Hello,

I'm looking for some non-biased optionings of the cupra R, has anyone owned one? driven one? previously looked at buying?

i'm just looking to obtain if the are a sensible car to consider as i've taken rather a liking to them recently and with the Marea being nothing but a brokem money pit i've thinking about jumping boat with it...

i picked up a little info on them but it didnt seem anything to really worry about just the cambelt, waterpump the same as the marea and then the usual car stuff.

Thank you,
Ry

bulldog5046 said:

Hello,

I'm looking for some non-biased optionings of the cupra R, has anyone owned one? driven one? previously looked at buying?

i'm just looking to obtain if the are a sensible car to consider as i've taken rather a liking to them recently and with the Marea being nothing but a brokem money pit i've thinking about jumping boat with it...

i picked up a little info on them but it didnt seem anything to really worry about just the cambelt, waterpump the same as the marea and then the usual car stuff.

Thank you,
Ry

Click to expand...

if you want something of similar spec but better mpg and a bomb proof engine you cant go wrong with a civic type r
but i think cupra type r looks better

the Civic just isnt 'me' though which is the problem.

i really been struggling finding cars i like within my budget, i'm not really after an out and out sports car, i want something casual but with some good punt behind it.

my inital choice was the BMW Z4 Coupe until i saw the prices, and then i grew affection for the 2.5l Roadster with a hardtop which fell within budget.

only a day to i discovered the Curpa R and it fell much better into everything i was looking for, it fits better into my budget, insurance is cheaper not being a BMW, it looks very nice and still casual but has some real punt behind it.

i'm not worried about low mpg as i expect that but reliability is what i'm looking for, a worthy note is that i'm bored of the modifying game now so intend to keep it standard mechanically atleast.

Thanks,
Ry

its a seat. see foxys thread on this board!

love the old cupra R although they are a money pit as well so the benefits arent there for you + higher insurance group IIRC

Hi mate,

I had an 03 reg LCR. Main things to look out for are, as you've already mentioned, Cambelt and water pump. They also suffer from coil failure, so look out for ones with slight hesitation on pick-up. Another common problem, was water in the footwells. This is caused by a leak in the bulkhead. Seat are aware of it any many were recalled under warently to have it fixed. Look out for the usual with regaurds to the turbo (blue smoke from exhaust on boost etc). They do whine a bit, but thats normal. For the power it produces, its a very understated car imo. I went for the 220bhp version, but there was a lower power one at around 200-210bhp iirc if your worried about insurance.

Hope that helps,
Alan

Worked on them a few years back and they always felt solid to drive, decent interior with loads of practicality and styling always looked good.

They run 225 standard from the 1.8 20vt engine which is more than the 2.0 TFSI fitted in the VAG range now.

I remember that all SEAT dealers at the time were required to have trackers fitted to each car before selling them on to customers as per insurance companies requests .

Never remembered any big faults or major problems with them, they normally only came in for servicing etc, but like mentioned coils were a problem and water ingress was also quite common.

a1ant said:

Hi mate,

I had an 03 reg LCR. Main things to look out for are, as you've already mentioned, Cambelt and water pump. They also suffer from coil failure, so look out for ones with slight hesitation on pick-up. Another common problem, was water in the footwells. This is caused by a leak in the bulkhead. Seat are aware of it any many were recalled under warently to have it fixed. Look out for the usual with regaurds to the turbo (blue smoke from exhaust on boost etc). They do whine a bit, but thats normal. For the power it produces, its a very understated car imo. I went for the 220bhp version, but there was a lower power one at around 200-210bhp iirc if your worried about insurance.

Hope that helps,
Alan

Click to expand...

excellent post, thanks for that!

also cleared up why i had seen a few people advertising them as 210bhp, i assumed it was a typo/user misunderstanding.

how is it to drive if you dont mind me asking?

Ry

Considering you've got over 200BHP through the front wheels, it handled very well. Obviously you had to be careful with when you put the power on coming out of greasy bends or exiting roundabouts. IIRC the suspension was based on the golf gti setup, but they improved it. I found that you could get lift off overseer if you went careful sometimes, but i cant remember if that was before or after i went onto coilovers! One of the things i liked about it the most, was that if you drove it calmly, it didnt feel like a sport hatch... was a very comfortable ride. The power delivery was smooth when keeping the revs low etc.... but when you booted it and gave it some, the turbo and all 20v's came into play and it felt like a quick car! Definatley is possible to use an LCR as a daily driver.

I just noticed you mentioned about MPG... i used to get around 30-35MPG when driving sensibly, i think i had it down to about 10MPG when i thrashed it.

Brakes/tyres aren't cheap, but again, thats what you expect with a car running over 200BHP.

Tracker shoud be fitted as standard..... make sure you get all the paperwork for it from the previous owner and re-register it in your own name. (i forgot for a while!)

Alan

Check clutch operation on all Seats (all VAG really) they are complete barstewards with the pedalbox cracking up repeatedly (300-500 quid a time) causing loss of gears, oh and gearboxes too...

Take a look on www.seatcupra.net

again excellent posts guys

thank you very much for the info, looks like i may well be test driving on in the near future

Thanks again,
Ry

I like the old Cupra R, I know Emma's Dad liked his.

As said they earlier ones are 210PS(207bhp) and later ones 225PS (222bhp) remember its German so the power figures are listed in PS.

The reason the earlier models are slightly lower figure is VAG decided at that point the higher output engines were only available to VW/Audi stuff, the 210PS engine available to SEAT and Skoda to create a differance and merit the extra expense on the "premium" branded cars which in essence had same chassis and drive trains.

This changed when they wanted to re-launch SEAT as the sporting brand that appealed to younger buyers entering Touring cars and as such increasing profile.

It should be noted that there are IIRC more than 20 variants of the 1.8L 4pot 20V engine, the most obvious being the higher output cars (210/225) have lower compression ratio over lower output cars (150/180). There are also different heads, cranks pistons you name it, there's differences, though as you are going to buy a quick car as standard no need to worry on that front. I only know that as I know someone who does 20V conversions on Lotus Elise's so strips/checks and rebuilds where necessary the engines before fitting them.

Emma's Dad keeps a fastidious record of all his cars and fuel used going back many many years and the Leon was averaging 27/28mpg IIRC over 9 months of ownership being used on his daily commute in rush hour traffic where MPG is never going to be great, for example the Audi A3 TDi he had only returned 36mpg on same journeys so all in for performance on offer pretty good returns.

leon cupra R is mint in every possible way. its so hard to believe there is a mk4 golf underneath. the mk4 golf handled like a pig, but the leon some how corners wonderfully. i'll never understand that.

the leon looks better inside and out too, and it was cheaper, yet the golf still sold better. i'll never understand that either.

personally i'd rather have a diesel cupra or FR. with a remap they are pretty much the same performance as a standard petrol version, but more reliable and cheaper to run. on the other hand the petrol versions are hard to sell these days so a bargain can be had.