Seat Leon 1.8 180 Cupra

I recently traded in my 53-plate 1.8V T Cupra for a 55-plate Honda Civic 1.6 sport and I have to say I have mixed feelings..

On the plus side I no longer need to fork out £270 per year for road tax (Civic sport is only £170), plus it would seem that a tank of fuel is now likely to last me almost twice as long as it would've done with the Cupra. Looks-wise they are both good looking cars, even if the Civic is a bit more boy-racer than the understated Cupra..

My Cupra was 10 years old when I traded it in, and to be honest it felt that old when we parted company. My journey to the garage was scary, not because of the flooding, or sudden blizzard that engulfed me on my way there, but because I was worried yet another dashboard service light would come on in the Cupra. I have spent hundreds of pounds on the car over the past 6 months, and I was worried that things were only going to get worse during the next year. My car had 93000 miles on the clock and bits were starting to fail and fall off. Some niggling cosmetic gripes were quite annoying too - the jack point covers, for example, have a tendency to fall out which is particularly concerning if you happen to be on the motorway and you can hear it just knocking on the door panel as it swings around in the wind...! My electric window/mirror console panel began to fall through its housing into the inside of the drivers side door too, which was v annoying.

Cambelt should've been changed at 80000 miles, however this was done at 40k apparently....so I wasn't in a rush. It needed doing though, and I couldn't bear the thought of having to pay for this when the rest of the car had issues too.

Now the good bits...

It is a fun car, being practical and very fast when required. It really goes when you put your foot down - if you have never driven one before then you may need a few minutes to get used to the push you get from start. There is some slight turbo lag, but you get used to this and can adapt your driving style to suit. Cornering is a joy, and even though it has a sports suspension set-up, the ride isn't too harsh.

It is big inside. I have two children and we could fit them, plus all the kit, in the car with ease. I am also in a band and regularly have to hump equipment around. I can easily fit a large PA speaker, my guitar amp and cab, 2 electric guitars in cases, a rucksack and an effects pedal board with the seats folded down.

It is a good looking car - the rear spoiler and overall stance give it a slightly menacing "dont mess with me" look, without being overly aggressive. The body kit for the facelift model is nice. I had a pre-facelift 51-plate Cupra in the past, and the 53-plate was much better looking.

All in all a great car, but if you are buying second-hand then look around for one that has done less than 50000 miles. Get inside it and check that all electrics work, including the central locking which I had issues with from time-to-time.

Enjoy.

I've had my Cupra for just over two years. It had 3 previous owners with a full service history.

I was attracted to the Leon because it looked better and was less common than the Golfs I'ld been looking at. It was also much better value.

The Cupra is a bargain when it comes to performance. It's quicker and cheaper than a Golf GTi which only has 150 bhp. Even though it shares most of the Golf's running gear, it's a sharper drive.

The engine is one of VW's best. Smooth, powerful with and a nice, muted, 'warble'.

The ride is fine for a performance hatch. The suspension is quite firm but the trade of is flat, composed cornering.

Being a 2002 model, it doesn't have ESP but does have traction control. It also has sports seats, climate control, a 6 disc changer, electric windows all round, front and side airbags, etc.

It's not the most spacious car but it's fine for my needs.

The interior is lifted from the an Audi A3 of that era and looks ok. The facelift models had white dials and silver trim which gives it a more sporty appearance. They also gained a bodykit, colour coding all round and bigger wheels which gave it a more menacing appearance and helped differentiate it from the lesser models.

The economy is ok for the type of car. If drven with restarint i can get around 28 mpg in town driving. Use your right foot and that goes down.

My biggest complaint is the build quality. The interior creaks and rattles from everwhere! Having had a look at a few forums this is not uncommon. My Leon also suffers from the interior windows misting up. Again, another common problem. I've also had the wipers stop working, the remote key fob needing replaced, new front shocks, new front coil springs, an ew turbo pipe, the electric mirrors stopped working, the engine management light come on which showed the throttle body needed replacing. I had this cleaned the light went of only to come back on. The car drives fine so I've not bothered investigating it further.

All these problems have taken the shine of what is otherwise a very good car and is why i wouldn't recommend it.

I'll be buying Japanese when I come to replace it!

i bought mine from its first owner who had had it from new with full service history :) so far im very pleased with it after coming from a seat leon ecomotive!!! (105 bhp)!!!!

theres been a whining noise coming from the front passanger side wheel though which i dont think will be to expensive to sort out, all in all its well put together and has lots of kit, go for the sat nav version cus this is a very handy extra :) the car makes me smile every time i walk to get in it :) :)

I bought my Seat Leon Cupra 180 03 plate, so the face lift version in nov 2006. The car had 35k on the clock and was completley standard. The car itself is sound with no major mechanical faults. After three months i was bored and wanted more power (wishing i'd bought the cupra r) so i took it to jkm and had revo stage one remap(which took the bhp to around 200-205 with 230ish lb/ft. I had an induction kit, short shifter and upper strut brace fiitted (i guess i just got carried away on the seat cupra net forum) and then things changed: 1st more power, quite a lot more actually, however, i really found it hard to not spin the front wheels when accelerating harsly in 1st, 2nd and even 3rd gear. Also found it hard to keep in a straight line when accelerating.So to sum up, if kept standard, not a bad car.If modified its like a pitbull on steroids let off the lead. And quite uncontrolable. My previous cars just for your information have been :Alfa 147 2.0Renault Megane SportBMW 325 Ci coupeGolf GT Tdi 130But now I have bought a 2003 mondeo st220.Sy no more.I hope this helps.

Have owned this car for just over a month. Wanted something a bit more sporty, yet still practical after coming from a Toyota Corolla diesel. The Cupra looks good value compared to the equivalent Golf/A3 alternatives which use the same engine, but mostly have 150bhp with five gears instead of 180 in the Cupra. The Octavia VRS has identical power to the Cupra, but the Cupra uses six gears which is a welcome addition, especially on motorways. The same engine can be found in the Audi TT, S3 and the Leon Cupra R but with 225hp.

Even with the standard 180bhp the Cupra is pretty quick and accelerates well in every gear including sixth. Knowing that there was more power to be had from this engine I decided to have the ECU re-mapped to 212bhp at a cost of '£225. Torque has also gone up to 234 lbs/ft available from 1950rpm. While not quite as powerful as an R version, this now produces more torque. Performance has improved considerably and is more apparent when the turbo kicks in at 1800rpm. Instead of a smooth, linear power delivery, it's more aggressive now. In some hot hatches you need to rev the nuts off them in order to get decent performance, but not so in the Cupra due to the amount of torque available. Is quite happy plodding along in sixth at 30mph. There's noticeably more power on the motorway. In fact, this car deals with all types of roads very well. The engine has a pleasing, sporting note to it which doesn't become harsh or intrusive when driven hard and the gearchange has a smooth if slightly long action. Handling is impressive end grip from the non-standard 18 inch tyres is very good. My only real gripe is the road noise at times and the ride is on the firm side which is to be expected.

Being re-mapped hasn't really affected fuel economy. If abused this can drink somewhat, but driven normally is quite acceptable. I regularly get 30-32mpg and that's from my own calculations and not the trip computer which to be fair isn't that optimistic like on some cars. The fuel bills come as a bit of a shock after coming from a diesel, but it's certainly not horrendous. This is so much more fun though. Will run on normal or super unleaded. I tend to vary it (1 tank of super to 3 normal) especially as you're paying '£1.10- '£1.15 per litre nowadays for the higher octane stuff and to be honest there's no difference in performance which ever fuel you use.

No problem's with reliability so far although it's early days yet. Build quality is decent and almost as good as a Golf and looks more purposeful and aggressive when sat alongside one of these. Equipment levels are decent too with climate control, trip computer, traction control, cd multichanger and six speed gearbox as standard.

Overall I can certainly recommend the Cupra. It has a lot going for it and second hand represents better value than the overpriced R version. The only real difference in the R version is aside from having more power, (03 onwards as earlier versions had 210bhp) has Brembo brakes, 18 inch alloys and a different exhaust system. The R is also built at a separate factory to other Leons. Do yourself a favour, save yourself some money by going for a normal Cupra 180, then have have it re-mapped at a cost of '£200-300. To be honest, mine is probably at least as quick as an R version now. Might not have quite as much power, but there's more torque. It's a wolf in sheeps clothing and can certainly suprise a few other drivers out there. One thing that's confusing me, I keep seeing reviews for the Seat Leon Cupra Biturbo. There's no such thing is there? Someone needs to help me out here.

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" ;-)