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cupra 180 or cupra r decisions decisions

kikaz

Guest
hello fellow seat heads

i've been surfing the forum for a while now and i find myself asking the same question over and over.

my problem is as follows in the summer i will be getting a nice hefty 3k a year pay rise plus alot of bills finally being fully paid off and a drop in my monthly morgage payments due to the goverment keeping interest rates nice and low.

Basically i will have £600 a month spare to play with i have promised myself a leon always wanted one but the finances have never been right to make the purchase. I figure I work bloody hard my wife gets to drive the shiny mk2 leon while i get stuck with the bangers well no more !! :bleh:

i will have a budget of about £4500 to buy myself a new car plus a honda to trade in should i decide to go to a dealer (hondas prob only worth a monkey but 500 quid is 500 quid)

i've seen a few cupra r for around this price but they tend to be higher miles with a few more owners then i'd like some good cars do come up for this price 1 or 2 one this forum atm

were as i see low mileage mint cupra 180's for about £3800 with buckets of history 1 or 2 owners and seem to have lead a life less abused

i would just like to pick everyones brains did you buy a cupra and then find yourself wishing you had paid a bit more and gone for an r or are you quite happy with the 180 cupra?

whats the real world difference between the cars?

congestion being what it is do you find the 180 ample for driving day to day on uk roads?

insurance and running costs are no issue at all tbh i'm old and have 10 years protected ncb my days of hooning around are long gone but like all car lovers i do enjoy a blast when the conditions allow for it.

i'm just a bit confused really and would like some guidance some advice from the experts as it were to find myself the car i will have for at least 3 years after purchase. (wife wants a loft extension other wise i would be after a porsche:bleh:)

should i hit my higher budget and buy a r or buy a minter then mint cupra 180 and have some spare change in case something goes wrong,no car is perfect and something always breaks :p
mods are not high on my list though so couple of bits and pieces sure but i am not really interested in building a full stage 2 tarmac terrorist

look forward to hearing from you guys
 
Buy a cupra 180 and you always be wishing you brought an r, buy an r, get a remap and a few subtle mods and you,l have a car that will be a match for almost anything on the roads, I went to see a dark blue cupra 180, I liked it a lot, then went to see a black cupra r, went for a test drive and then forgot all about the 180, its a no contest really, suffice to say I brought the black cupra r, iv never regretted it, it brings smiles to my face everytime I put my right foot down
 
I bought a 180 and now wish I'd pushed the boat out and got an R. The 180 is a great car and plenty quick enough usually, but once you get used to it you'll want a bit more.
 
had a 180 Cupra 2.5 years now and never regret it, for road use with a remap it'll walk over a stock LCR, even now it wil still surprise me how quick it is

In a remapped state an lcr will say bye bye!

Each to their own to be fair, i prefer the bodystyling of the 180 facelift cupra than the cupra R too,

I paid 6k in 2008 for a 35k miles 03 plate.
 
You will be paying a lot more for a low miler R. When i was looking, just over a year ago,
£4k -£5 for a low miler 180, and £7k - £8k for a similar R. I bet, although maybe cheaper now, still the same gap. Also, you will probably get the colour you want quicker when looking for the 180. Lots of Yellow R's for sale when i was looking, which wasn't for me, which despite not in my budget, yellow wasn't for me. I can well imagine though that if you test drive the 'R', (like i didn't thankfully, so no regrets), you will open a can of worms!!
 
I've got a 2002 cupra 180, the one without the body kit...

In my honest opinion I am happy with it for a few reasons, one is it's understated looks, and two, like you have said the 180's usually have a better history. ( when looking at similar priced cars that is, there are still low mile cupra r's out there but at a cost!)

Mine Is a 2 owner car, full seat history and the price was shockingly low! But that was more right place at the right time :)

Go drive both and decide what you prefer :) I will have another leon after this one but it will do for 5 or so years!
 
Hello and welcome.i was in the same boat as you when i bought my car. In the end i went for the cupra r as i knew i would have regreted buying the cupra. One thing you should remember with all these cars, the engines are bullet proof and high miles are no problem. So if i was you i would find a tidy cupra r and dont worry about the milage, also check the cambelt has been done. I paid £4300 for my cupra r with 78k on the clock. 2 years later the car is still going strong with loads of mods and just reaching 102k. At the time my car was a bargin and was in mint condition, one lady owner, full sest history. Also the car was completley standard. Cost me a 400mile round trip :D
Buy the cupra r and have fun
 
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I'm happy with my cupra even tho it's hi miles :) shes on 1300,000 and still going strong ;) still runs very sweet ;)
 
LCR if you have the choice..........:)

For me I prefer the look of the R, it's alot more aggressive than the Cupra. But bang for buck the Cupra's are still good remapped. Just don't expect to keep up with my R even if you get a a Cupra and a remap :p
 
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Hello, I live over the hill from you. I was in the same position as you about 5 years ago and choose the cupra over the R simply because of the mileage. The cupra was not as fast as I hoped (not that a race or speed every were) until it was remapped, to me the car should of come out the factory like that.

Anyway sometimes i wished i got the r but I like the honey comb grills on the cupra more. I think you get much more car for your money buying the r, bigger wheels, brembo's better suspension, black roof lining ect all the stuff cupra owners want lol. Both cars share the same problems good luck
 
having owned a cupra and a cupra R and having both at the same time for a period, (so able to compare like for like)

Definately, be patient and get yourself a cupra R.
Ok so you seem to have a price in mind and complain that you get only high mileage Rs, but my answer is learn to be patient. At £600 a month in 2 months you could save up another £1200, and im sure £2000 if you put your mind to it.

Things to bear in mind with any leon is the cambelt change which is needed at 60,000 miles or 4/5 years. So if it needs doing counter this into the price.
Also on the R brakes / tyres are not so cheap, so check condition of these if you will be using all your money up.

On a generaly note, if you have some depts you might want to consider paying these off while they are cheap rather than putting them off now when they are cheap and letting them become expensive later.
( i appreciate i dont know your circumstances so feel free to ignore) :)

regards mods:
remap
uprate ARBs (antiroll bars)
dog bone mount (engine mount)
ferrodo brake pads.
if you do go suspension, consider uprated shock/springs rather than coilovers.


these make a big difference, after this mods get expensive and make less difference.
 
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mate ive owned a cupra and a cupra r and both at the same time as right price right time sought off thing, all im going to say is that i still have the cupra r. yes brakes and and stuff like that is more expensive but they are so much better. if youve got the money go for the cupra r you wont regret it mate
 
i would of had a lcr but ended up with the 180 as the mrs would be using it a lot and insurance for her at 24 was bit to much for my liking so the 180 and few mods to come this year......and hopefully not far behind the lcr in std form.....
if it was just my car id be defo lcr all day just for the extra perks i.e brembos, better looking, 18" allys etc but i made sure i found a late facelift cupra with full leathers
 
thanks for the replies guys lots of useful info coming through

to clarify a few points high mile are not really a massive problem for me my passat was on 180k and still going like a cart horse when i traded it in but of course when your spending 4.5-5k on a car you always want the one with the lowest miles.That said a high mile motorway cruiser can be alot better then a low milage car that only does 10 miles a day so i am totally willing to keep an open mind on this front.

the R would be my first choice but i wanted to get the opinions of a few cupra owners simply to balance everything out, i don't want to just dismiss the cupra out of hand without giving it a fair crack of the whip.

if the right car came along but was above 5k then i wouldn't be to hard pushed to find the extra summer is a while off so who knows whats going to come along in the meantime.

When i finally do get one it will be cosseted and loved treated to regular marathon cleaning sessions and driven as it should be warmed up warmed down well maintained and generally live out it's life being looked after.

summer is going to be a blast this year and i'm truely looking forward to it.

any north east members want to let me have a nosey round there cars feel free to drop me a line :p

cheers lee.
 
I am in the same boat as the OP... generally, are the running costs significantly different between the LC and LCR?

Fuel usage, they seem to be pretty similar.
Tires are going to be more on the LCR, as are brakes.

I have the opportunity to buy a 2003 LC 180 at trade price with 37k on the clock. I'm not really into modding etc. or an LCR with 56k for £5k. I can't decide what to do lol! Ta folks :)
 
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