Seat Leon TDI 150 Cupra or Astra SRi 1.9 CDTi 150? | Motoring discussion | Back Room Forum

Thu 27 Mar 2008 08:34

Seat Leon TDI 150 Cupra or Astra SRi 1.9 CDTi 150? - DP

A friend is about to buy her first diesel due to a quadrupling of her commute mileage. She's narrowed it down to the two cars above:

Both 100,000 milers with full service histories, the Seat's on an 04 and the Vauxhall on an 05. Both 6750 from indie dealers with warranties. She's driven both and thought the Seat was the nicer car, but preferred the Astra's engine saying it was smoother and delivered its power more progressively.

She rang me for advice and I struggled to be honest. My gut feeling is the PD engine is a safer higher mileage bet, but then I also know of horror stories with these 150 versions.

She has decided on one of these two cars. She also drove a Fabia vRS, but couldn't get comfy in it.

Which of these two would you go for, and why?

Cheers
DP

make/model choice dropped as asking about more than one car

Edited by Webmaster on 27/03/2008 at 12:38

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Thu 27 Mar 2008 09:14

TDI 150 Cupra or Astra SRi 1.9 CDTi 150? - Round The Bend

Cupra for me. I've not driven either so only subjective view but the Astra strikes me as more run of the mill than the Seat.

Could n't she find lower mileage versions of each?

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Thu 27 Mar 2008 10:24

TDI 150 Cupra or Astra SRi 1.9 CDTi 150? - DP

It comes down to budget. 7k is absolute max. Dealers want 9-10k for either with anything approaching average miles.

She said both felt tight and responsive even with these miles.

I'm with you, my preference would be the Seat for the tough PD engine, and that, to my eyes anyway, it's a gorgeous looking car in Cupra trim, but in terms of hard facts about why one is better than the other, I came up short.

She's completely undecided. Her boyfriend, who is a Vauxhall fan, is staying well out of it apparently! :-)

Cheers
DP

Edited by DP on 27/03/2008 at 10:28

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Thu 27 Mar 2008 12:15

TDI 150 Cupra or Astra SRi 1.9 CDTi 150? - RichardW

High annual miles soon turns an average mile car into a high miler - I know I do 25+k / year. 100k starting point is IMHO the wrong place to be - plenty of potential for bill bills to be looming - DMF anyone? I'd be tempted* to spend half the money on a slighly older car with less miles where you will most likely get at least 2 years / 50k without aything going wrong.

* oh, exactly what I did - 2001X Xantia HDi estate for £3k, 50k miles at end of Aug last year. 16k so far without hardly a murmur.

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Thu 27 Mar 2008 13:22

TDI 150 Cupra or Astra SRi 1.9 CDTi 150? - SpamCan61 {P}

I agree that 100K on the lcock is not a good place to start if you're going to put high milage on a car. Ok that's exactly what I do, but I'm buying bangernomics stuff for a grand downwards, not nearly 7K for a car which will be pretty much worthless in 3 years.

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Fri 28 Mar 2008 09:05

TDI 150 Cupra or Astra SRi 1.9 CDTi 150? - SpamCan61 {P}

Thinking about the OP's actual question wouldn't the Astra potentially suffer from the swirl gate problem mentioned by HJ in the Vectra c-b-c entry, presumably it's the same engine?

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Fri 28 Mar 2008 09:47

TDI 150 Cupra or Astra SRi 1.9 CDTi 150? - SuperBuyer

As the owner of a Golf GTI with the same engine in it, and also had a Vectra with the 150bhp diesel lump in it, I would say the Leon everytime. The PD engine does have reliability (mine currently has 128K on the clock, 2004 model). The only things to be aware of are:- (these are Golf issues, but I would think they would be the same on the Leon)

Cambelt change due at 60K - worth having the water pump changed at the same time.
A/C fans can fail - £400 to replace apparently.
Correct Oil is vital - check service history. Is it longlife servicing (ie variable)?
The 150 engines are known to sometimes self-destruct. This seems to affect older models (upto 2003), but it might start to affect the 'newer' models soon.

But, in short, buy the Leon. I did the same thing with the Golf, bought at 107K last August, so 20K since then means I'm also a high mileage driver!

Let us know what she decides!

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