Opinions please on a couple of cars.

tech77

I'm interested in a couple of cars at the moment. I'd like some advice on them:

1) 02 Seat Leon. 1.4l. 5dr hatchback. 34k miles. 'Excellent condition'. 6950 euro.

2) 01 Citroen Xsara Coupe VTR. 1.4l. 3dr. 49k miles. 2 lady owners. 'Excellent condition'. 5200 euro.

From the descriptions do either of these sound like a good buy.
Which one in your opinion sounds like the better buy.

More generally, what are Seat Leons and Citroen Xsaras like for reliability and fuel economy.
Also might be a trivial point but are Xsaras generally regarded as being more suited for women.

Any advice would be great.
Thanks.

colm_mcm

Xsaras are similar to Peugeot 306, which dates back to the early 90's. Leon is based on the Mk.4 Golf, which is a thoroughaly more modern and safe design. I would avoid Xsaras unless they're at a bargain price, The one you're looking at is far too expensive for what it is.
From what I remember of them, the Xsara has better ride comfort, and better handling than the Leon, but the quality of interior on the Leon is light years ahead of the Citroen. the dash in the Leon is similar to that of the A3, although they saved the high grade plastic for the Audi.

Of the two, I'd say the Leon is clearly the better buy.

tech77

colm_mcm wrote:

Xsaras are similar to Peugeot 306, which dates back to the early 90's. Leon is based on the Mk.4 Golf, which is a thoroughaly more modern and safe design. I would avoid Xsaras unless they're at a bargain price, The one you're looking at is far too expensive for what it is.
From what I remember of them, the Xsara has better ride comfort, and better handling than the Leon, but the quality of interior on the Leon is light years ahead of the Citroen. the dash in the Leon is similar to that of the A3, although they saved the high grade plastic for the Audi.

Of the two, I'd say the Leon is clearly the better buy.

Cheers.
I thought the Leon would be a safe enough bet myself (It's basically a VW isn't it underneath?).
My father said they aren't that reliable though.
I also like the look of the Leon- seems like a decent sized motor for the price.
And the mileage isn't bad on it.

Do you know if either of these models are renowned for giving problems.
I heard french cars weren't the best- any truth in this?

milltown

Leon without a doubt.

The only bit of trouble I had with mine, which was also an '02 (a few years ago) with 60 odd thousand miles on a 2 year old car, was the starter solenoid wire falling off once so it wouldn't start. Found the loose wire, pushed it back on and was motoring again in 5 minutes.

Economy was better than the 1.0L Ibiza it replaced, about 40 - 45 MPG if memory serves. Build quality was fantastic, a really solid car. Gearing is a little bit low so the trade-off for decent performance out of a 1.4 is it's a bit revvy at motorway speeds.

Might be looking for one again in the near future if I can find one with a/c. I'd probably go for a 1.6 though to make motorway driving a bit more relaxed.

As with any car purchase, decide what you want and what you would like and take your time finding the right one.

tech77

milltown wrote:

Leon without a doubt.

The only bit of trouble I had with mine, which was also an '02 (a few years ago) with 60 odd thousand miles on a 2 year old car, was the starter solenoid wire falling off once so it wouldn't start. Found the loose wire, pushed it back on and was motoring again in 5 minutes.

Economy was better than the 1.0L Ibiza it replaced, about 40 - 45 MPG if memory serves. Build quality was fantastic, a really solid car. Gearing is a little bit low so the trade-off for decent performance out of a 1.4 is it's a bit revvy at motorway speeds.

Might be looking for one again in the near future if I can find one with a/c. I'd probably go for a 1.6 though to make motorway driving a bit more relaxed.

As with any car purchase, decide what you want and what you would like and take your time finding the right one.

Thanks for the review.
Yeah i initially thought Seat Leon.
However i checked out the whatcar survey and the Seat Leon isn't mentioned in the top 100. Likewise it's not mentioned in the Topgear survey as far as i can see.
The Xsara is in the top 20 of the whatcar survey..

On the other hand on the www.carsurvey.org site most people seem happy with the Seat Leon in their personal reviews.
A fair few people slate the Xsara on the site however.

So it's hard to know.

milltown

Could be that they didn't have enough respondants with the new model Leon to make the survey. Seats are not selling so well now that they all look the same.