Dissapointed - Leon FR

[mklock]

Stereo - Not impressed. Sound quality isn't great. Can be fussy at playing discs now and again and the iPod adaptor is an afterthought.

To be honest i thought the same when i first got the car, but i suppose i have got used to it. The Mk1 had a better sounding Stereo.

 

[phil3012]

To be honest i thought the same when i first got the car, but i suppose i have got used to it. The Mk1 had a better sounding Stereo.

Functionally I think the stereo is great. Just the sounds quality isn't that good and when its acting up takes 5 mins to eject a CD.

I would consdier changing the speakers but since I've already had to have the door stripped to fix the window mechanisms, don't want them to turn round and say somebody has been fiddling with this car if the problem occurs again.

I'm in two minds over the car as well to be honest with you.

 

[DanGB]

I agree with most comments on here,

My car is two years old in april and im starting to get bored. Never been too fond of the interior, especially the plastics. The door plastics are very hard. Annoying when your leaning your arm on there. Some platics, like the silver plasic is just a bit too cheap for my liking.

Stereo is ok, not great, speakers tend to rattle on higher bass music.

Suspension is not an issue for me as I changed it completely pretty much straight away for handling reasons. Starting to get bored of the sporty mods with the suspension now. I think my boy racer days are over
Wouldnt mind a slightly more up market model, but such a shame to sell the car as
I have spent so much money modding it.

 

[P0LKR]

Functionally I think the stereo is great. Just the sounds quality isn't that good and when its acting up takes 5 mins to eject a CD.

I would consdier changing the speakers but since I've already had to have the door stripped to fix the window mechanisms, don't want them to turn round and say somebody has been fiddling with this car if the problem occurs again.

I'm in two minds over the car as well to be honest with you.

Are you not liking the car Phil?

 

[phil3012]

Are you not liking the car Phil?

In two minds about it mate.

I have really gone off the colour. Wish I'd gone for Red or White, just too difficult to keep clean and shows up the scratches and marks too easily.

Lovely to drive, very quick. Economy isn't as good as I'd hoped but bearable, insurance isn't too bad either.

At one point I was really cheesed off with the all rattles but have got most sorted now by the dealer. Stereo as I said before isn't the best I've had factory fit.

The Mrs reckons there is a horrible smell coming from the catalytic converter which she notices as a passenger however I've not noticed that and at one point the car has a major rattle from underneath, it only lasted a short while and the dealer couldn't find anything.

To be honest I think my main gripe is the colour. Looks lovely when it is clean, which unless you sent at least 2 hours a week cleaning it is never. And the way it shows up swirls is a nightmare.

The track day showed me that is a very impressive and capable car though...

 

[Rob GTI]

Functionally I think the stereo is great. Just the sounds quality isn't that good and when its acting up takes 5 mins to eject a CD.

Mine never takes that long to eject a CD, maybe there is a warranty issue?

 

[P0LKR]

I only have one gripe and that is a small rattle from the centre console but other than that touch wood the car has been great. Suspension is firm but that is the kind of car it is.

Oh and mine is now mapped and is a feckin rocket.

 

[Tam]

Functionally I think the stereo is great. Just the sounds quality isn't that good and when its acting up takes 5 mins to eject a CD.

Yep, thats annoying ... just sits there and then says "cd drive defect" or similar, keep pushing the eject button at some point it will eject it ..

 

[phil3012]

Mine never takes that long to eject a CD, maybe there is a warranty issue?

It's normally alright but now and again it comes up with either "CD Error" or "Drive Defect" in the display. At which point it refuses to eject the disc.

The first time it happened was after the car had been in getting some paintwork done (problems from new) and I'd just driven out of the garage when it happened. By the time I took it back and showed the technican the fault had cleared. At the time I thought turning off the car had cured it but it after the last time it happened that didn't cure it.

I also though it might have been when I was using CD-R's but it has done it once or twice with purchased CD's as well.

I'd heard other people have had the same issue though and thankfully it only happens now and again. A trip to the dealer is over an hour, might get them to look at it next time the cars in.

 

[Rampage]

The first CD I ever put in mine took about 5 minutes to start playing it, I was still sat outside the dealers at the time. I tried another CD and it was the same, sometime later it started playing though. After the first couple of days it was fine.
My g/f's Polo doesn't like any of my origional Tidy CD's and does strange things when turning off and turning on the stereo. All other CD's are fine though.
I thought this might be the case with the Leon, but it turned out fine in the end.

 

[mklock]

I've damaged all 4 Wheels.

 

[phil3012]

I've damaged all 4 Wheels.

Easily done mate, I've got minor damage on 2 of mine.

It is one of my major gripes with the car, one slight mistake and the wheels damaged. Not much use if you live in the city and park at the side of the road a fair bit.

 

[mklock]

What i hate most is that im starting to park really badly, just because im being over cautious. Its Sad really.

The first time i damaged one id hit a pot hole, it wasn't even a big one. I've scraped all 4 now which is ridiculous. Im starting to laugh at myself which is not a good sign.

I think i will try getting a more substantial Tyre when it comes to replacing them.

 

[Bigfoot]

Avoid SEAT and probably all VAG group cars. While the perceived quality is high, the true quality of engineering is appalling. I've had rattles, paint problems, alarm problems (estimated to take 2 MONTHS to fix). All on a 6 month old car. I don't mind having lesser quality trim in a SEAT due to lower price, but the reliability and build quality is terrible and seems to be common across the VAG range. Skoda only score highly due to peoples low expectations.

Buy a Focus. Well engineered and reliable. Or a 1 series, had my BMW 8 years, thrashed it daily and had absolutely no faults, only visited dealer for routine servicing (which was pretty cheap... cheaper than SEAT).

I intend to sell my FR at a big loss and buy an ST.

I have just done the opposite take a look on the st owners club site first.Ford dealers shite and a fair amount of problems for a £19500 car

 

[MatG]

Got to agree that ford and Vauxhall after care is very poor indeed, I have huge on going problems with Ford at present over my transit van £19k and is a complete piece of rubbish, Ford UK are very little to no help at all. The grass isn't always greener as they say

I am surprised at the amount of problems people are having, and even more so the amount of people that are putting up with them. You really should be going to the dealers and getting it sorted, if they dont take it further and beyond them with Seat UK. these cars cost a lot of money and they should be fit for purpose.

However I do find some comments quite amusing If you go for 18''s or even 17's of course you have got to be careful with hitting kerbs, but then you dont have to be kissing them every 5 seconds and yes the ride will be hard, but have you ever driven the cars you want? BMW and Audi's are just as hard if not harder if you go for the sport models, you can not have very soft suspension and a 'sporty' ride.

 

[mklock]

I know what you mean, about some of my/others comments, but i would like to point out that this is not my first Sports model or my first car with stiff suspension. My point here is that i find the FR over the top. Additionally as part of my job i occasionally get ot play with a Mazda RX8, 6 MPS, GOLF GT, Polo GTI, Alfa GT and an Astra Van with Sports Suspension which gives me something to compare my car with.

 

[Rob GTI]

I know what you mean, about some of my/others comments, but i would like to point out that this is not my first Sports model or my first car with stiff suspension. My point here is that i find the FR over the top. Additionally as part of my job i occasionally get ot play with a Mazda RX8, 6 MPS, GOLF GT, Polo GTI, Alfa GT and an Astra Van with Sports Suspension which gives me something to compare my car with.

I don't know if it's psychological thing but when I first had the car I found myself constantly thinking the rides is too hard because of all the comments I read on here, but after a while I had more important things to worry about and I didn't notice it so much.

I always compared it to other cars, I used to have access to my old Mini Cooper (sold it to my brother) and that had sports suspension and 17s and was always a hard ride, but when changed to the FR the Mini seemed slightly softer, but I was the only one who noticed the difference after driving them both back to back, my brother did the same runs as well and he thought the Mini was harder ride.

Have you considered changing to the Koni FSD dampers they are supposed to smooth things outs?

Also its worth noting the Cupra is no softer if anything it has a harder ride (had a recent extended test drive - over an hour) to see if it was worth chopping my FR in for. Anyway back to topic the reason I mention the Cupra as it has some aluminium suspension components that are supposed to soften things up.

 

[Rob GTI]

I know what you mean, about some of my/others comments, but i would like to point out that this is not my first Sports model or my first car with stiff suspension. My point here is that i find the FR over the top. Additionally as part of my job i occasionally get ot play with a Mazda RX8, 6 MPS, GOLF GT, Polo GTI, Alfa GT and an Astra Van with Sports Suspension which gives me something to compare my car with.

What are Alfa GTs like to drive, I've always liked them but Alfa's always seem to have a pretty poor reviews, the interiors especially aren't great, build quality or materials quality, but then again the Leon ain't great in that department either.

 

[Tam]

Also its worth noting the Cupra is no softer if anything it has a harder ride (had a recent extended test drive - over an hour) to see if it was worth chopping my FR in for. Anyway back to topic the reason I mention the Cupra as it has some aluminium suspension components that are supposed to soften things up.

Strange, i had the (ab)use of a cupra earlier this week and was surprised how softer i thought the suspension was than my FR, bumps and potholes that my FR crashed over, the cupra just seemed to swallow bloody quick though

 

[Rob GTI]

Strange, i had the (ab)use of a cupra earlier this week and was surprised how softer i thought the suspension was than my FR, bumps and potholes that my FR crashed over, the cupra just seemed to swallow bloody quick though

Maybe the extra weight over the front wheels of the TDi makes it a harder ride than the TFSI I've got, cos i did take the Cupra over a variety of different surfaces including a concrete section of dual carriageway always a good test as those things are rarely smooth.

Also the extra performance of the Cupra (over the FR TFSI) is only noticable over 6k revs before that the FR feels more responsive but that would be common sense as the FR's smaller turbo would spool up more quickly and the Cupras bigger turbo coming into play at higher engine speeds.