OK, a little background first...
Earlier this year I decided to buy a new car and was on a fixed budget. I test-drove all the mid-class segment cars since I actually always owned small-town cars like the Punto, Ibiza, Corsa...
I found the new Focus very plasticky on the inside and I really disliked the interior design with tons of random buttons on the dashboard. The Golf was OK, but once you add a few extra stuff inside, the price shoots through the roof. Mazda 3 was beautiful. Fantastic interior, probably the best gearbox/clutch combo in any of the cars I've tried but the 2.0 n/a petrol engine didn't feel quite nippy as I expected.
And then there was the Astra. Nice looking design (both interior and exterior), good engine and an amazing discount on new models fitting a mid-high range trim into my budget. Unfortunately, due to new ECO regulations, Opel halted production of all the petrol models so I couldn't get the car any time soon.
And so we come to Seat - The Ibiza I had was an extremely fun car to drive, but the price range on new Leons was somewhere near the price of the Golf which made it out of the budget. However, the local dealership had a huge promotion on leftover FR models which lowered the price by a noticeable amount so here I am today
The good
After a month with the car, I can easily say I'm overall very pleased with pretty much everything with only a few tiny nitpicky details. First off - design: The car just looks great - both on the inside and the outside. Interior images found on the web just don't do the car justice. Especially when paired with the LED interior lights which are a completely useless overkill but they are so much fun to fiddle with and just make the car look like a shiny new toy you give to your kid that puts a smile on his face.
The infotainment system is good, but it does look a tiiiiiny bit blurry. As if the graphics are made for the smaller version and just upscaled to the new 8'' screen. But overall it works fine. It's not sluggish like some other infotainments and the Seat sound system is just brutally good. Even with the subwoofer set at 0 (mid point) you still get very strong bass sounds.
Driving position is (as expected) fantastic. With all the options for adjusting the wheel and the seats - you can find a perfect position easily. The seats are very good at keeping you comfy and firmly in place around tight corners. They are also positioned nicely so you can easily rest your arm either on the door armrest, or the door itself depending on your habit. The hand rest in the middle is a tiiiiiiny bit too low for my taste, but that's easily adjustable by simply pulling it up by a single notch.
Front visibility is great mostly due to slimmer A pillars (much better than what I was used to on my old car), and side visibility is also good. Back visibility is not as good due to the small rear window, a smaller rear-mirror (all cars of the same class have a bigger rear mirror), and huge C pillars - but it's not as bad as in the new Astra or the Mazda 3 which have angled rear windows so it makes it even harder to maneuver in the back.
Boot-size is fine. Not sure how it compares to other cars since I don't care much about boot-space, and coming from a small car it's an upgrade anyway.
The suspension is firm but not uncomfortable. However, you will feel potholes a bit more than, let's say, the Astra or the Mazda 3. But the second you start jumping into corners - you'll be very thankful on how the Leon handles.
The bad
Now for the only bad thing about the car... And that's the gearbox... Not sure if mine needs adjustments but you need to be VERY precise to shift gears. Also - shifting into gear requires a noticeable amount of force in comparison to putting the gearbox OUT of gear. It's as if the gearbox has a ridge inside that you need to go over every time you shift into gear. I'm not talking about gear grinding or the clutch not being pressed fully - it's just some weird resistance from the gearbox itself.
Strangely, putting it into neutral goes smooth every time. I also noticed the "ridge" goes away when you're actually not driving and the engine is off so it makes it even weirder. In comparison to, let's say, the new Astra or a Mazda 3 - this is by far the worst gearbox of all the cars I test-drove. If you manage to shift perfectly - the car is insanely fun to drive... But it starts to get annoying when you need to pinpoint the gear every now and then or when you feel gearbox resistance when shifting.
The other thing that's a bit annoying (but now I'm just being picky) is the sensitivity of the start/stop system which literally turns the engine off immediately after you slow down in traffic and put the gear into neutral. So if you come to a halt just before the red-light which swaps to green in 2 sec after - you'll end up in turning your engine on-and-off very frequently in traffic.
Yes I know - you can just keep the clutch down but I don't want to, nor I'm used to it. Plus - I don't want to keep guessing for how long the red light will be on. I wish you could actually set it up to have a "grace period" after halt. Because I usually shift into neutral as soon as I see I'm about to stop and the car often shuts down the engine while I'm still rolling at 5km/h in neutral
Earlier this year I decided to buy a new car and was on a fixed budget. I test-drove all the mid-class segment cars since I actually always owned small-town cars like the Punto, Ibiza, Corsa...
I found the new Focus very plasticky on the inside and I really disliked the interior design with tons of random buttons on the dashboard. The Golf was OK, but once you add a few extra stuff inside, the price shoots through the roof. Mazda 3 was beautiful. Fantastic interior, probably the best gearbox/clutch combo in any of the cars I've tried but the 2.0 n/a petrol engine didn't feel quite nippy as I expected.
And then there was the Astra. Nice looking design (both interior and exterior), good engine and an amazing discount on new models fitting a mid-high range trim into my budget. Unfortunately, due to new ECO regulations, Opel halted production of all the petrol models so I couldn't get the car any time soon.
And so we come to Seat - The Ibiza I had was an extremely fun car to drive, but the price range on new Leons was somewhere near the price of the Golf which made it out of the budget. However, the local dealership had a huge promotion on leftover FR models which lowered the price by a noticeable amount so here I am today
The good
After a month with the car, I can easily say I'm overall very pleased with pretty much everything with only a few tiny nitpicky details. First off - design: The car just looks great - both on the inside and the outside. Interior images found on the web just don't do the car justice. Especially when paired with the LED interior lights which are a completely useless overkill but they are so much fun to fiddle with and just make the car look like a shiny new toy you give to your kid that puts a smile on his face.
The infotainment system is good, but it does look a tiiiiiny bit blurry. As if the graphics are made for the smaller version and just upscaled to the new 8'' screen. But overall it works fine. It's not sluggish like some other infotainments and the Seat sound system is just brutally good. Even with the subwoofer set at 0 (mid point) you still get very strong bass sounds.
Driving position is (as expected) fantastic. With all the options for adjusting the wheel and the seats - you can find a perfect position easily. The seats are very good at keeping you comfy and firmly in place around tight corners. They are also positioned nicely so you can easily rest your arm either on the door armrest, or the door itself depending on your habit. The hand rest in the middle is a tiiiiiiny bit too low for my taste, but that's easily adjustable by simply pulling it up by a single notch.
Front visibility is great mostly due to slimmer A pillars (much better than what I was used to on my old car), and side visibility is also good. Back visibility is not as good due to the small rear window, a smaller rear-mirror (all cars of the same class have a bigger rear mirror), and huge C pillars - but it's not as bad as in the new Astra or the Mazda 3 which have angled rear windows so it makes it even harder to maneuver in the back.
Boot-size is fine. Not sure how it compares to other cars since I don't care much about boot-space, and coming from a small car it's an upgrade anyway.
The suspension is firm but not uncomfortable. However, you will feel potholes a bit more than, let's say, the Astra or the Mazda 3. But the second you start jumping into corners - you'll be very thankful on how the Leon handles.
The bad
Now for the only bad thing about the car... And that's the gearbox... Not sure if mine needs adjustments but you need to be VERY precise to shift gears. Also - shifting into gear requires a noticeable amount of force in comparison to putting the gearbox OUT of gear. It's as if the gearbox has a ridge inside that you need to go over every time you shift into gear. I'm not talking about gear grinding or the clutch not being pressed fully - it's just some weird resistance from the gearbox itself.
Strangely, putting it into neutral goes smooth every time. I also noticed the "ridge" goes away when you're actually not driving and the engine is off so it makes it even weirder. In comparison to, let's say, the new Astra or a Mazda 3 - this is by far the worst gearbox of all the cars I test-drove. If you manage to shift perfectly - the car is insanely fun to drive... But it starts to get annoying when you need to pinpoint the gear every now and then or when you feel gearbox resistance when shifting.
The other thing that's a bit annoying (but now I'm just being picky) is the sensitivity of the start/stop system which literally turns the engine off immediately after you slow down in traffic and put the gear into neutral. So if you come to a halt just before the red-light which swaps to green in 2 sec after - you'll end up in turning your engine on-and-off very frequently in traffic.
Yes I know - you can just keep the clutch down but I don't want to, nor I'm used to it. Plus - I don't want to keep guessing for how long the red light will be on. I wish you could actually set it up to have a "grace period" after halt. Because I usually shift into neutral as soon as I see I'm about to stop and the car often shuts down the engine while I'm still rolling at 5km/h in neutral
