Seat Leon TDI 150 Cupra

[anoyceperson]

Firstly I must say this isn't quite up there with some of the more exotic machinery that gets posted on here.

After having a Corsa VXR for a year or so I had to downgrade to a diesel as the petrol costs were killing me with my commute. So I bought a dull and boring 2005 plate Leon TDI 110. This was unfortunately written off when someone crashed into me a week or so ago. So I was left with a bit of a quandary about what to get.. I had a few requirements:

1) Look fairly nice
2) Be a diesel (I have a 50 mile round trip to work so fuel economy was important)
3) Be fast enough to be fun
4) Must be able to fit a mountain bike in the back

So I decided on this.. a 2004 plate Leon 150 TDI Cupra. Got 70k ish miles on the clock and seems to be pretty solid.













First impressions are its very good! Its a good compromise between motorway commuter and fairly fast hatch.

Not planning on doing any major modifications to it other than a Stage 1 remap (already booked in at AMD in Woking to have this done) although who knows that might all change after a few months of driving it. If I do I would guess it would just be handling mods, suspension, roll bars etc.

Let me know what you think..

[mikey P 500]

Looks nice, I have a red one same year, I find it a fairly good alrounder, that gets great mpg, please post up how the remap efects the mpg, as its something I have considered doing on mine, although put off by cost of new clutch/fly wheel ontop of remap which generally fail soon after unless they are very new already.

[lindrup119]

Like it. Any mods for it in the near future or keeping it completely as bought?

[Mastodon2]

I had a Cupra R in the same shape, was a bit of a rocketship with 270bhp, and looked ace with it's Ovni yellow paint and anthracite wheels. I still think that shapen of Cupra is one of the best, if not the best looking 5 door hatchback of the modern era.

[anoyceperson]

Mikey P- I will report back once I have had the work done.

Lindrup - As mentioned in my first post Stage 1 remap is booked but no other mods planned for the time being. Potentially some handling mods in the future.

Mastadon - I agree, much prefer this shape to the newer ones. And the Petrol Cupra R is the best of the bunch. Does that have 270 bhp as stock or did that have some work done to it?

[Mastodon2]

anoyceperson said:

Mikey P- I will report back once I have had the work done.

Lindrup - As mentioned in my first post Stage 1 remap is booked but no other mods planned for the time being. Potentially some handling mods in the future.

Mastadon - I agree, much prefer this shape to the newer ones. And the Petrol Cupra R is the best of the bunch. Does that have 270 bhp as stock or did that have some work done to it?

The first Cupra Rs were 210bhp, then they were revised to 225bhp. Mine was a 225, and it then had an induction kit fitted, and a cold air feed that ran down into the passenger side wing. It had a Milltek resonated exhaust, a Forge dump valve (which I think was more trouble than it was worth, it did sound great though), a Forge Turbo Intake pipe was also fitted, which was wider than the original and made of a much stiffer material, as the standard item is prone to collapsing under vacuum pressure when running higher boost. After all that was in place, it was remapped with a Revo stage 2 map. It had an Autogauges boost gauge fitted to the driver's side A pillar so I could watch the boost needle arcing across the dial before an explosive burst of acceleration was delivered. As the car interior lit up red at night, and so did the needle on the boost gauge, I used to keep the gauge set to blue background so the red-lit needle was easier to see. Thinking back, that gauge is one of the things I miss the most, shining away in the dark as I drove at night. The seats were excellent too, and I never tired of the massive 3rd gear shove.

The car was also lowered on coilover suspension, so low in fact that the front splitter had to come off. It was too low to get over speedbumps, and multi storeys were off limits due to the nose grounding out on the ramps. It did handle well, or at least it had loads of grip and cornered very flat, at the expense of crap day to day ride. My Civic Type R is much more comfortable and that is saying something.

[krallicious]

Great car. I had an 04 in red and ran it for 95k miles. Never went wrong and even managed 550 miles on a tank but I wish I had never sold it.

[Marlin45]

I had an '05 FR Tdi (pretty much the same car mechanically) from new for several years and it is a much underrated car. OK the interior quality didn't match VW std but I nver saw economy below 40mph (when it was caned) and generally it sat around 50mpg. Went like a scalded cat when the boost kicked in and it made good use of the TC when it did at times. Only 'lost it' when the ex-wife took it as part of the divorce settlement (I kept the Land Rover)

[bakerstreet]

mikey P 500 said:

Looks nice, I have a red one same year, I find it a fairly good alrounder, that gets great mpg, please post up how the remap efects the mpg, as its something I have considered doing on mine, although put off by cost of new clutch/fly wheel ontop of remap which generally fail soon after unless they are very new already.

If you drive it like an idiot or drag the clutch, then I am sure it will fail.

I have a friend who has done nearly 100k with a chipped Saab and car shows no signs of the clutch failing. I know other people who have also done high miles with chipped cars and the clutches survive perfectly well.

Obviously there are limits. I think the E46 330D clutch is limited to what ever the torque is for 260bhp.

Anyways. Nice car OP. I prefer that shape of Leon to the new ones

[Alias218]

Very nice cars, very under rated too. SEATs get a bad press in my book.

I currently own a 2003 LCR, and she hasn't skipped a beat in 15,000 miles at 74,000 total.

As said above, this shape is far nicer than the current one.

[anoyceperson]

Thanks for the comments guys. I am still on the first tank of fuel, but I have to say I am pleasantly surprised. I was expecting that going from a 110 to a 150 I would see a bit of a reduction in mpg (espectially considering I have been enjoying the additional power a bit) but its currently pretty much bang on what my old car was doing. Happy days!

The one thing I have noticed is that the steering feels really light (as in doesnt take any effort at all to steer) and doesnt have a huge amount of feel to it. Taking a bit of getting used to, I keep expecting it to just go straight on when I turn it into a corner! Hopefully I will get a dry day sometime soon so I can see what it handles like in the dry.