RE: Shed of the Week: SEAT Leon Cupra

[steveb8189]

GTEYE said:

Technically this isn't a Cupra its a 1.8 20VT - the Cupra designation didn't come in until the facelift on the "52" plate.

This one has clearly been "updated" to pass it off as the later model....

It's registered as a Cupra but seems to have FR alloys. Didn't the Cupra come out in 2000 and the FR in 2004?

Hamster says it's a Cupra so it must be https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEOPzKahf50

Edited by steveb8189 on Friday 9th February 10:57

[anonymous-user]

As per usual PH article riddled with mistakes..

The original Leon didn't go on sale here until year 2000. The earliest reg was W-reg which was 2000. That shape Toledo was launched first in 1999 with the earliest V-reg.

You will not find a UK 1998 reg Leon !

[BFleming]

Officially it's registered as a SEAT Leon Hatchback 1.8 20v Turbo Cupra 5dr

[cbmotorsport]

Had one of these as a company car. A 2002 blue one. Went from a 1.4 60bhp polo to a 1.8 20v Turbo with 180bhp, that was fun

It was ace. Never misssed a beat in 60k very hard miles. It's still going apparently with 150k on the clock.

[cbmotorsport]

P R N D said:

As per usual PH article riddled with mistakes..

The original Leon didn't go on sale here until year 2000. The earliest reg was W-reg which was 2000. That shape Toledo was launched first in 1999 with the earliest V-reg.

You will not find a UK 1998 reg Leon !

Get out more.

[J4CKO]

Blackpuddin said:

J4CKO said:

Meh, sort of alright, but for not much more, if you like aged 1.8 T engine VAG things and still for shed money you can have a MK1 TT, the full fat 225 engine, you get a much nicer interior, concept car looks and 4WD, obviously only any good if you dont need rear seats but its a much nicer, better made (well better finished car).

Dont think at TT has ever been SOTW, must be due and quite happy to write the article as well !

They are about for under £1500 for sure but whether you'd want one at that price is another matter.

Indeed, but it is "Shed" of the week

To be honest, if you do your reading, and are prepared to view a few, decent ones are out there, more likely a 180 at that price but there are also five grand examples with low mileage that look shiny but will no doubt need a load of work, a lot is due to age, like this Seat is 16 years old as well. What I was getting at is it is a lot of the same car underneath, save the 4WD gubbins, so some of the issues are common to either, well apart from the stupid TT dashpods.

[geeks]

Decent cars, I had a black one on a Y plate with the full leather interior, rolled it up onto the dyno and it ran at 187BHP as standard and after I disabled the silly vac system it had 190 and a better torque curve

Ref the Cupra, FR, Cupra R

The Cupra recevied a facelift of which these wheels belong to (I cant remember what year this happened) then the same facelift received FR badging further down the line.

The Cupra originally had 210BHP but recieved a facelift and minor uplift in power to 225BHP and it had twin intercoolers! Think the Curpa had a K03 turbo, the Curpra R 210 used a K03S and the Cupra R 225 a KK04.

Some of the above may not be perfectly accurate as its off the top of my head.

Also worth noting that the Cupra R never received its due praise, there was a Top Gear test a number of years ago with the Hot Hatches of the time, the Cupra R was faster than everything else around the TG Test Track (Civic Type R, Golf R32, Focus, forget which one, Astra VXR etc) but they never mentioned it.

I was a bit of a fanboy of them, never got to run a Cupra R though

[s m]

Autocar Test one was a bit juicy at 25 to the gallon



They went 5-door a couple of decades before it became the trend for hot hatches

[geeks]

Ended up having a look at Curpa Rs to see what the prices were doing following my earlier post. The had a quick flick of Auto Trader for the Cupras there are better examples for the money, even the face lifted Cupra for £1500 which makes me wonder why Shed chose this one! PH Classifieds have one, an FR TDi 150 for 1350, which is a bit of a bargain too!

[sgtBerbatov]

Blackpuddin said:

sgtBerbatov said:

Hat trick of bland sheds

By definition Sheds are rarely going to be as fascinating and/or cool as we might want them to be because fascinating/cool cars don't get put up for sale for beer money.

But 3 in a row? There has to be more interesting cars with interesting stories, not another rebadged VW?

[Blackpuddin]

sgtBerbatov said:

Blackpuddin said:

sgtBerbatov said:

Hat trick of bland sheds

By definition Sheds are rarely going to be as fascinating and/or cool as we might want them to be because fascinating/cool cars don't get put up for sale for beer money.

But 3 in a row? There has to be more interesting cars with interesting stories, not another rebadged VW?

I'm not sure how you're rating a 231hp 3.0 Jag X-Type Sport (last week's Shed) as bland? Plenty of other things maybe but surely not bland.

[WCZ]

s m said:

surprisingly bad performance figures there, but cheap to remap I guess!

[treeroy]

2 GKC said:

Nothing ruins a dashboard like an after market stereo

I'll pass on this one

Do you prefer your dashboards to be beautiful or to be functional in the current year?

[csd19]

geeks said:

Ref the Cupra, FR, Cupra R

The Cupra recevied a facelift of which these wheels belong to (I cant remember what year this happened) then the same facelift received FR badging further down the line.

The Cupra originally had 210BHP but recieved a facelift and minor uplift in power to 225BHP and it had twin intercoolers! Think the Curpa had a K03 turbo, the Curpra R 210 used a K03S and the Cupra R 225 a KK04.

Some of the above may not be perfectly accurate as its off the top of my head.

Close

The very first 1.8T Leons were the Sport model, still 180bhp but only a K03 turbo and drive-by-cable, typically the X-reg cars. If the leather interior option was taken you had electric memory seats, they also came with rain sensing wipers and autodimming rear view mirror, and electric folding mirrors.

In 2001 the engine changed to the 'AUQ' lump it gained drive-by-wire and a K03S turbo, my 51-plate Cupra had this engine.The electric leather seats lost their memory function and the autodimming/ rain sensing was dropped as well. Still had electric folding mirrors.

The MY03 cars (52-plate onwards) were the facelifted models, they came with the 17" alloys this car has instead of the 16" multi-bd-spokes, and the sideskirts, new bumpers etc.

FR models appeared in 2004 and replaced the Cupra badge - There was also an FR+ model which came later as part of the runout campaign managed to get the Cupra R bodykit and a 17" version of the Cupra R alloys, diesel only iirc.

Cupra R was initially launched with 210bhp and K04 turbo (AMK engine) which was later revised to the 225 BAM engine. Both had the twin intercooler setup.

[curlyks2]

Not for me. Had a Leon of that era, and never want to spend any more time finding and fixing leaks and drying the carpet out.

[2 GKC]

treeroy said:

Do you prefer your dashboards to be beautiful or to be functional in the current year?

Strange question. Are they mutually exclusive?

[SebringMan]

2 GKC said:

Nothing ruins a dashboard like an after market stereo

I'll pass on this one

Horses for courses. If you want your tape decks you're more than welcome . Most of my cars now have aftermarket players in mainly to get Bluetooth and audible directions . Alpine's hardly a rubbish brand in the audio world. 8 times of of 10 you also get a decent improvement in sound quality over the penny pinching stock HUs short of buying something like a JL Audio sweep. At least in my experience and others

Do you only go for super low mileage and one lady owner cars too?

My 15 year old BMW tape deck could do none of those and the Bluetooth quality was rubbish before you even think of it streaming music or speaking audible sat-nav directions. I remember how crap the factory navs were so they weren't an option for me.

I do keep things reversible however for the above reason. On a few occasions I've had buyers moan at me for removing my gear ; It's rare that I've sold a car without the stock HU for your reason however ; the new owner can decide

Edited by SebringMan on Friday 9th February 13:43

[2 GKC]

SebringMan said:

Horses for courses. If you want your tape decks you're more than welcome . Most of my cars now have aftermarket players in mainly to get Bluetooth and audible directions . Alpine's hardly a rubbish brand in the audio world. 8 times of of 10 you also get a decent improvement in sound quality over the penny pinching stock HUs short of buying something like a JL Audio sweep. At least in my experience and others

Do you only go for super low mileage and one lady owner cars too?

My 15 year old BMW tape deck could do none of those and the Bluetooth quality was rubbish before you even think of it streaming music or speaking audible sat-nav directions. I remember how crap the factory navs were so they weren't an option for me.

I do keep things reversible however for the above reason. On a few occasions I've had buyers moan at me for removing my gear ; It's rare that I've sold a car without the stock HU for your reason however ; the new owner can decide

Edited by SebringMan on Friday 9th February 13:43

Funnily enough I do have tape players in two of my cars. I'm happy to make the compromise on functionality to avoid having to look at a ghastly after market stereo. Do people still nick these? I remember having to take the face off them years ago. Anyway, as you say, horses for courses.

[rastapasta]

curlyks2 said:

Not for me. Had a Leon of that era, and never want to spend any more time finding and fixing leaks and drying the carpet out.

yeah I had one of 2004 vintage. Great car mechanically. the rainwater ingress into the cabin was a pain, as was the air ventilation ducts falling out and onto the floor periodically.

[LocoBlade]

Good cars overall, I bought a silver 52 plate face-lift brand new back in early 2003, quicker and nicer to drive than the Golf GTi of that era and generally reliable.

The only thing I'd say is if you ever decide to buy a yellow one, look out for peeling lacquer. I sold my silver one within a year due a change of job/house but then bought a yellow one several years later as a cheap stopgap runaround. The lacquer on that was peeling a bit but over the course of 9 months it got a distinctly bad case of dermatitis to the point where it looked crap and I was able to wash 80% of the laquer off with a hose!
https://youtu.be/e3U9Ss35atQ