Well I've had the cupra r and of I'm being honest and this is my opinion I thought it was a bit boring with not much feedback and very heavy on the twist bits.
Now I currently own an R26 and I have to say it is one of the most capable cars I've ever driven it does almost everything. I want ie its very fast, makes a good noise when pushing on, is very smooth and quiet when needed, and handles like its on rails thanks to the lsd.
As for tuning I would hardly say its limited for example I can go spend £300 and take the power from 230 to 260 which on the face of it looks average but you also take the torque from 230 to 270 ish which for a car that weighs 1340kgs makes it quite a bit faster.
Now I like to think that I am unbiased considering I've owned 3 leons 3 type r's and various other performance cars so imho the R26 is the odd one out of the 4 because the other 3 are not really hot hatches in the sense that yes they are quick but do the excite you and I would say no as they are made for the masses whereas the R26 is made for the enthusiast who maybe does the odd track day or like a good blast down a country back road.
So I would suggest you look at what you want and test drive them and I also think you may struggle with 8k for an R26 or one that isn't on the v car register.
Hope this helps.
Now I currently own an R26 and I have to say it is one of the most capable cars I've ever driven it does almost everything. I want ie its very fast, makes a good noise when pushing on, is very smooth and quiet when needed, and handles like its on rails thanks to the lsd.
As for tuning I would hardly say its limited for example I can go spend £300 and take the power from 230 to 260 which on the face of it looks average but you also take the torque from 230 to 270 ish which for a car that weighs 1340kgs makes it quite a bit faster.
Now I like to think that I am unbiased considering I've owned 3 leons 3 type r's and various other performance cars so imho the R26 is the odd one out of the 4 because the other 3 are not really hot hatches in the sense that yes they are quick but do the excite you and I would say no as they are made for the masses whereas the R26 is made for the enthusiast who maybe does the odd track day or like a good blast down a country back road.
So I would suggest you look at what you want and test drive them and I also think you may struggle with 8k for an R26 or one that isn't on the v car register.
Hope this helps.
) I would go for the maegane because it's rarer for a start and it's hoot to drive where as the other 3 are less involving and would require money spending on them to make them more drivable imho.
