COVID and impact on your SEAT/CUPRA ownership?

[Syphon]

Just interested in how COVID has impacted you. Do you drive less because of working from home? have you sold your car as a result? Not taken a lease you were thinking of taking? or found you can now afford a lease due to doing significantly less miles?

Please vote in the poll (TapaTalk users, please visit the site directly as polls won't appear in the app)

Personally, we have been running just the wife's Ateca since March when I handed my Leon back at the end of the lease. Been waiting on the new CUPRA Leon (petrol) that's now not likely until March next year. Have been working at home since March 99.9% of the time and likely to continue to do so until at least March next year, even then it won't go back to full time in the office.

I'll have to see if I can justify the cost of the new lease when the time comes, but at least it should be more reasonable as the mileage will be a lot lower.

In the meantime, for the odd trip having one car when the wife has to take it to work every day and I've needed to go anywhere, I've just bought a second hand SEAT (readers ride soon!), with the money I've been saving since March. I may end up keeping it for a while instead of getting the new Leon, who knows!

What are your experiences / plans?

If I think it needs more poll option let me know.

Cheers,

Scott

 

[BocaBill]

I don't know if you meant this for lease owners only but I had about 2.5k left on my finance deal on the Boc, I was furloughed for 10 weeks at the start with my employer topping up the 80% so I had a full wage (which was more than appreciated)
When the bank of england dropped the interest rates I took advantage and took out a bank loan to consolidate a few expenses included what was left on the car, saved myself £230 in monthly payments.
Since end of May I'd been given key worker status and returned back to work which I'm out of the road in the works van every day with the car sat at home so my spend isn't great TBH other than mod's. Affordable and a keeper for the foreseeable.

Not really felt it financially as a lot have which I am very grateful for.

 

[Syphon]

I don't know if you meant this for lease owners only but I had about 2.5k left on my finance deal on the Boc, I was furloughed for 10 weeks at the start with my employer topping up the 80% so I had a full wage (which was more than appreciated)
When the bank of england dropped the interest rates I took advantage and took out a bank loan to consolidate a few expenses included what was left on the car, saved myself £230 in monthly payments.
Since end of May I'd been given key worker status and returned back to work which I'm out of the road in the works van every day with the car sat at home so my spend isn't great TBH other than mod's. Affordable and a keeper for the foreseeable.

Not really felt it financially as a lot have which I am very grateful for.

Thanks for sharing. Not just for lease owners, anyone's experiences.

Cheers

Scott

 

[Jimbobcook]

Thankfully I managed to sell my MK2 and get a Mk3 during lockdown, loads less miles being done but not due to work but going out for food at random places lol

I don't tend to ever do over 10k a year so that's probably even less now so leasing will be easier and cheaper next time hopefully.

 

[AndrewJB]

So I have 2 cars;

Porsche 981 Cayman S
MK1 Leon FR+ TDI

Apart from doing the NC500 (1700 miles in total) the Porsche hasn't moved, I was supposed to be taking it back to Germany but that got cancelled. The Leon has spent most of lockdown with a flat battery as its gone no where, I did resurrect it yesterday to do the TIP run.

My usual work commute is 12 miles a day, but working from home at the moment.

 

[Oliver Pawley]

Feel like mine is the opposite to everyone so far got my cupra jsut before lockdown and then got moved "temporarily" for covid adding an extra 350 miles to my commute a week. Have done 15k miles in 10 months, not really ideal but does make it more enjoyable

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[Yern]

Over the last few years my mileage has been steadily decreasing with offsite/online meetings etc. even before COVID. After a year (March 20) I'd done 11,000 miles and now its 11,300. Over 100 of that was to Blackpool last week to see the lights. Love the car, keeping it for the moment but miss 'driving' it. Won't be returning to the office until some time next year so I may look at a Mk 4 at some point late 21/early 22 but that depends how the finances (and Mk 3 depreciation) work out. If I'm still doing no mileage we could stick with my wife's Kia and its 7 year warranty (its 6 months old).

 

[Seriously?]

I'm home based normally, so in some respects things are no different for me. But all the meetings I used to travel to are now done on Teams (dunno why we never thought of it before !), the consequence of which is that I last filled the Merc up in early April and still have a quarter of a tank left. Mrs Seriously's Leon gets taken to the shops at the weekend, but that's about it. Really pleased we decided against a diesel

 

[Legojon]

I've been working from home since the first lockdown and we've now officially closed the office and moved to home working. It's cost me a fortune because now I'm at home, things around the house niggle me. That's without all the gadgets I've added and the setup of a home office. My car pretty much sits there for the week. Which is good in a sense because my parking spot was next to the delivery bay (but right in front of the office window - of course). So as you can imagine I was spending every other night polishing scratches out. So at least it's safe now.

I'm actually quite excited because I'm 3 payments away from actually owning my Cupra now. But not too excited because I then have to start on repaying the mods. LOL. So I need it to last me another 4-5 years minimum. I was doing about 4k miles a year. Now I just blast it on weekends... so keeping the mileage about the same overall.

If I do move jobs... I may have to prepare for driving a larger amount of miles which is not practical in the Cupra (22.5mpg at the mo). I can't bare to part with it. So would have to weigh up the costs between a cheap diesel or staying 5 nights away. But selling is not an option.

 

[Seastormer]

Worked from home till August, then back to the office as I had problems with no printers, slow wifi and no space to work safely and workload building up. The office is all one way and seperate zones for work areas, but at least I get a drive in the car now.

 

[SteveW]

Voted two options.

I'm hardly driving but I'm keeping the car - I only bought the damn thing in June! In four months I've covered less than 3000 miles, and that includes the 650+ miles I did last week on a trip to York for a short break. I usually cover over 15-16k miles a year, so I heading towards doing pretty much half that this year. But I love this car, and need a car, so it'd be daft to get rid of it really.....

Although, on the flip side, this does lead me to the other option I voted.....

I can now afford a model I couldn't have before due to lower mileage - If I knew 100% that I'd be working from home permanently from now on, I could have waited a few months and saved a bit more money and then bought a Leon Cupra ST instead of my FR 184 TDI. The only concern is if I end up having to commute again the fuel bill would be a bit silly compared to the diesel - so I don't wholly regret buying the diesel. Yet!

 

[Mike the_cupra]

I got the car three weeks before lockdown, and so I hadn't even run in the car by that point. First two months were boring for obvious reasons, with a couple of road trips/holidays cancelled. After that it's been back to normality. I don't commute to work, we walk and so working from home hasn't changed our mileage. My trips are 100% social and so since the golf course reopened it's been back to normality. We have done a road trip now too, and so I'm sitting on over 5000 miles after 7 months. Over winter this will drop I suspect, meaning i'll probably be more or less nailed on for the 7-8k miles/annum.

Conversely, my partner's polo has not been used much at all. When we do go out, we take the Cupra for space/ease/comfort. When I had my old car I used to alternate between the Golf and Polo for mileage sakes. Maybe I should start doing that again as it's much better on fuel...

 

[Sl1ced]

Covid made me buy a cupra all be it an 800£ shed at the moment but I’m enjoying it


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[niallain]

Started a new job in Feb which changed my commute to cycling/public transport so the car was already parked up.
Been WFH since mid March and I've done 1300 miles since my MOT in Feb.

Really not doing the mileage to justify a diesel anymore, but I love the car too much.
Saving extra money which is going towards a new house, so I'm allowed a new car after the house.

Decided to spend some money on the car though to stave off thoughts of a new one, got a stage 1 remap, upgraded MIB1 to MIB2, and currently eyeing up the sports bumper and exhaust, but that'll come at a pretty penny...

 

[Rowan83]

I got my Leon Cupra in Sept 2019. Due to a new job in Feb, Covid and working from home I have only covered just over 3k miles.

If I am being honest if I could hand the car back I would. Don't really get time to enjoy it, my wife who is self employed has taken a big hit financially so could do without the extra expense of the Cupra.

Also, I know it's only a lease car but I constantly worry about it, I don't want to but just can't help it. Worry about damaging the wheels, someone damaging it/denting the doors, etc. Had quite a bit of anti social behaviour on our estate which doesn't help....

Not to menion the very loud and annoying creaks inside the car ATM doesn't make it that enjoyable to drive.

I do love the car though, better than the M135i (2013) and Golf R in my opinion.

 

[Syphon]

Just checking in how things are now things have been extended?

I'm driving my car once a fortnight to deliver my housebound Mum's shopping (45 mins each way). Other than that, it lives in the garage. Luckily I got off the lease cycle before it all started.

 

[Oliver Pawley]

Driving the cupra no more than 100 miles a month, paying what works out to be £200 a month on insurance for that.

However I did buy a small ibiza due to moving workplace which needed some thing more economical

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[Jimbobcook]

Since May I've done 4k miles which isn't too bad... But only done 30 ish miles in the last 2 weeks which isn't ideal...

 

[Legojon]

I'm down to about 10 miles a week! Struggling with my rear calipers seizing on (again) having replaced them both about 6 months ago.

 

[Mike the_cupra]

I picked up the car on 2 March and my PCP/Insurance was for 7k. I'm now on c6,500 so I've done pretty well, albeit the car is basically not moving at the moment. If lockdown is eased Mid-Feb I'll somehow be on the money for the year.