RE: Leon Cupra R
Tuesday 16th July 2002
Leon Cupra R
New Cupra boasts 210bhp
Discussion
Has anyone driven a hot Leon then?
The treacle is going to replace her totally impracticle MR2 with a hatch, the current shortlist includes:
Audi A3 (new model out soon)
Alfa 147 (a bit sluggish apparantly)
Golf GTI (a bit fat/common and pricey)
I think this Leon measures up pretty well (on paper). Not too worried about brand snobbery, mainly because I think SEAT is starting to build quite a young, trendy image.
The treacle is going to replace her totally impracticle MR2 with a hatch, the current shortlist includes:
Audi A3 (new model out soon)
Alfa 147 (a bit sluggish apparantly)
Golf GTI (a bit fat/common and pricey)
I think this Leon measures up pretty well (on paper). Not too worried about brand snobbery, mainly because I think SEAT is starting to build quite a young, trendy image.
drove the last generation Ibiza Cupra - and it was great....A3 is one of my favourite cars ever though....but yeah, unles you could get an amazing deal the new one out v soon (but likely be to a bit bulkier). Agree on your comments with the Golf....very stodgy.....what about the Skoda A3 (felicia?) great car
If you don't bother about the steering being on the left handside than have a look in Germany. The re-imports from the Netherlands are a real bargain. You can get a new 210 HP V6 Cupra with 4WD including all the extras for about 21.000 Euros. Take a look at www.mobile.de or www.autoscout24.de and you'll find a couple of dealers.
Was looking for a commuter car (griff for fun)
Test drove the standard leon cupra (180 bhp) a few weeks ago. Very good, felt a lot quicker than the old vr6 golf i used to have, especially with the sis speed gear box.
Very good eqipment levels as well, climate control, 6 disc CD etc, all for £15,000. Less if you negotiate as well.
At 7 grand less than a subaru WRX, and not much slower a real bargain.
Test drove the standard leon cupra (180 bhp) a few weeks ago. Very good, felt a lot quicker than the old vr6 golf i used to have, especially with the sis speed gear box.
Very good eqipment levels as well, climate control, 6 disc CD etc, all for £15,000. Less if you negotiate as well.
At 7 grand less than a subaru WRX, and not much slower a real bargain.
I've had a Leon Cupra for about six months /4000 miles now. I'd really recommend one as a daily driver. All the parts are VW / Audi and it's fairly well screwed together.
Some have questioned the handling and sometimes the steering does feel a little vague, but very few cars are perfect.
Overall it's quick, cheap and it's got the right toys for a daily driver(air con and CD) in the price. A bit of a wolf in sheep's clothing, most people don't recognise what it is. I have found other Cupra drivers to be friendly too, a little wave and grin as we pass.
The occasional Nova boy will try it on and if the red mist
descends the 180bhp (whilst no TVR) is normally enough to make them look very silly. 
Mine has been back to the dealers (Spur Garage in Wimbledon) once to replace a window motor which had burnt out. The dealer was friendly and the car came back fixed, cleaned inside and out, and the fluids checked and filled where necesary. Overall pretty good service I thought.
My insurance wasn't too bad, £700 per year living in South London car not garaged. All through elephant.co.uk
Some have questioned the handling and sometimes the steering does feel a little vague, but very few cars are perfect.
Overall it's quick, cheap and it's got the right toys for a daily driver(air con and CD) in the price. A bit of a wolf in sheep's clothing, most people don't recognise what it is. I have found other Cupra drivers to be friendly too, a little wave and grin as we pass.
The occasional Nova boy will try it on and if the red mist
descends the 180bhp (whilst no TVR) is normally enough to make them look very silly. Mine has been back to the dealers (Spur Garage in Wimbledon) once to replace a window motor which had burnt out. The dealer was friendly and the car came back fixed, cleaned inside and out, and the fluids checked and filled where necesary. Overall pretty good service I thought.
My insurance wasn't too bad, £700 per year living in South London car not garaged. All through elephant.co.uk
Mechanically the new Cupra is basically a 2WD Audi S3 for nesrly 10 grand less (the joys of VAG platform sharing). Seems an absolute bargain to me.
OK so the steering is as communicative as we lettuce and the driving experience isn't the last word in sporting feel, but as a daily driver for the motorway commute it makes sense. The S3 underwhelmed me in many ways as a 26 grand car, however getting close to the same package for 16 grand.....
Plus, with a chip you could be getting 250bhp or so (although in a FWD platform
)
OK so the steering is as communicative as we lettuce and the driving experience isn't the last word in sporting feel, but as a daily driver for the motorway commute it makes sense. The S3 underwhelmed me in many ways as a 26 grand car, however getting close to the same package for 16 grand.....
Plus, with a chip you could be getting 250bhp or so (although in a FWD platform
)Can't have been less communicative than an A3/S3 though, surely. I drove the 1.8T for a few months as a company car a while back and it felt like driving a video game.
It's quick but there's no sense of speed, zero feedback through the steering which is hellish dangerous because you can enter a corner too quickly without knowing how much grip there is, in fact I felt utterly isolated from the road.
Nasty piece of work. No wonder they get driven so badly -- I never got any sense that what I was doing to the controls equated to anything real outside my insulated cabin.
It's quick but there's no sense of speed, zero feedback through the steering which is hellish dangerous because you can enter a corner too quickly without knowing how much grip there is, in fact I felt utterly isolated from the road.
Nasty piece of work. No wonder they get driven so badly -- I never got any sense that what I was doing to the controls equated to anything real outside my insulated cabin.
quote:Not necessarily a problem. Many insurers will mirror your NCB on a new policy (ie. they give you an introductory bonus equal to the bonus on your existing policy).
Only sticking point is the group 16 insurance for what will be my daily driver (the NCB's on the Griff = group 20)
You might need to transfer the Griff's policy to the new car and then insure the Griff on a new policy to achieve this though. But if you're lucky, you might not need this extra step.
quote:
quote:
I couldn't possibly buy one whilst they still claim Gibraltar.
The Germans want Gibraltar ?!?
May I refer the honourable gentleman to the film 'Das Boat', I think the U boat Capitain would have loved to have Gib.
I was of course refering to the geographical location of the VAG opertional group SEAT rather than that of the holding company.
Have you ever seen a map of Gibraltar (I even can't spell it) on a German navigation system in a German car ? Ok, it's tax free but I'm not quite sure that was the reason why Captain Hanoein did navigate his under water vessel though there (excellent anti war film, though). That was the third Reich and they were all a bit screwed up over here. That's history and we learned how to behave.
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