Runaround family estate?

[blade7]

I've narrowed it down to a 3 year old Seat Leon 4 drive, or 2.0 Focus ST estate. Both cost around £23k. I tend to keep cars for 5 years +, so which has the most bork potential?

[whatmoretyres]

A run around for 23k? Are you sure you don’t mean 2-3k?

Sorry but that sounds like you mean a car to drop the kids at school and do the shopping - is that not what you mean?

Or am I so out of touch on car prices?

[blade7]

The 2 cars I mentioned are £22k+, I'd be happy if the were £2-3k.

[Wagonwheel555]

I would get the Leon personally, the interior of the Fords just look boring in my opinion, although that is subjective I suppose.

Seat have 2 year warranty on approved used so I would be going down that route as well.

[blade7]

I've been looking for a Leon 4 Drive for a while. The Seat warranty is OK, but I believe it has a £1k per claim limit. Easy to use that up I'd have thought. Seems like more to go wrong on them too.

[Wagonwheel555]

blade7 said:

I've been looking for a Leon 4 Drive for a while. The Seat warranty is OK, but I believe it has a £1k per claim limit. Easy to use that up I'd have thought. Seems like more to go wrong on them too.

I don't think it does, claim limits for AUC cars from dealers are usually the price of the car. Nobody would buy an approved used from Seat/VW if the claim limit was only a grand as that would not cover most major issues.

[ZX10R NIN]

Out of the two it would be the Focus they're great cars both will be reliable but I prefer being in the Focus vs the Leon.

[blade7]

Doesn't seem to be many petrol Focus ST Estates around at the moment. I'll be selling my old A4 quattro Avant, and wonder if I'll miss the wet traction.

[ZX10R NIN]

Unless you have a proper lead foot & crap tyres traction really won't be an issue

[blade7]

ZX10R NIN said:

Unless you have a proper lead foot & crap tyres traction really won't be an issue

I used to live in a village that had no slip road onto a busy dual carriageway. In the wet, joining the dual carriageway, or driving across it, to turn right felt a lot safer in my old A4 quattro, than any other car I had. If you're content to build your speed while the likes of a**hole artic drivers close you down that's fine. I prefer the traction to be able to hoof it away from them in slippery conditions.

[ZX10R NIN]

blade7 said:

I used to live in a village that had no slip road onto a busy dual carriageway. In the wet, joining the dual carriageway, or driving across it, to turn right felt a lot safer in my old A4 quattro, than any other car I had. If you're content to build your speed while the likes of a**hole artic drivers close you down that's fine. I prefer the traction to be able to hoof it away from them in slippery conditions.

You said used to, so I take it it's not an issue anymore?

[blade7]

ZX10R NIN said:

You said used to, so I take it it's not an issue anymore?

Not a daily issue for me now, the point stands though.

[Pablo16v]

I’ve no experience of the ST but I have had my Leon Cupra 4Drive for a couple of years now and I’ve been very impressed with it. I would say the 4wd system is worth having with that kind of power as it makes it more useable more of the time with amazing traction in damp/wet conditions, which helps make any journey a hoot if you want to have a bit of fun.
I can’t really comment on reliability yet as it is only 2 years old with 13K on the clock but I’ve had zero issues so far. Fuel economy is good in my opinion, with 30+ mpg easily achievable, and I have even managed to hit 40 on a couple of occasions while stuck behind slower cars for long periods of time, but that is a very very rare occurrence, and at the lower end of the scale on one early morning 70 mile trip over the Lecht to Aviemore I managed to get an impressive average of just 23 mpg.
I have the digital dash and DCC options which are nice to have. The sports seats look thin on padding but are quite comfy over long distances, and while it’s not a proper estate it is still fairly practical.
Can’t think of too many negatives. The exhaust noise is quite muted (I’d hoped for a bit more rasp), and the piped-in sound in Cupra mode quickly wears a bit thin (the kids love it though). Some of the plastics are bit low rent in places which is a common complaint with Seats, but the main touch points are all good and the general ambience of the interior is fine.

I have 11 months left to run on a 3 year lease and I think the biggest compliment I can pay is that I’m hoping I’ll get a decent 12 month extension offer from VWFS as I’d like to keep it a bit longer.

[blade7]

SEAT dealers are asking around £28-30k for 2020 Leon 4 Drives, seems a rip off when the cars were discounted down to around that brand new. Seems plenty are ex-lease that haven't exactly been well looked after either.