2003 Seat Leon Cupra from UK and Ireland - Comments

Leaking door seals

Chipped paintwork

Misty headlights

New Gearbox required

3 new Coils

Poor starting

Poor performance

Dreadful economy

Rattle from glovebox and rear seat

Poor front tyre wear.

An awful car, bought to save money, but it spent more time at the dealers than it did on the road. "Taxi!"

You name it, it went wrong. First and last Seat. A heap of junk. Never again. It's a poor handling car too, but that's due to lousy design not poor build quality I guess.

I visited a couple of funny Seat owner web sites too - and I don't mean "Funny Ha Ha".

Back to Subaru in 3 weeks. At least they're reliable, fast and fun!

I'm entirely surprised. My Cupra R (bought new July 03) has been a paragon of reliability and quality. No rattles, no problems, excellent performance - in other words, everything which I (and all of the motoring press which has had them on long-term test) had hoped for. Your review is hard to believe.

Have to completely disagree, My seat Leon cupra are has been fine no warranty issues whatsoever after 20k,the previous cupra had coil packs go, but was dealt with by the roadside more than can be said of my company Audi a4 all warranty issues were long and drawn out not to mention usually expensive to resolve our. Company fleet comprises of a Citroen c5 that although fine is constantly recalled for urgent retrofit the last one being for all the wheels to be replaced!! A brand new bmw with the engine gone and bmw at first refusing liability and an Alfa 147 that in the end the lease company terminated the lease because Alfa uk couldn't fix the fault.

My Seat Toledo TDiSE has now done almost 89,000 miles. A truly fantastic car. Totally reliable and one of the best looking cars on the road.

Mmm I'm sensing a hidden agenda with this one.

Got a low mileage cupra 2001 model less than year ago with 10000 miles on it.

Lovely spec with electric black leather.

Quick car with poor tyres as standard. pirelli p6000. understeers badly.

Leaky door seals cause footwells to well up with water if it rains or when you wash car. it's going into dealer today to have this fixed. has there been an official recall about this. one dealer told me there had and another definately not?

Badly fitting dash (rattles)

mudflaps fitted by dealer do not fit well and cause mud and water to go behind plastic inner wing protector.

Rear seat folding mechinsn does not work.

Theres more tooo.

Anyway its good on the motorway, but bad on a and b roads where I spend most of my time.

I'm dissapointed and selling car after service today.

There is no hidden agenda in my case. The Seat Toledo I mentioned is the best car I have ever owned. I am just telling the truth!

My leon r has leak in back lights still 2 months later! even dealer says bet you wish you never bought it now! hes right!!!

Really surprised by this review. I have a 2003 Cupra 20vt and I absolutely love it. Power exactly where you want it (everywhere), solidly built and in my opinion the best looking hot hatch (except perhaps for the Cupra R!). Had no problems with it other than a dodgy temp sensor (which is a known fault, swapping to the later 'green top' version fixes it). A joy to drive on both country road blasts and motorway hauls. I'm planning on keeping mine for a long time!

My 2003 leon 1.8 20vt I bought in july 2007 with a full service history and 1 owner from new, bought, mot'd, serviced in the same garage from delivery, with only 45k on the clock. the performance is good (faster than most golf gti's on the road), and it looks very hot too. I am happy with this car as it feels solid and smooth on the road, throaty too! I've had cars with similar power, but this just takes off whenever you want providing you use the gearbox right to prevent turbo lag if reved too hard for too long so shift earlier than a not turbo to keep yourself pinned in your seat with a smile on your face. my only regret is not buying the cupra r istead of the cupra t.