This model of Leon, a Seat Leon 1.6S 2002 model year, has a fundamental gearbox problem that Seat and their dealers will glaze over.

A business partner bought the car from new. The car obviously came with it's first gearbox (1). After 3 years the gearbox failed and was replaced (2) by my business partner.

I bought the car for a second family car. We are husband and wife with 7 year old child. No teenagers.

Shortly after buying the car the gearbox failed. The fault punched a hole in the casing. A reconditioned gearbox was installed (3).

A couple of weeks after installation the gearbox failed again, luckily under warranty and was replaced (4).

This weekend, three quarters of a year later it appears to have gone again.

It's a nice car, practical, reasonable performance.

You should not buy it though if you are on a budget as gearboxes are expensive.

A work colleague has a Seat Altea and has never had problems with it. Get one of those instead. I wish I had.

Seat Leon 16 further down is me. 2 years on and the car has been good although i dont know what the future holds. Only problem to date was one of the coils going faulty. Otherwise been a dream to drive for the last 2 years. I get over 450 miles out of a full tank by using Shell VPower Unleaded! I used to get only 360 on normal unleaded so this proved to be a good decision. It also improves reliability. So if you want close to diesel econonmy, petrol driving for very little go for the Leon 1.6s and use VPower. You will be good to your pocket and the environment.

hi i have a seat leon 1.6s and am having real problems with the dash lights, everytime i turn the ignition off all the dash lights go haywire and there is an alarm sound going off, had an auto electrician out and he couldnt find the problem

I've always had second hand cars but find myself constantly going to the garage to get them fixed, so 2 years ago I decided to buy a new car. After a lot of searching I chose the SEAT Leon. This was the BIGGEST mistake of my life. If it wasn't under warranty I would be in so much debt! I've had numerous courtesy cars.
My biggest complaint is the alarms. Within the first 6 months of purchasing the car I found the alarms would go off every 30 minutes. Whether I locked it with the button, the key or even if I didn't lock and just left the alarms just goes off. My car was in the garage for over a month while it got fixed.
2 years later and guess what? The alarms are doing the same thing again!

I have a 2002 Seat Leon model and have suffered the same leak. My mechanic had no idea where it came from so we replaced the rubber seals both front and back and it still leaked. Took it to a Seat garage and they were not at all surprised to hear about the probelm and replaced the internal window seal membrane. £180 for both doors! Happy to say no more leaks but randomly my boot wont unlock! Anyone know how to fix that? Do I really need to go back to a garage?

Great car just should have got rid of it last year. Unfortunately now in year 6 (only 25K miles) and have had to replace the front and rear brake disks, full exhaust and now had the second ignition coil go in 2 months.

Potential to be a terrific car (faults aside)I can see why people buy Golfs, as I bought this because I couldn't afford a similar spec/age Golf. If I could do away with the faults I'd go for a TDi.

Only had the car a short while but seems like such a good buy since its a Golf in disguise. This is the first time I go for a non-japanese car. I always used to stick to reliable and robust toyota/honda cars but the price was just too irresistible. So far seems to have been a good risk.

Best compromise of comfortable and sporty ride, reassured and meaty handling, comfortable driving position and seats-rear seats are especially cossetting (reach & rake steering column), sporty feel gearbox, decent 1.6 powerplant with subtle sporting note and fairly good economy of around 40m.p.g- (mixed driving) good feel of a.b.s brakes in any stopping condition- huge boot size. I would recommend this to anyone looking for a 1.6 astra, Focus, Golf alternative + looks better than a VW Golf that it's based on.

The Seat Leon 1.6 S is value for money but had a new fuel pump after 1,000 miles, a new gearbox after 9,900 miles, and had door leak. All replaced under warranty. Can you believe that a brand new car can have so many faults? I wouldn't buy any VW group car.

I've had my Seat Leon from new in 2002. Everything was ok until September 2004 when it broke down with coil failure, then again in April 2006. The really annoying thing is Seat won't replace the coils until they fail.

I'm now having problems with fluctuating revs, which I've been told by my local dealer is a faulty exhaust release valve. I've been waiting for the part to be delivered to the dealer since the 5th May. Seat made a cock up with its stock, and its had to reorder from the factory. So I'm now driving round with the high pollution light on. I hope this doesn't damage the cat converter.

We've owned our 2002 1.6S Leon since it was a year old. Has been reliable, apart from the three separate coilpack failures in the first 18 months of ownership. Hopefully the uprated ones now fitted at the dealership have resolved this problem. We have had no problems with the electrics or with water leaks. There are one or two rattles and squeaks from the interior trim but nothing too intrusive. 'Forest Green' paintwork is quite soft on our vehicle. Mechanically has been very solid to date (March 2006, 42,000 miles).

I drive the Seat Leon 1.6 sx. it has been a fantastic car and I can with all honesty say I have never had trouble with water leaks or major electrical problems, the car has been very reliable and a joy to drive. I drive around 60 miles a day to work and back on both motorways and on country roads, and the car is very responsive on both. Unfortunatly 3 weeks ago my car was written off when a guy lost control of his car at speed and demolished the front end of the Leon, although the car was completly crumpled I was relativly unhurt thanks to the build and safety spec of the Leon. I have had around 5 seat's since they first arrived in the uk, and needless to say Iam now in the process of buying the new Leon without hesitation.

I have had my Seat Leon 1.6 S for 18 months, and the electrics are always going wrong. The dash lights work one day and not the next, and the central locking is always messing me about. The exhaust rattles all the time where a bracket keeps coming off.

My wife and I bought 2 Seat Leon 1.4 S models both having the VW DUW 1998-2002. Both failed!!! Something happens in the gearbox damaging the casing causing gearbox oil to contaminate the clutch causing slippage. My wifes was changed under warranty. Mine is a year out of warranty. They will not change mine. Both cars have under 50K miles. Can anyone confirm if/why this gearbox has apparantly been changed since 2002. Legally I would pursue the 'sale of goods act' There are many more people with this problem. Lets hear from you and your advice. I can't afford to change mine right now-all locked away in the garage. I miss driving- Its the good old trams now!

The Seat Leon 1.6 S family cars faults are endless. Most of them relate to electrical faults like lights, indicators, horn, central locking, dash lights, stereo, electric windows etc., that have all been faulty at one point or another on my car. I'm amazed at how this car also has varying degrees of water purification i.e. it gets filtered through all the water tight seals directly into the car - I thought about setting up my own SEAT filtered water company. I thought the best one was the pollen filter needing re-sealed as this tends to fall off and let in water (SEAT DO KNOW ABOUT THIS FAULT) or the door seals constantly failing to keep out water (SEAT ALSO KNOW ABOUT THIS ONE). Or how about having to get the throttle cleaned out every six months because it clogs to the point that the car revs erratically. It also suffers from leaking water into the front lights (SEAT KNOW ABOUT THIS ONE AS WELL).

... P.S. Don't expect SEAT to sort any of this out for free - as you would expect of manufacturing faults!

Have been driving this Seat Leon 1.6 S family car in Norway for 2 1/2 years in summer and winter weather. "Sport" suspension is a pleasure to drive, direct and responsive on winter roads/snow.

Overall very satisfied, although the dealers are less than willing to fix minor niggles like the condensation in the lights.