SEAT have ruined the LEON

[digitaria]

What I really don't like is the current trend of the 'stuck on the dash like an afterthought' tablet style infotainment systems that all manufacturers seem to be doing now - and putting stuff like heater controls on it is a really stupid and potentially dangerous idea. At least with buttons and levers you can feel for them without taking your eyes off the road.

I get that completely. It's not like infotainment screens are going anywhere - they're here to stay. But on many cars, even upmarket German models, the screen looks like an Android tablet glued to the dash. I like that on my Mk 3 Leon, the screen is integrated into the dash. I don't think I'm going to like the mk 4 arrangement.

What you need to understand is that they are not doing this to improve the car. They are doing it because it is cheaper!

I have come to this conclusion also. It is amazing the lengths they go to to save a few cents on a switch or a knob or a potentiometer. A touch screen to control audio volume or heating is beyond the pale. It's just not convenient. I was in a rental Renault Captur recently and the volume control was a rocker switch instead of a knob. Horrible! But it must save them 50c per unit or something.

 

[Seriously?]

Glad it's not just me. I was worried that I was becoming increasingly Meldrew-esque in my old age!
I'm by no means a technophobe; it's just that unnecessary tech for tech's sake winds me up.
How annoying is it going to be when you go to select a particular function on your new Leon's info screen, just to be greeted with

Showed Mrs Seriously the mark 4 video today; she's had her Mk3 ST for about 2 years and loves it. Would she buy a Mk4 to replace it?
I can't unfortunately share on a public forum what her response was. But it wasn't exactly a glowing endorsement of the new design

 

[BigJase88]

Glad it's not just me. I was worried that I was becoming increasingly Meldrew-esque in my old age!
I'm by no means a technophobe; it's just that unnecessary tech for tech's sake winds me up.
How annoying is it going to be when you go to select a particular function on your new Leon's info screen, just to be greeted with

Showed Mrs Seriously the mark 4 video today; she's had her Mk3 ST for about 2 years and loves it. Would she buy a Mk4 to replace it?
I can't unfortunately share on a public forum what her response was. But it wasn't exactly a glowing endorsement of the new design

My missus says its crap cause my mk3 is crap

 

[Mr Pig]

It is illegal to use a mobile phone while driving so how is it any more acceptable to use a touch screen to operate heating controls.

Exactly. I reckon these screens will have caused countless accidents and it's only going to get worse.

 

[squidie]

Rear looks good, the rest just remind me of a Hyundai or a Fiesta. It looks cheaper and smaller overall but can’t say anything else until consumers start getting their hands on them. By looks I can’t say I’ll be upgrading my 2015 model to this...

 

[Mr Pig]

Rear looks good..

I don't agree. I don't think the car looks special, or even good, from any angle. Also, notice that the hatch-mounted lights are all one piece. You know how expensive the LED lights on the current Leon are? Can you imagine how much that four-foot long light assembly is going to cost?? And you're going to have to replace the whole thing if any part of it fails or gets damaged.

 

[scuj1]

Don't quote me but there does look to be physical (or at least touch sensitive) buttons for the temperature at the bottom of the screen.

 

[SRGTD]

What I want to know is have SEAT put fabric in the glove box and door pockets this time around??

Just found this video on YouTube. The glove box isn’t fabric/felt lined (2min 44sec into the video); it’s still hard plastic;

 

[SRGTD]

Don't quote me but there does look to be physical (or at least touch sensitive) buttons for the temperature at the bottom of the screen.

It’s a touch sensitive panel, not physical buttons. The new Golf has the same set up.

IMO a touch sensitive panel is not really any easier to use than a touch screen, especially while driving. The reviewer covers the infotainment screen - specifically mentioning there being no physical buttons - from 3min 6sec to 3min 42sec in the video below;

 

[Mr Pig]

I was looking at other cars today and there is pretty much nothing about the styling of the new Leon which is not lifted from other cars. MG, Mazda, Nissan, Hyundai, just have a look the next time you are in a car park. They have also killed the features that were specific to the Leon and gave it its identity. They have produced a bland, boring identikit car.

For me though the real killer is on the inside. I hate electric handbrakes but removing the buttons for the heating is too far, and they have also removed the rotary switch for the lights. That is totally idiotic! A cold, damp or gloved hand can grab that knob and work it. Turn it fully clockwise and you know what you've done, no need to check it or even look at it.

Even in the video the guy was prodding at those cheapo buttons and they weren't working. The whole panel could be seen flexing under the light pressure. How's that going to work when you've just scrapped the snow off your car and your hands are wet and frozen? Is the touchscreen going to let you turn the fan up?

Under perfect conditions it can take a couple of goes to change the radio station on my touchscreen and you certainly can't do it without looking at it while you do it. In the new Leon the same now applies to turning on your lights or adjusting the heater.

Sorry, car is off my list. Next car we buy might be a pre-2017 Leon but I'm not interested in one of these. Not just because of the things just mentioned but because I do not trust a manufacturer who is stupid enough to do the things just mentioned. Might look at a Hyundai. Why not? car looks much the same, has longer warranty and probably has real buttons.

 

[Degs]

I can't believe the headlight switches ! '' i'll just turn on my fog lamps,oh crap no headlights'' ,look nice and solid too
Think i'll give this one a miss,maybe if they give it a refresh in a few years and they sort out the dash
and front end then maybe..a shame really after owning five Leons, every time Seat released a new
model i've liked it..except for this one.

 

[SRGTD]

I can't believe the headlight switches ! '' i'll just turn on my fog lamps,oh crap no headlights'' ,look nice
and solid too

Agree. Car headlight touchpad low down, so not easy to see = high risk of unintentionally switching lights off = epic fail by Seat!

It wouldn’t have been such an issue if the lighting touchpad was in the driver’s line of sight; at least that would have made it a bit easier to operate. But that far down, below the dashboard ‘waistline’; surely only an imbecile would decide it should be located there!

Although the mk8 Golf uses the same type of touchpad for lights, it’s in a more sensible position - at the same height as (and next to) the instrumentation dials - so the driver can see it rather than having to fumble around near their knee to find it and then hope they prod the right part of the touchpad..........

 

[Mr Pig]

Agree. Car headlight touchpad low down, so not easy to see = high risk of unintentionally switching lights off = epic fail by Seat!

My son bought a runout Ibiza in 2017. When we went to pick the car up, I was checking for marks in the paint or other defects. All my son was interested in was how to connect his mobile phone! Sadly, we live in an age where people are more interested in their tech toys than basic functionality, safety or reliability. They'll sit in the car, see the big screen and want one. It's pathetic.

 

[SRGTD]

Sadly, we live in an age where people are more interested in their tech toys than basic functionality, safety or reliability. They'll sit in the car, see the big screen and want one. It's pathetic.

And car manufacturers know this all too well. They’ll have done their research and identified the target market for their vehicles and then fill them with the tech and toys that they think their identified target market must have.

I’m not a technophobe; in-car tech plays a useful role in the modern car. But IMO it needs to be designed into the car in a way that makes it safe and easy to use without causing distractions to the driver, that might result in an accident through loss of driver concentration.

 

[Leonfr140]

I'll admit I'm a bit like that, oohh a nice great big shiny screen with this and that! Although main reason for going with Seat and Leon was design, and then technology with those Led lights with mk3 that's what swayed me

Sent from my SM-G973F using Tapatalk

 

[red line fun]

Hopefully the current generation of touchscreens used by VAG aren’t susceptible to gremlins at the bottom end of extreme (very cold, sub-zero) temperature conditions like some of the early MIB 1 infotainment screens were.

I can remember quite a few instances on VW Golf forums where owners with the first generation MIB infotainment units experienced issues such as blank screens, unresponsive screens, radio channels changing on their own. One owner over on uk-polos.net experienced an intermittent blank active info display screen in their Polo GTI+ within the last 12 months, so loosing their instrumentation display (speed, rpm etc). Not a good situation to be in when you don’t know how fast you’re travelling with all the speed cameras around, or being able to check things such as fuel level, coolant temp etc. Hopefully this was a one-off and these screens will prove to be reliable. Time will tell.........

As the years roll by, it will be interesting to see how reliable these (critical) screens are. Give me good old fashioned actual instrument displays any day of the week. This is the unfortunate thing. If this trend continues, less and less cars will have dials, knobs etc. For those that want to keep the vehicle for a long period, if any of this elec/tech stuff breaks then repair bills will likely be £££. I don't mean to be down on the mk4 Leon specifically, as I touched on earlier I just can't be doing with functions becoming increasingly reliant on elec/tech, or not required at all.

 

[red line fun]

And car manufacturers know this all too well. They’ll have done their research and identified the target market for their vehicles and then fill them with the tech and toys that they think their identified target market must have.

I’m not a technophobe; in-car tech plays a useful role in the modern car. But IMO it needs to be designed into the car in a way that makes it safe and easy to use without causing distractions to the driver, that might result in an accident through loss of driver concentration.

I was watching a 'day in the life of ...' vlog on YouTube a few days back, girl in China driving to work. She had the news playing on the infotainment screen whilst driving! The narrator said something like 'and she can catch up on the news on her morning commute.'

Not saying that's legal in the UK, however as someone else touched on how is all this tech less distracting than using a mobile?

 

[Mr Pig]

As the years roll by, it will be interesting to see how reliable these (critical) screens are.

The crazy thing is that the touch buttons for the lights do not take up any less space than the knob. They're just cheaper and look fancy.

Before our first Leon our cars had a knob or roller to dim the dashboard lights at night. A genuinely nice feature if you're doing a long drive in the dark. The Leon has the same function but to access it you need to go into a menu on the screen, I think it's three or four steps? Not really something you want to be doing on a dark road. The result is that I've never used it, not once.

So we've got all this shite we don't need, like ambient lighting for our feet, but basic useful functions we can hardly use.

 

[SRGTD]

The crazy thing is that the touch buttons for the lights do not take up any less space than the knob. They're just cheaper and look fancy.

Before our first Leon our cars had a knob or roller to dim the dashboard lights at night. A genuinely nice feature if you're doing a long drive in the dark. The Leon has the same function but to access it you need to go into a menu on the screen, I think it's three or four steps? Not really something you want to be doing on a dark road. The result is that I've never used it, not once.

So we've got all this shite we don't need, like ambient lighting for our feet, but basic useful functions we can hardly use.

My 2016 VW has a convenient button on the lower section of the B pillar trim to switch off the interior motion sensors for the alarm if you need to leave the family dog in the car for short periods of time. VW have since deleted this button, and the facility to switch off the motion sensor in current VW’s is now buried in a sub menu, accessed via the infotainment screen. The Leon is the same - deactivation is by a menu setting accessed via the infotainment screen.

What could be easier than pressing a button on the B pillar to deactivate the interior motion sensor though? But it no doubt costs more to have a button to switch this function off, so we’re forced to navigate menus to do the same thing because it’s cheaper for VAG, even though IMO it’s much less intuitive for the customer.

As the years roll by, it will be interesting to see how reliable these (critical) screens are.

And how expensive they’ll be to replace when they fail. Although these screens are no doubt cheaper to manufacture than analogue instruments and conventional switches, buttons and knobs, I dare say that the customer will be charged a small fortune for a new screen if / when it fails outside the warranty period.

I read on a VW forum recently that an owner of an early mk7 Golf had been quoted £760 incl VAT a new screen for their infotainment unit! That cost doesn’t include fitting either........

 

[CupraGeezer]

My 2016 VW has a convenient button on the lower section of the B pillar trim to switch off the interior motion sensors for the alarm if you need to leave the family dog in the car for short periods of time. VW have since deleted this button, and the facility to switch off the motion sensor in current VW’s is now buried in a sub menu, accessed via the infotainment screen. The Leon is the same - deactivation is by a menu setting accessed via the infotainment screen.

What could be easier than pressing a button on the B pillar to deactivate the interior motion sensor though? But it no doubt costs more to have a button to switch this function off, so we’re forced to navigate menus to do the same thing because it’s cheaper for VAG, even though IMO it’s much less intuitive for the customer.

You can also deactivate the interior sensors by pressing the 'lock' button on the remote twice in quick succession.