Opinions on a Seat Leon FR

bluecircle

I'm considering buying a brand new car. I like the look of the spec on the mk3 Seat leon FR 1.8, manual gearbox, petrol. Would be appreciate if I could hear from Seat Leon owners regarding their experiences with this (reliability, performance, build quality comfort etc) or even the 1.4

thanks

ratrace

bluecircle wrote: »

I'm considering buying a brand new car. I like the look of the spec on the mk3 Seat leon FR 1.8, manual gearbox, petrol. Would be appreciate if I could hear from Seat Leon owners regarding their experiences with this (reliability, performance, build quality comfort etc) or even the 1.4

thanks

Best thing you can do is go for a long test drive in 1 to get a feel for it yourself in the real world on the roads etc....

sparrie2k

I have the 1.4 (150bhp, now marketed as the EcoTSI) and it;s quite frankly the best car I've owned / driven.

Bought new in 2014 - fun to drive and decent economy (high 50s to low 50s on 15 mile commute, high 50s on a run to wales).
SatNav is woefully slow but they may have fixed that now, other than that I've not had any issues in 45k miles.

Didn't try the 1.8 - quite like my license and wasn't interested in the fake engine noise / upgraded rear suspension which was the difference at the time.

Roland_Sausage

I've got a 1.6 Diesel with DSG gearbox (not an FR model) so not quite the same spec, but I also love it. I drove it from Scotland to France and back last year, and had no problems with comfort. The cruise control does help with this, as I was finding I was getting a sore foot in my old Ford Focus.

Absolutely no problems with reliability thus far.

BeenThroughItAll

sparrie2k wrote: »

I have the 1.4 (150bhp, now marketed as the EcoTSI) and it;s quite frankly the best car I've owned / driven.

Bought new in 2014 - fun to drive and decent economy (high 50s to low 50s on 15 mile commute, high 50s on a run to wales).
SatNav is woefully slow but they may have fixed that now, other than that I've not had any issues in 45k miles.

Didn't try the 1.8 - quite like my license and wasn't interested in the fake engine noise / upgraded rear suspension which was the difference at the time.

How does an extra 400cc impact upon one's licence? Your foot still has the full range of movement you know.

parking_question_chap

Whilst I have not owned one, I know somebody who had an older model Ibiza FR, they said it was a fun car to drive, but as a passenger the suspension was painfully solid, in my opinion.

angrycrow

parking_question_chap wrote: »

Whilst I have not owned one, I know somebody who had an older model Ibiza FR, they said it was a fun car to drive, but as a passenger the suspension was painfully solid, in my opinion.

Whilst not the Leon so not strictly relevant to the ops question I can confirm the suspension in the Ibiza sport which preceded the Fr is very firm but the resulting grip and handling is superb. A fair amount of road noise gets transferred to the cabin but they may have resolved this in the current incarnation of the car.

A family member has the non fr version of the last generation leon, its good but feels so much heavier than the Ibiza and feels more cramped up front than the Ibiza. Might be worth looking at both as the Ibiza may surprise you.

giraffe69

I have an FR 2.0 Diesel. It is also the best car I've ever had. Drives well. not many criticisms. The satnav is awful (thinks it is in Germany periodically, if you seek to set destination by postcode it defaults to a number first, not easy to update so I now use google maps). No mechanical difficulties at all in 3 and a bit years. I'd seriously consider another when the time comes. The ride is fine.