[Fred99]

I live in Spain and currently have a Seat Leon Mk3 1.4tsi.

It's coming up to three years old and I am very seriously looking at the Ateca. I have test driven the 150tdi 4wd but will almost certainly buy the 1.4tsi DSG Xcellance with all the clever technology on it.

One thing that really impresses me about the Leon is the roadholding. The Ateca is almost as good, no understeer and no body roll. The Tdi/4WD is a lot heavier than the 1.4tsi and it does seem a bit underpowered due to that. It had 19" wheels and there was a lot of road noise.

I am trying to get a drive in the 1.4 but they only arrived at the dealers a week ago, so it will probably be a few weeks yet.

 

[Tell]

Afraid I'm getting increasingly despondent with Seat in the UK and feel I won't be getting an Ateca now for the following reasons

- leather only on the Xcellence so you can't have 4WD in cloth

- colour choice, none work for me, restricted silver colours apart from that bright silver, I like for the VW bronze silver that Seat used in the Altea called tungsten silver in VW speak, no metallic red in their line up

- discounts, pretty abysmal in the UK off the RRP since they haven't sorted out their fleet discounts yet so I'm told

- no rear sliding seats to balance boot v foot well space

- poor dealer network in the UK

Lovely Brexit by the combined parties self centred MPs on pocket lining and the Great British people being duped may well lead to car price rises in the UK in the next period. Renault hinting at it. The £ isn't off by 10 percent against the Euro, more like 6 percent on trends so sitting on the fence for Seat to get it's act together may cost you an additional 6 percent, less discounts that haven't been announced yet. I was going to wait till September to do a Tiguan / Ateca final check and wait on price discounts beyond but for sure will be moderated by the impact of Brexit.

Prognosis for me are there are better more expensive cars better equipped that fit the bill that are less pretty rather than one with yucky leather seats and a paint colour you don't like, the Ateca. Seat could just say OK you can have the Xcellence in cloth and more colours but their arrogance in the UK of knowing what we want rather than giving buyers a choice have just about lost their sale to me. Been a proud Seat owner for 12 years but my patience is running out on the flawed Ateca offer at launch in the UK. Elsewhere in Europe Seat local offices haven't handicapped the offer on upholstery, colour and engine choice. It makes no sense if you want sales. Seat UK'S management is seriously flawed and should concentrate on selling cars by giving customers choice as well as giving some of their dealer network a kicking. They to me have an ethos problem on what they are about. Their pinned up mission statement in their office probably says have fun, rather than sell cars.

 

[Rob]

I live in Spain and currently have a Seat Leon Mk3 1.4tsi.

It's coming up to three years old and I am very seriously looking at the Ateca. I have test driven the 150tdi 4wd but will almost certainly buy the 1.4tsi DSG Xcellance with all the clever technology on it.

One thing that really impresses me about the Leon is the roadholding. The Ateca is almost as good, no understeer and no body roll. The Tdi/4WD is a lot heavier than the 1.4tsi and it does seem a bit underpowered due to that. It had 19" wheels and there was a lot of road noise.

I am trying to get a drive in the 1.4 but they only arrived at the dealers a week ago, so it will probably be a few weeks yet.

Welcome to the forum Fred,

Glad to hear the Ateca handles well, which considering the increased ride height must be difficult to achieve.

What are you looking to do then, hold off until you can drive the engine you want?

 

[Fred99]

I will hold off ordering until I have tried the 1.4 or read a road test where they actually measure performance figures rather than relying on brochure figures. I have read comparisons between the 1.4tsi and the 150ps TDI and the comment is that the tsi needs more gearchanging than the tdi. Hardly surprising, but the auto box will solve that problem. Sadly, that is not an option in the UK, but in Spain it is and so is 4WD on the tsi.

I will be happy with delivery about the end of the year so I can wait. I am also tempted by the Samoa Orange but I need to see that in the flesh. It could look pretty good in the Spanish sun.

Incidentally, they have taken 700 firm orders in Spain before the car arrived at the dealers and 50% of the orders were for the 1.4tsi.

 

[Magpie86]

Welcome to the forum Fred! I am hoping samoa orange is nice, even in the UK rain as that is the colour I went for in the end. Close with white but that will get filthy.

The top gear magazine review I posted somewhere mentioned short gear ratios on the tsi I think. Made the 1.4 not quite as good as the TDI, and annoyed the reviewer. I'm intrigued how they drive, particularly the 1.0 where you find nothing but good reviews when in other cars, but the Ateca is a bit bigger. Interesting stuff. Be lovely if my test drive is in a 1.0, but I will report back if it is different regardless. Still a few weeks away anyway.

Sounds like a Tiguan is for you Tell. Less compromise. Or go even more upmarket. I still feel the Tiguan I am paying for a VW badge. May pop down and jump in one, they are supposedly lovely. That grill though.... The seat dealerships may be poor, but they have been good for me compared to my previous experiences with Fiat.

 

[Tell]

Magpie my first car was a Fiat, I learnt that petrol engines were bad as it ground to a stop with carburettor icing at about 5'c so I decided never petrol again, about 1993. Think it was the high compression ratio, did 55mpg which was good in those days.

I didn't have a problem with Seat MK dealer who looked after the car for 10 years but due to mothers death where I linked visiting to geting the car serviced, I shifted the service to London where my closest garage is happy to deliver the car back to me with the turbo charger pipe hanging and the next local garage didn't impress me. They were based on a decent garage that sold out. Local VW dealers although more expensive are local and would not lead to expense to get back from them.

It's sad since I would like to get an Ateca but the inforced leather seats for the DSG 4WD and the lack of paint choice are forcing me to look elsewhere. It's just stupid that Seat UK have taken this view on restricting choice on factory built cars against other SEAT markets, Daft and a bed they must lay on as other buyers I guess look at the top end option and say, no too rigid. If you want choice you have to look elsewhere. I think there is a window of opportunity to buy elsewhere before the Brexit price rises come through and that's before the UK Ateca launch, so Seat UK management have shot themselves in their foot by their poor approach to providing choice and discounts now. The specials you have beat the price rises if the spec is what you want. For me the Xcellence spec isn't what I want and I doubt it will be anything different by September. Eg. Seat UK will be arrogant to listening to potential owners complaints and what you see in the pre launch material is what you will see at launch, yucky enforced leather seats and restricted poor colour choice in the Xcellence. Obviously I will be more alienated if Seat then offers choice subsequently after I've bought the sister car that costs more in the right colour, cloth seats, digital front display with move able rear seats in a less pretty car. All written on nasty sticky when hot, cold when cold, leather seats in our rental apartment on travels.

 

[Magpie86]

Fair enough Tell! I appreciate that you are keeping the car for a long time as well so everything has to be just right. Colour especially! I reckon Seat may be more flexible in 6-12 months, but like you say that will cause resentment on your part! Brexit is a whole different issue and i am hoping it doesnt effect my finance to much. What a mess in that regard! Almost feel Seat seem like they have a quality car in their hands that could shake up the segment and a half hearted launch wont help. I dont mind, the rarer the car i am driving the better

 

[Tell]

Yes well Brexit has worked for me since I have 60 percent of my capital abroad so whilst markets have recovered exchange rates have taken a hit. So in a bizarre state of affairs that I'm richer now. My financial planning of diversification outside of the UK paid dividend.

On leather my shirt fell off the holiday rental leather sofa three times by itself stimulating what happens in a car on the back seat on leather