Seat Leon 1.8 180 Cupra Review

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Seat Leon 1.8 180 Cupra
3.8 stars
Average rating for this product is: 3.8 out of 5

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Rathje's Review of Seat Leon 1.8 180 Cupra

11th May 2004

Overall Rating

4 stars
  • Value for money
    4.5 stars
  • Length of ownership
    5 months
  • Practicality
    4.5 stars
  • Year Manufactured
    2000
  • Performance
    4 stars
  • Reliability
    4 stars
Good Points

Speed
Handling (good for a front wheel driven car)
Only little turbo lag
All the electronic gadgets
Practical
Fuel consumption (for 180 BHP it's not bad!)


Bad Points

Interior build quality
A few squeaks and rattles
Not enough lower back support on longer trips
Paintwork to thin


General Comments

I've now had my Leon 1.8 20VT 180 Cupra for 5 months( 2. owner). Comming from a BMW 318ti (E36) I was not expecting the same quality in a Seat, and I was right. But aside from a few poorly fitted interior panels, bad paint job and a few minor rattles it's not too bad at all. You get a LOT of bang for the buck, and overall the quality is as least as good as VW.. but the build quality (paintwork, interior/exterior fitting, materials used in interior) is not as good as Audi or BMW. But then again.. it's much cheaper! I've had 2 incidents with a faulty breaklight switch (both fixed under warranty) and one with the Turbo(somw kind of valve that broke down - also fixed under warranty).
But these problems are not simply because it's a Seat 'cause both components are from AUDI/VW, and they suffer the same problems!
Performance is really good.. that is, if you don't try to change from 1'st to 2'nd gear between about 5500 and 6500 RPM(with full throttle!).. cause then you'll ocassionally find yourself in a turbo-"gap" with NO power at all! Have experienced this 3 times.
Aside from that it's a practical family car on weekdays, and my little sportscar on weekends ;-).
Fuel economy is'nt bad... about 30-32 MPG on long highway trips (70-80 mph), 24-26 MPG around town.. that is if you drive it as a family car ;-).. driven fast it's more like 20 MPG.
The climate control works well, mine has ESP wich works very nicely and is a bliss in wintertime with 180 BHP on the front wheels! Traction can be a problem.. but with new Goodyear F1 GSD-3 it's no problem. But these tires do make a lot of noise on poor tarmac! It's a car for those who like speed(and don't have the money for a BMW 325/330), but do have to fit in a family some times..
But then there's the weekends.. just me and my Cupra.. hehe.. mine does 0-60 in about 7.6s.. not bad for a "family car" ;-)

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