Thursday 31st October 2013

SEAT? SNAFU...

Holding out for a new generation of fast Leons? SEAT is playing with your auto emocions...

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“Full details on the most extreme production SEAT Leon ever” screamed the press release in the PH news folder this morning! What, the Spaniards have raided the VW parts bin, nicked the Golf R’s 300hp engine and made a true successor to the mad, bad Cupras, Supercopas and K1s we once knew and loved? Just imagine a cut price combination of Golf R power and front-driven GTI flickability, tamed with the nifty VAQ active differential experienced recently on the Golf GTI Performance.

Yum, where do we sign?

Expensive, slow, diesel - not what we wanted

Oh, hang on, this is in fact the Leon Ecomotive and instead the “most extreme environmental performer ever”. So it’s a white goods Leon with a 1.6 diesel that does 85.6mpg and 87g/km thanks to low rolling resistance tyres and a blanked off radiator grille. Still, must be cheap, right? Um, actually it starts at £19,360.

Given SEAT’s proven ability to plunder the best bits of the Golf family’s go faster bits and stir into a more feisty and affordable dish it’s gutting to see there’s still no news of a properly PH-worthy car in either the Ibiza or new Leon ranges. Sure, you can have a 180hp Cupra version of the former but why would you when you can have a Fiesta ST, upgrade to 200hp Mountune spec to go chasing Clio 200s and still have £165 in change over the base price of the SEAT? Same story in the Leon range, where the lukewarm 180hp 1.8 FR is nearly £2,000 more than the 204hp and considerably more exciting looking Kia Pro_Ceed GT. SEATs used to be fast and affordable – now they’re looking pricey and off the pace.

Still, according to Autocar there are hotter versions of the Leon on the way and they can’t come soon enough. We’ll be more wary of superlative laden press releases in the immediate term though.

[Sources: Autocar]

 

[QuattroDave]

VW have lost their direction with the seat brand. What was once an easy lineup of brands:

Audi: high class exec cars
VW: well built classless cars
Skoda: budget brand offering great value for money
Seat: seat of your pants everyday sporty cars.

Since then Audi have stayed where they are, VW have tried to move into Audi space. Skoda are now of a build quality and design where VW used to be BUT with a vRS range and Seat is left out in the cold, unable to compete on price with the likes of Kia et al and seemingly not allowed to make a sporty car lest they bloody the nose of the golf (like they did before!)

Sounds like Seat as a brand will continue to go down before it's eventually sidelined and then I wouldn't be suprised if VW brought it back as their new budget brand to compete with Dacia and the like.

All just my thoughts of course!

[QuattroDave]

KMB said:

But have Seat ever made a 'seat of your pants everyday sporty car'? Not really...

Fair enough, was just trying to distinguish between brands. My point about previous cupras embarrassing the golf counterparts holds true though. My only seat ownership consisted of a cupra R that'd been wound up to nearly 300 bhp, that WAS seat of your pants, certainly kept my URQ of similar power honest!