black ( Hire Car )" and that was it. I see Babs and Jons comments probably reflect that too.

So take your head out of your **** mate.

EDIT to add something remotely constructive... I've spent a lot of time in a PD140 Leon Sport, and I do quite like it, however a few things irritate me about it.

• The suspension, whilst sporty and handling really well, is FAR too hard/jittery for a daily driver imho. The car in question is on 17s, and its WAY harder than my vRS on 18s.
• The seats are great, but the car does feel very narrow to sit in, the passenger and driver feel very close together.
• The material on the dash isn't to my taste at all
• The dash does seem bland, although looks 10x better with the MFD satnav unit.
• I hate the stupidly fiddly climate control buttons, and the fact you have to tap the button to move up in half degree increments.
• The red on the radio screen is too bright at night.

The car in question is also seeming to be a bit of a lemon. The current list of repairs is the drivers door lock barrel fell out , total (intermittant) failure of the climate control and electric windows and knocking from the rear.

However, I love:

• The looks
• The wheels
• The grunt of the PD140 engine
• The economy now its loosened up a bit is mid-high 40s
• Still dont see many of them around, quite a distinctive car
• Lovely steering wheel
• Lovely seats.
• Awesome dials that look stunning at night too!

Also to add, the steering is perhaps a touch light, and it seems to crab when steering when stationary which is a bit wierd. The gearbox feels slick, but again seems a bit light.

Good cars though, I see why people buy them over the Octy/Golf.

Was the 1.6 the FSI engine?

[Jon TDI]

Originally Posted by Tom_vRS

EDIT to add something remotely constructive... I've spent a lot of time in a PD140 Leon Sport, and I do quite like it, however a few things irritate me about it.

• The suspension, whilst sporty and handling really well, is FAR too hard/jittery for a daily driver imho. The car in question is on 17s, and its WAY harder than my vRS on 18s.
• The seats are great, but the car does feel very narrow to sit in, the passenger and driver feel very close together.
• The material on the dash isn't to my taste at all
• The dash does seem bland, although looks 10x better with the MFD satnav unit.
• I hate the stupidly fiddly climate control buttons, and the fact you have to tap the button to move up in half degree increments.
• The red on the radio screen is too bright at night.

I would agree with most of these statements. Especially the one ref the suspension.
SEAT's sport suspension seems to be overly hard for daily use (I do approx 32 miles each day). A mate used to have an Ibiza TDI Sport & that was the same.

This is one of the reasons why I'm changing to Koni FSD/Eibach Pro Kit spring combo.

The last comment about the red light display can be rectified by the rheostat dial beside the head light level adjuster.

[Tom_vRS]

Originally Posted by Jon TDI

The last comment about the red light display can be rectified by the rheostat dial beside the head light level adjuster.

Ah, but then the dials don't look so cool!