Clueless beginner needs help with Seat Leon.
- Thread starter trvnks
- Start date
Hi there and welcome the forum :0)
I'm going to be the boring old man who gives you sensible advice you don't want. Which you are of course free to ignore ;0)
Firstly, remember to tell your insurance company about any mods you do. If you don't you've got the worst of both worlds. You are paying for insurance but you don't actually have any. If you crash, and this being your first car the chances of that are quite high, and they find out about the mods, they'll reject your claim.
Most of us buy cars thinking we'll keep them a long time. Most people don't. If you mod the car it will make it harder to sell and you won't get the money you spent on the mods back. People want cars as close to new as possible, I imagine that's what you looked for? Few want cars other people have fecked around with and driven hard, which is what everyone assumes people who mod cars do.
Nice car for your first car! :0) Better than mine and yes, I did crash it. Lamp post, if you must know ;0)
I'm going to be the boring old man who gives you sensible advice you don't want. Which you are of course free to ignore ;0)
Firstly, remember to tell your insurance company about any mods you do. If you don't you've got the worst of both worlds. You are paying for insurance but you don't actually have any. If you crash, and this being your first car the chances of that are quite high, and they find out about the mods, they'll reject your claim.
Most of us buy cars thinking we'll keep them a long time. Most people don't. If you mod the car it will make it harder to sell and you won't get the money you spent on the mods back. People want cars as close to new as possible, I imagine that's what you looked for? Few want cars other people have fecked around with and driven hard, which is what everyone assumes people who mod cars do.
Nice car for your first car! :0) Better than mine and yes, I did crash it. Lamp post, if you must know ;0)
Welcome. Here is a pretty good place to start.
https://forums.seatcupra.net/index.php?threads/leon-mk3-modifying-a-car-things-to-consider.448414/
Also have a look at some of the readers rides and see what you like about other people's cars. Plus you can read about their modding experiences.
https://forums.seatcupra.net/index.php?threads/leon-mk3-modifying-a-car-things-to-consider.448414/
Also have a look at some of the readers rides and see what you like about other people's cars. Plus you can read about their modding experiences.
Thanks for the warm welcome and taking the time to write that reply and I’ll bear all that in mind! Took a lot of saving!
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Welcome to the Forum and that looks like a great first car, I also crashed my first one and it was a write off so we have all been there.
I did a thread on modding cars which do please read but I would agree with @Mr Pig that being as its your first car its not going to be a long term holder if for no other reason you will want something with a bit more power or maybe getting married and kids needing an estate again it happens to us all.
So there are some simple thing you can do to individualize your car but at the same time mean you can sell it easily and no have to much money tied up in mods that you wont get back.
1/ Front Spoiler / Splitter this are about £100-00 and can be fitted easily by yourself and a friend - BUT YOU MUST TELL THE INSURANCE CO.
2/ OBD Tools that allow you to turn on features on the car (The best ones for you would be Carista or OBD11)
3/ SEATCUPRA.NET Sticker - makes the car look cool and (cough cough) will give you more power
4/ You can wrap bits of the front of you car to make it look more like a Cupra (again to be declared)
All of these are not expensive and easy to undo when you come to sell.
With regards to tuning the engine / gearbox I personally would leave well alone.
Firstly this is a new car so will still be under warranty and if you mod the engine then warranty on engine and gearbox is gone if they identify it (which is easy on a Map and can be spotted if you have not had time to remove the timing box)
Secondly You can get more power out of these engines but the smaller engine gearbox's are not designed for big power so be warned this can lead to issues down the road.
I would agree with @Mr Pig Enjoy the car as is and start saving for next years insurance and service cost's
Nice car to have at what I assume is a young age, enjoy! I echo what other people say about mods... stick a nice pair of alloys on it but leave the engine alone until you are really used to the car by which time you will probably want to upgrade anyway.
Contextually speaking, what else is he going to be talking about? Saving the car from an evil dragon?
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Thanks for the advice I might just add a sticker as I’ve been instructed above to add 6bhp
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Yes, as it was my first car the highest I could get was 123 bhp with a 1.4 besides Seats already had won my heart. Hopefully in a couple of years time I’ll be posting pics of my Cupra xD
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Okay so if I customised a few things via Carista/OBDEleven would I still need to inform my insurance provider?
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Modded cars are typically worth less than clean cars and are harder to sell. Personally, I wouldn't touch one.
There are sites on line which give you an idea of which changes you need to tell your insurance company about and how much they effect your premium. I would not think that making your mirrors fold would be one of them! Most mods will increase your premium, some by quite a lot. The safest bet is to ask your own insurance company. I was telling Direct Line every time I fitted and removed my winter wheels, just last year they told me I don't have to tell them any more. And those tyres were the same size and speed rating as the standard ones!
A lot of guys just say nothing to avoid the hassle and expense, I've done it myself when I was young and silly. Any discrepancy in what you tell your insurance company is considered fraud and they can walk away.
I read an example years ago which was pretty bad. Young girl was at uni in a city in England, I can't remember which city now, think it was Bath. When they got quotes the premium was higher for her living in the city so they put her down as living with her parents outside the city to save a bit of money.
She ran into the back of a traffic queue and shunted about four car. A few people went to hospital. The insurance company found out that she was not living at home and turned down the claim, the bill was around £60'000 and this was years ago, might be maybe £100'000 today?
I still don't know how this worked but they used the legal cover on the policy to take the insurance company to court to try and overturn the decision. They lost and had to pay legal fees. Her parents had to sell their house to cover the bill.
Like I said, I don't know how they could use that legal cover? If they insurance was void then surely the legal cover would be too as that's part of the policy?
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