| Long Term Test | SEAT Leon Ecomotive |
Been anywhere interesting?
Straight back to work for this car after its little holiday up in the North. First stop was a job for MINI shooting a few new models in a showroom in Cambridge. I had to concentrate on my packing skills once again after the luxuries of the Yeti's load space. Next was the normal airport run, a flight to Scotland to pick up the Porsche Panamera Diesel and blast that down to the South of France with journo Holtam (
see Dom's views on the big Porsche here). Then it was the SEAT's long awaited service at my local dealer Miller and Middleton in Colchester - more of that shortly.
Rounding off this month was a trip back up to North Wales and quick scoot around looking at a beach location, over to Dublin to join up with Shane. The plan was to get plenty of pics of the SEAT enjoying some Irish roads, but we ended up being a little too busy, though the Leon did a sterling job of getting me there and back.
Anything stand out?
Interesting to see Mark pick up on the fuel economy; sticking to 69mph does improve it from his 43.6mpg average, but the car still doesn't return anywhere near the quoted 74.3mpg. I would be interested to see one of SEAT's white coated bods try and achieve that!
Arriving at Miller and Middletons small but friendly dealership I was told that sadly there wasn't a courtesy car available so would I like to wait. Having anticipated this and having my Mac with me I settled down for a few hours to edit up a shoot or two. One cup of coffee and not much over an hour later I was informed my car was ready to go, no problems and everything tickety boo. I was offered a wash and brush up (for the car...), but politely declined as even I can do that myself.
Just over an hour for a service: impressive (SEAT does seem to make things easy for the customer). I was off and looking forward to my first 74.3mpg run. Along the A14 toward Bury St Edmunds I went, 69mph (ish), the average mpg readout passed the 43.6mpg marker, then 50mpg passed. This is it, I thought, 70mpg here I come! Sadly, whilst I am enjoying life in the 50mpg zone after the service it's still the low fifties at best. C'est la vie.
... and for the wrong reaons?
Other than some low life opening their door onto mine in a car park (leaving no details and a small dent), plus a mysterious light curbing of a wheel, which wasn't me, honest, this will again be a short paragraph.
This is the Ecomotive model, not an FR, so it does take a while to reach cruising speeds. I'll not complain though; in these days of sky high fuel prices I'm happy to be in this car, though I've accepted that I'll never see the magical 74.3mpg. Everything is still working, the comfort is fine and after 17,000 miles there are no rattles or squeaks from the interior. SEAT certainly screws them together very well.
Where next?
As I missed most of the cold weather last winter I'm interested to see how the little car, still shod in its winter rubber, will cope. Some people say winter tyres wear quicker, but I'm not finding that to be the case. Mine are 16,000 miles to the good and still going strong.
