Seat being "retired"

murphm45

Can't see any thread on this so just thought I'd leave this hear to see what people's thoughts were.

Part of me is a bit indifferent given they're VW's in disguise but I do find some of them slight more aesthetically pleasing so a bit sorry to see them go.

Interested in other people's thoughts though

https://www.whatcar.com/news/seat-brand-to-stop-making-cars/n26083

DaveyDave

I think the Cupra brand is dumb and I'm saying that as someone who owns a Cupra Born. There's nothing wrong with offering performance models under the Seat brand. If GTI doesn't need its own brand then neither does Cupra.

I think it's their way of selling "upmarket" more expensive versions of VW. Seat cars aren't even cheaper anymore once you match the spec and the sporty brand image is already watered down now that the 1.5 petrol and diesel is available in the Cupra Leon even though we already had the Seat Leon FR which was a standard model with the sporty Cupra bodykit just like the Golf R Line.

The brand also doesn't work in Ireland. Nobody is buying a €60,000 Leon and the best selling Cupra is a diesel crossover.

It was better when it was just the Seat Leon Cupra and they were a rare sight on the road even though they were great value for money. I almost bought a 6 month old demo DSG model for €32k, to put that into perspective the list price of my 1 litre Golf Highline was €31k.

Casati

V odd - bring to the end the more basic 'SE' spec cars which always sold well from Ibiza to Tarraco - now entry will likely be 'V1' level - which is a level above FR spec. Will alientate the older customers who dont want the sporty looks or large alloys

Montage of Feck

Seems a bit weird to rebrand such a well known marque. But probably a sign that VW is battening down their hatches for the incoming onslaught of cheap Chinese EV's.

Miscreant

VW will still have Skoda as their "value" offering....... Even though it is not much of a value proposition any more.

Getting rid of SEAT is certainly an odd one though but then again, are they selling as many as they used to? I don't see all that many relatively new SEATs around the place and I think their heyday was in the late 1990s and early 2000s here. I doubt a SEAT would even cross most people's minds these days and if I mentioned CUPRA to a lot of people, they wouldn't have a clue either.

colm_mcm

Didn’t somebody high up in VW come out and say that SEAT wasn’t actually gonna be scrapped. This news happened late last year too after somebody said something ambiguous.

DaveyDave

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121100809#Comment_121100809

I wonder how many dealers there is for each brand as Seat sell a surprisingly low amount of cars in comparison. At the end of the day they're all more or less the same cars, similar prices etc.

My dealer was saying Seat weren't giving them any stock when I ordered my Born last year, I believe him with those numbers!

2023 YTD:

VW: 12,524

Skoda: 9,559

Seat/Cupra: 4,065

2022:

VW: 11,884

Skoda: 7,618

Seat/Cupra: 2,306

2021:

VW: 12,617

Skoda; 9,032

Seat/Cupra: 4,194

Miscreant

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121101147#Comment_121101147

Absolutely.

With about 4k cars per year (taking 2022 out of it), I would like to see how many of those are actually SEAT badged, seeing as they are all lumped in together. I see more new Cupra branded cars on the road nowadays, although I may just need to open the peepers a little more widely the next time I'm out and about.

Overall though, all 3 combined figures are in the mid 20k sales mark so they are not doing too badly as a group. 🙂

DaveyDave

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121101526#Comment_121101526

2023 / 2022 / 2021 / 2020 / 2019

Seat: 2,591 / 1,646 / 4,010 / 3,352 / 4,087

Cupra: 1,474 / 660 / 184

Skoda still around 7-9k in those years.

Maybe it's due to my close proximity to McCoy Motors but I've seen quite a few Formentors around the Lucan/Leixlip region this year and a growing number of Borns, I saw one every single day on my commute last week.

Leatra

There's an increasing number of Formentors around Cork as well, but I've seen only the barest handful of new Leons (Cupra or Seat) - probably as many Borns now as Leons. It's a shame. I think Seats, especially the hatchbacks, are gorgeous cars, but they just aren't selling here and aren't being pushed.

Buddy Bubs

They're all just rebranded cars on same platform nowadays from the VAG group and it's going that way more so. I'm a cupra born owner and an ex Audi A6 owner so I like the brands, but being honest they're more or less the same as each other now.

Born and id3, surprised there's no Skoda equivalent.

Id4, enyaq, q4 etron same car slight variation inside. Id4 the poor relation interior wise but boy is it selling well in Ireland. Cupra Tavascan joining in this group soon.

jimbobmalones

Depreciation on Seat Leons is shocking (or was before the

second hand market went crazy). Leons in particular could be had for 3kish less

than equivalent Golfs which made them a very expensive proposition when buying new.

I know as I bought a 2016 Leon in 2017 for 16k when list then was 24k. equivalent Golfs

were 19-20k at the time. For that reason would never consider buying one new. Equivalent

Skodas hold value very well so that's the obvious option. Essentially you have the same cars

from Audi/VW/Skoda with Seat in last place in the Irish mind

NIMAN

I see a lot of SEATs up these parts. Seem to be selling well.

Owned a couple myself , good cars.