Cut price mk5.5 GTI anyone?

[DRC]

Apart from my interior being abit drap, I'm so glad i went back to the Leon.
The facelift model offers some serious spec upgrades, but I just prefer the look of the pre-facelift, it just looks much more mean!
Yes, I have back breaking suspension, bad blind spots etc, but apart from Sat Nav, my Cupra is kitted out with the majority of stuff that's standard on the new FR+.
You have to remember, back then in 2007 onwards, the Cupra came with Bi-Xenons, headlamp washers, folding wing mirrors, cruise control, 18" wheels, tinted windows etc, all as standard. Other then the likes or Audi and BMW etc, there weren't many other manufacturers that offered them as standard on a £20k hot-hatch.
There are downsides to my car, the interior, a few rattles etc but she's 4 years old, and I still get looks as I drive past people in the street, as I fly past people with the 240 ponies and then stop quicker then them with the mahoosive brakes.
It was a good hot-hatch, for decent money and I guess it's my little tribute to it, as the Cupra is to be no more.

Only the FR+ and stupidly priced Cupra R, will be offered.
And with new EU regs, who's to say the 211ps and 265ps engines will still be around this time next year?
I'm proud to pay stupid amounts of tax to keep it on the road, life won't be the same without the original 2.0 hot-hatch engines, but now to be replaced by the likes of a dinky 1.6 with a great- big turbo on instead.
Shame really.

[R32UK]

It was the blind spots that killed the MK2 leon for me. I can warm to the potatohead man looks in certain colours. I just could not get away with the blind spots created by the front quarterlights and the rear pillars. Apart from that im a huge SEAT fan always will be. I defected to SEAT when VW lost the plot with the mk3 Golfs and only came back with the Mk5 in 2005. VW have imo got gready and have cut corners were as an Engineer i think count but covered this up to please the masses and blind jounos with touchy feely plastics  SEAT dont seem to have done this when i have had a good look at them which i respect them for.

spot on

please the journos and the rest are expected to follow

[PenguinGTI]

It was the blind spots that killed the MK2 leon for me. I can warm to the potatohead man looks in certain colours. I just could not get away with the blind spots created by the front quarterlights and the rear pillars. Apart from that im a huge SEAT fan always will be. I defected to SEAT when VW lost the plot with the mk3 Golfs and only came back with the Mk5 in 2005. VW have imo got gready and have cut corners were as an Engineer i think count but covered this up to please the masses and blind jounos with touchy feely plastics  SEAT dont seem to have done this when i have had a good look at them which i respect them for.

spot on

please the journos and the rest are expected to follow

I have to say I agree with this also.

Apart from my interior being abit drap, I'm so glad i went back to the Leon.
The facelift model offers some serious spec upgrades, but I just prefer the look of the pre-facelift, it just looks much more mean!
Yes, I have back breaking suspension, bad blind spots etc, but apart from Sat Nav, my Cupra is kitted out with the majority of stuff that's standard on the new FR+.
You have to remember, back then in 2007 onwards, the Cupra came with Bi-Xenons, headlamp washers, folding wing mirrors, cruise control, 18" wheels, tinted windows etc, all as standard. Other then the likes or Audi and BMW etc, there weren't many other manufacturers that offered them as standard on a £20k hot-hatch.
There are downsides to my car, the interior, a few rattles etc but she's 4 years old, and I still get looks as I drive past people in the street, as I fly past people with the 240 ponies and then stop quicker then them with the mahoosive brakes.
It was a good hot-hatch, for decent money and I guess it's my little tribute to it, as the Cupra is to be no more.

Only the FR+ and stupidly priced Cupra R, will be offered.
And with new EU regs, who's to say the 211ps and 265ps engines will still be around this time next year?
I'm proud to pay stupid amounts of tax to keep it on the road, life won't be the same without the original 2.0 hot-hatch engines, but now to be replaced by the likes of a dinky 1.6 with a great- big turbo on instead.
Shame really.

Also have to agree with your tribute DRC. The Cupra has been a great hot hatch since it's release - and the K1 edition took the aggressive styling to the next level.

In the review world, the VW models tend to score the kudos with better plastics and interiors. In real life however, I find myself drawn more to a Leon FR than the comparable Golf GTD.

My only criticism (apart from the plastics and lack of interior design) is that I feel like I'm reeeaallly high up when I sit in a Leon. It's more like a people carrier inside than a sporty hatch.

[mac7]

There's a 60 plate Cupra R for sale on Autotrader with less than 5000 miles on the clock for £21K. Same 265bhp engine as the Rocco R - even more of a bargain.

£30k for a sloppy second? The world has gone mad and I am an inmate.

Sure has - it's the only way VW UK dealers can make any money on them - when they sell them the second time as a trade-in. All because of the exchange rate and IMO probably the main reason supply of performance Golfs is so limited here.

[DRC]

My only criticism (apart from the plastics and lack of interior design) is that I feel like I'm reeeaallly high up when I sit in a Leon. It's more like a people carrier inside than a sporty hatch.

See, I feel totally different. Because of the high roof in the Golf compared to the Leon has a much lower roof line. These are both made better with black roof lining which the GTI and Cupra both have
But when I had my Golf, it felt like I was driving a really big car, but it's not much bigger then the Leon.

[Exonian]

@Dan; is the cupra suspension that hard? From memory (I've only been for a brief ride in a Cupra) the suspension settings are softer than the FR and yet it handles slightly better. The Cupra also has better front wishbones which probably counter act the extra weight of the 345mm brakes. 
And you're not alone, I reckon 9/10 people prefer the pre facelift cars for looks. 
I reckon Cupras and VXRs and STs from the noughties will become quite sought after soon as the last generation of proper big ass engined turbo hot hatches. I guess the saving grace of the smaller engined cars coming through in the next generation of hot hatches (the things you'll be driving when you get to my age!!) is the better fuel efficiency and fast spool of the small capacity turbo engines which will be needed for the increasing traffic levels when you will only ever have a quick spurt of acceleration unless you live in the North of Scotland and have bright orange hair.

@Mac; There are cheaper Cupra Rs out there than that, yellow fully specced car (60 plate) at Huddersfield SEAT for £18,900 and about three or four others for around £20k. There's a red one in Chingford that caught my eye for £20k, full spec on it too so that car would have been £26-27k 6 months ago!! If you think that's bad depreciation you'd be right! But it's balanced out by the fact that there have been a few people trying to sell their Scirocco Rs on the forums lately and their £30k cars are only fetching low twenties at best. I'd like to think these 265bhp cars depreciation will even out a bit after two years!! I can see why they are dropping so quickly in value, not just the recession but I think people are just getting fed up with the amount cars have gone up in the last few years, and where you would probably happily pay £20k for a SEAT (as it is still good value compared to Ford and Vauhall etc) you really would be very reluctant to pay upwards of £24k on a Leon which is due to be replaced in a year or so.
The Leon FR Diseasels (which, like Penguin, I prefer) have excellent resale values.

[Snoopy]

Funny you talk about the deisel. Its the first thing we said as we look at your thread. 'I wonder if the TDI is available in FR+ spec' and off to the SEAT website we went.  Its not helped we had a call from our local SEAT dealer yesterday asking if we got the latest promotional pack (we had not so its been resent) and if they could help in anyway.

[Exonian]

Yeah the TDI is but it isn't on the £19995 deal, only the petrol has the money off at present (due to it being a slow seller in the shadow of the Golf GTI and Leon Cupra).
If the TDI was on that deal I reckon I'd have sniffed out further discount, flogged the GTI to a VW dealer and jumped in. Mind you some of those cut price Cupra Rs keep calling out to me through the mists of the internet.........


SEAT have done another of their weird spec change things; the FR has now been downgraded to the former Sport spec and comes with the piddly output engines, and the FR+ is now a fully loaded old FR in run out spec. The Cupra has been temporarily binned (probably to re-emerge in mk3 Leon guise slightly dumbed down) and only the Cupra R sits at the top of the tree which makes sense as there was a bit of overkill there.

[am1w]

No comment. 

[Exonian]

No comment. 

Only because you'd miss me.