Seat Leon 1.9 TDi 110 SE

Had this from 3 years old. Serviced it regularly and it keeps on going. Gret road holding and torque.

After owning 3 Golfs I thought of saving some money and bought a brand new Seat Leon 110 TDI, big mistake! Although the parts come from the same bin, the Seat is put together by Spanish workers at a Spanish factory in Spain and that is a big problem.

Every imaginable seal leaked water, doors, rear and front lights, aircon housing and rear wiper, in the morning it was like stepping into a wet tent after spending 3 nights at Glastonbury.

The dealer was useless as well, instead of caring for their product I got a lot of shoulder shrugging and they did not care, I contacted Seat UK and got the same kind of reaction.

In the end after a dozen visits to the Seat dealer I had everything fixed and I sold it the next day before anything else could go wrong.

So Seat may use all the VW parts but their built quality is not of VW level, far from it. don't be fooled.

I bought this car from the Seat dealership in Letchworth after I had taken it for a test drive and fallen instantly in love with it.

Now, seven years down the track the car still looks beautiful, the engine is as good as when I bought the car despite having 164,000 miles on the clock.

This car is a real gem and I only hope my next Seat is as good.

This is my fourth happy year of driving the Seat Leon SE TDI 130bhp model, and after 80k miles I haven't got a bad word to say about the car. The engine is fantastic; responsive and full of torque. The turbo starts boosting from just below 2000rpm so it keeps up with its petrol counterparts easily as it's low-mid range pull is excellent.

On the road, the Leon feels squat and sturdy, sticks to it's line and handles in a very precise and steady manner. I've thrown it around a bit and its difficult to lose grip, even deliberately, with the TCS on. Once you know the car and are comfortable enough to to explore what it has to offer you wont be disappointed, it's an absolute pleasure to drive! It always seems to deliver power when you want it, and when it does, it's always got that bit more to give, just in case you need it. The sport seats are comfortable although I miss not being able to adjust the angle of the seat base. Well equipped when it comes to kit. It seems like a lot of thought has gone into the vast array of gadgets and toys onboard (all planned and laid out sensibly), and the 8 speaker system is one of the best standard fits I've heard. The car was originally one of the dealerships fleet/demo cars, I bought it a year old with 7k on the clock. It needed replacement rear shocks after the first 10k which Seat did under warranty and have had no further problems with it, until recently an intermittent fault has developed with the brake lights. Customer service from Seat has always been excellent with service/repair costs at the high end of reasonable. Road tax is cheap and you can easily get 50mpg out of it. The Leon comes highly recommended by me and others who have driven my car. I would be quite happy to run this one til it dies!

This car i.e. the 110 TDi SEAT Leon is absolutely the best car I have ever owned.

I bought it second hand FSH with 60K on the clock all motorway miles ex rep car.

It now has 165,000 miles on the clock. (that's 105K driven by me). All motorway miles on my daily round trip to work of 106 miles.

Only one issue which was still under warranty was a failed air mass meter a common VAG group car fault.

Having a normally aspirated Peugeot 306 1.9D previously I never even realised there was a problem with the mass meter, as performance easily outstripped the Pug. When the new meter went on (free of charge) it felt like a Ferrari.

Service costs, tyres (three sets) and brake discs (1 set)/pads (two sets so far)

That's the only spend which I think you'll agree is not bad at all for 105,000 miles driving.

I never tire of driving this car!

I have the Seat Leon 1.9 TDi 110 SE 130bhp version. The VAG groups input is obvious. However I am not sure where this was put together (not Germany I would imagine). The car is great and I feel I got a great deal. It's fast (but not licence losing by accident) and does 50mpg without much care. After only a few months the cabin had about 5 different vibrations and rattles. There are also two different ones coming from under the bonnet (not diesel engine noises). Due to the 3 year warranty, the car went back and Seat almost fell over themselves with potential fixes. I was amused as this is my second Seat and they identified one of the noises as a common fault that my first car had with the back seats. As they failed to deal with this in my first car, I already knew about this problem and it wasn't one that my new car had, as yet. This concerned me as they gave this as a fix done (but wasn't wrong in the first place). Sure enough I got into my car and the rear parcel shelf still resonated during the mid range revs and the air bag still rattled. The under bonnet issue was as bad as ever and although they said one noise was the engine cover (which they claimed to have sorted), both noises where in evidence straight away. The second noise was more concerning, they claimed it was an air con pipe (which is an alloy) touching the cabin bulkhead. More annoying was their admission that they couldn't find the area or bit in question. To sum it up, I gave them a car with annoying (not I admit serious) problems and they fixed a problem that didn't exist and missed all the reported ones. I wanted to deal with it myself but found that they do not do a Haynes manual for this car at all.

I'd think twice before buying from Seat.

This was the first car I had ever paid for brand new, despite having said I would always buy second hand. One drive of the Leon TDi 110 was enough to convince me to buy new. I have owned the car for over four years and in 60K+ miles I have never had any trouble. The performance is very good and fuel economy over 50mpg. There are many nice little touches, like electronically folding door mirrors, climate control, time delay lighting on exit etc., which have made this a very enjoyable car to own. The best thing about it, however, is the drive, which is the best I have had in over 30 years of driving. My only gripe has been the softness of the silver paint, which scuffs easily and the difficulty in getting the correct seat position which can give you a numb bottom after 90 mins or so driving. I am now to change my car and the only reason I am not buying another Leon is that there are no Seat garages anywhere near where I live. This car is thoroughly recommended for anyone who likes driving.

The Seat Leon is great fun to drive, stiff suspension gives real enjoyment. The ride can be poor especially on bumpy roads at low speeds. The ride improves on motorway. The ride often gives passengers the impression that they're travelling fast when in fact it's just the sporty feel. Acceleration generally good but first rate on motorways seems to accelerate faster as speed increases. Good fuel economy amazing if driven with care. Fun sporty car without being too expensive to run. I had air mass meter fail straight after service at Kwik Fit. I picked it up like that so can't tell whether car or garage to blame. Also annoying intermittant fault with horn, sods law fail to work during MOT.

I like the look of the Seat Leon, and the performance is good, but I'm just so gutted that such a new car (51 plate) with so little miles on the clock has had such a BIG problem costing £2500. This is a 4 year old car, which has been serviced annually. There has been no warning. I am lucky I have got a boyfriend that noticed the smell of oil, otherwise I would have broken down somewhere not knowing what on earth to do. I am really upset that I've spent so much money on the car. I am only 20 years old, so to me this is a lot of money, and now I have got to pay out again!!