Morning all

Considering a 3 yr old Seat Leon 1.6 tdi se to replace my wifes fiesta which she managed to roll into a ditch….

The Leon seems to tick all the boxes – big boot to fit the pram without removing wheels, low tax, econmoical, nice looking car for a 5 door hatch.

Please tell me some other positives or any horror stories!

cheers

Martin

I nearly bought one – my brother loves his, but they have very basic interiors, which put me off.
When I asked my bro about getting one, he used the words “brilliant”, “fantastic gearbox” (he has an auto), “loads of MPG”… downgraded from Mercs and BMWs so must be decent to impress him! Also says its easy to get his 29er in the boot. 🙂

Yeh pretty much summned up my thoughts
Interior particularly the dash is very cheap / dull looking but hoping we find a satnav model to spice things up a bit!

Fortunately the main concern for my misses is the bootspace (and mine is reliability!) so bland interior will have to be the trade off…

30 miles a day should be ok to keep DPF happy?

I hired a new 1.6D Altea for a weekend. I found it dull and not exactly stunning on space. I imagine the Leon is worse. It looks a bigger car than the Fiesta externally too?

For balance- I owned a 1.9TDI Altea. Really liked that engine. Maybe I couldn’t get on with the 1.6? Just found it dull/not perky etc.

Presumably, this will be the previous shape, ’rounded’ Leon?

The boot is a decent size, but the boot lid is a funny size/shape and means that it’s not that accessible.
Not saying that it’s not suitable, but I’d take the buggy to a dealer and see how easy it is to slot the buggy into it.

Yep that’s the one the rounded shape

We spent last saturday trying the pram in various boots and the Leon came out second to a Honda Civic – shame they look awful (purely my opinion)

We’ve just sold a 2008 1.9 tdi Leon reference. My wife loved it, I hated it. Reliability was okay, engine and ancillaries were all fine but it would eat flywheels and clutches for breakfast lunch and dinner. It also had a few eletrical gremlins. MPG when the wife was driving was incredible, on a long trip I worked it out at over 60mpg. With me driving, nowhere near that.

Driving it was an uninspiring affair and I found the engine to be gutless and frustrating. The cabin was plasticy and cheap as well as incredibly noisy. Very little sound proofing at all it would seem. I also found the central locking system infuriating. The cabin is roomy but it has gigantic blind spots due to the A pillars, merging on to motor ways is a terrifying prospect sometimes. Bootspace was also very very poor in my opinion, then I am used to estate cars. Something about the shape of the boot means that it’s difficult to carry much more than a pram, and even our single pram wouldn’t fit without the parcel shelf out. Cant say I was a fan.

2008 1.9 tdi Leon reference

That might be the old PD engined one. Possibly different mechanicals.

30 miles a day should be ok to keep DPF happy?

Depends if it gets worked, but probably.

PG when the wife was driving was incredible, on a long trip I worked it out at over 60mpg.

That’s really not incredible any more! Dozens if not hundreds of cars out there that can do that, including my 8 year old automatic Passat 🙂

molgrips .

That’s really not incredible any more! Dozens if not hundreds of cars out there that can do that, including my 8 year old automatic Passat

It was to me molgrips because instead of simply advertising it, it could actually do it. I know there are many many cars out there that claim those figures but in the real world they fall far short. Herself was getting 60+ mpg without trying or thinking about it. In contrast she had a diesel clio before that which advertised some very high mpg figures but even on a motorway cruise it got nowhere near.

Another example would be my mates 2013 passat bluemotion 1.6 which could apparently do 80mpg. A figure he could never achieve, and in the real world it returned closer to 50mpg. When driven briskly (not agrresively) it was more like 30-35 mpg.

TBH I’d go with a Civic all day long.

If it was my money though it’d be a Subaru.

I know there are many many cars out there that claim those figures but in the real world they fall far short.

No, there are many cars in the real world that will do it. I own two, and they predate all this bluemotion/econetic stuff.

Another example would be my mates 2013 passat bluemotion 1.6 which could apparently do 80mpg. A figure he could never achieve, and in the real world it returned closer to 50mpg. When driven briskly (not agrresively) it was more like 30-35 mpg.

Your mate has no idea what he’s doing then. My Passat without any bluemotion features gets more than 30mpg with a caravan on. It got 42mpg on the autobahn at 120mph ffs. There are lots of people out there getting 60mpg from their bluemotion cars – my sister gets 70mpg on a long run in her Golf bm estate.

Drapoon – Member
Yep that’s the one the rounded shape

We spent last saturday trying the pram in various boots and the Leon came out second to a Honda Civic – shame they look awful (purely my opinion)

Sounds like you’ve done your homework, then.

jimjam – Member
We’ve just sold a 2008 1.9 tdi Leon reference. My wife loved it, I hated it. Reliability was okay, engine and ancillaries were all fine but it would eat flywheels and clutches for breakfast lunch and dinner. It also had a few eletrical gremlins. MPG when the wife was driving was incredible, on a long trip I worked it out at over 60mpg. With me driving, nowhere near that.

Weird how some cars seem to suffer from this and others don’t.
My 1.9 TDi Ibiza is on 245k miles on it’s original clutch & flywheel.
I get about 55-58mpg driving from mine when driving normally and currently trying to be as ‘eco’ as I reasonably can, I get more like 62mpg.

Weird how some cars seem to suffer from this and others don’t.

It’s the driver. I find it amazing how some people mash the pedals into oblivion and think it’s perfectly normal driving.

molgrips
Your mate has no idea what he’s doing then.

molgrips

It’s the driver. I find it amazing how some people mash the pedals into oblivion and think it’s perfectly normal driving.

Just so you know, you are coming off like a condescending prick. Firstly, my mate who has no idea what he’s doing, worked at the main dealers and knows the car inside out. As it was used occasionally as a customer car it was serviced and checked on pretty much a weekly basis. The car had a dsg box which was in auto. I was a passenger in it plenty of times and saw how he was driving and what mpg it was returning.

As for the clutch flywheel wear on the leon, the first one needed done at 88,000. About 2k after I bought the car. The flywheel started to grumble about 25k and the clutch started slipping about 5k after that. Considering it was my wifes car and she drove like (a proverbial) woman and I probably put about 5k on it in total I’d say it’s down to the notoriously fragile dual mass clutch and flywheel set up on those cars.