Friday 13th April 2012

SOTW: Seat Leon 20VT

It might not have the cachet of later Cupras, but this humble SEAT could show a contemporary Golf a clean pair of heels

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The late 90s and early noughties were a dark time for the Golf GTI. For all its soft-touch plastic plushness and BMW-chasing 'premium' feel, the Mk4 Golf was not blessed with much in the way of hot hatch appeal, to the extent that VW didn't even attempt to market a GTI version except for in the hot hatch-hungry UK.

And even then VW frankly cocked it up. Among the more dreadful marketing decisions of the past 20 years has to be the decision to offer a version of the Golf GTI with a wheezing, naturally-aspirated 115hp 2.0-litre engine. There were, of course, 150hp 1.8T versions as well, but these were hardly the last word in B-road brilliance.

Which is where SEAT, the perennial poor relation of the VW Group, comes in. It presented the world with the Leon 20VT, a car based largely on the Mk4 Golf, but with an extra 30hp, and quietly out-hot hatched anything VW had to offer at the time.

Subsequent hot SEAT Leons have become ever more lairy in both bodykit and power, but the original 20VT was quite a fine car in its own way. Okay, so it wasn't as nice as inside as the golf, and its ride and handling lacked a certain amount of finesse, but it was a solid, straightforward and actually quite subtle hot hatch. A Q-car, almost.

This particular model perhaps isn't quite so 'Q', resplendent as it is in its look-at-me yellow, but it's still a lot of poke and practicality for the money (challenge to all PHers: find shed a contemporary - or newer - hot hatch for the same price with more power).

It's also seen better days from the sounds of it. 136,000 miles isn't astronomical, but they've obviously been pretty hard miles, as the vendor admits to the car being 'in tatty condition', with a leaky door and a leaky turbo. Which makes it sound like a bit of a pup. Then again, it has plenty of tax and MOT left on it, and those tatty edges could prove an excellent bargaining tool in driving down the £900 asking price ... even if the vendor does say that "the price is firm no offers its probably the cheapest on here and is far from being a dog."

Thanks to PHer only1ian for the spot...

Advert is reproduced below

Seat 20V T 180hp (2001)
136,000 miles £900

Here i have forsale my Seat, its the 20v turbo model version it has 136k and is abit rough around the edges. The car starts runs and drives has mot until october and 5 months tax it has some history. I bought it as a shopping trolly and child transporter however since splitting with the g/f i have no use for it anymore and in the 6 months i have owned it i'd be shocked if i have covered a thousand miles.

the car itself is in tatty condition with a few scratches/dents i it also splutters some mornings but never fails to start and never smokes knocks ect i have plugged in vag com and it shows a boost leak which is highly common on these. It also has the common door leak along with a few missing bits of trim 

however it is what it is a quick car for not alot of money if someone spends a little bit of time and effot they could have a real bargain

the price is firm no offers its probably the cheapest on here and is far from being a dog

[williamp]

sounds like a group up puppy. Yes its powerufl but fixing the faults could make is uneconomic.

[tom felty]

not bad for £900

[redgriff500]

I had one in black as my commuter.

Great as an anonymous car that you can leave anywhere.

Not really a great hot hatch but bigger and faster than the Golf and for less money.

[JB!]

sweet. thrash the arse out of it till it won't pass an MOT then pull the 20vt out ad stick it in a MK2

[Eighteeteewhy]

The top spec versions are nice, but this is blander than a bland thing. And a very nasty yellow IMO.
Not my cup o tea at all.

[FWDRacer]

Leons are really underrated. Most can't see past the badge.....
...and see the A3 dash and switchgear.

Good shed.

[B'stard Child]

It might be scruffy and need a little TLC - it might attract flies like a bucket of horse poo - it might be wrong wheel drive - it might be a bit tired......


But that's a lot of perfomance and fun for under a grand!!

[Strawman]

A leaky turbo sounds bad, how much is a new one?

[graham22]

Probably worth spending just a little more:

http://www2.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

Some one on here was asking for a Golf GTI alternative as a commuter, surprised no one suggested one of these.

2 years ago my sister was looking for something to replace her 180k mile Civic & a customer had a Leon, albeit 1.6SE in stock for £2000, 2001 40k miles - she agreed to have it only for her husband to get arsy because it wasn't a Golf - some people just can't see past the Seat badge yet the Octavia VRS gets quite a following.

[gmh23]

Agree its probably worth spending a bit more for reliable motoring, but a good shed none the less

[sinbaddio]

Yellow's not my cup of rosie lee either, got slightly embarrased by one of these 10 years ago in my v6 Alfa 166 - they do go some....

[martin mrt]

Nothing about a leaky turbo, it has a boost leak which in my eyes will most likely be a split pipe, whatever it is it will not cost that much to fix, as parts are plentiful, remove the regulator from the door and reseal it and that's the faults sorted

Hell of alot of car for £900, it would break up for more than that

[R0B.]

Strawman said:

A leaky turbo sounds bad, how much is a new one?

Boost leak not turbo, could it just be a split pipe?

[lordlee]

Never in yellow but I agree they are an excellent q car. Still if you could get the canary to £750 then it would be worth fixing the boost leak and the door and running it into the ground.

[pSyCoSiS]

I can think of so many better cars for that sort of money.

£500 - £600 then maybe worth it, at £900, not for me...

[confused_buyer]

If it is the usual door leak then the fix is about 10 minutes per door, a torx screwdriver and a tube of silicon sealant.

[Matt_N]

R0B. said:

Boost leak not turbo, could it just be a split pipe?

More than likely, nightmare to solve on these engines, so many vacuum hoses in the engine bay!

[StuttgartJem]

Even more Q car, dig out the equivalent Toledo 20VT Sport, the missus has one its quick (the 180bhp is conservative imho, feels like it would hold its own in the lower gears against my T5 which has 260bhp), has a nice 6 speed box, better put together than my S60 T5 and the dash / switchgear is Audi A3. Paid £3,500, had it 2 years and other than routine servicing hasnt cost a penny

[Martin 480 Turbo]

The advert tells us about an unloved specimen of the Leon animal
but the price doesn't reflect it. Should be 500. With a leaky Turbo
und rough edges.

The style of the rims doesn't go with the yellow at all. They were
not delivered like that on Cupra models in the UK., were they?

Martin 480 Turbo

Best thing about the Leon always was that it reminded one of the
Alfasud, but that was its worst feature at the same time. Like
Penelope Cruz reminds me of Salma Hayek...

[TNH]

Good shed, although a few more £ for a better example would make a superb buy.