EP3 Type-R (facelift) or Leon Cupra R?

cr!spy

cr!spy

cr!spy

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I was originally after a Mk5 Golf GTI as my next car, but after some thinking I've had to lower my budget down to £4,500 max and now looking at these two.

My daily commute is 50 miles and we normally use my girlfriends car at weekends to keep the miles down on mine, so I roughly do around 12k miles a year.

I'm learning more towards the Type-R as I used to own a CRX Delsol VTI when I was younger and loved it. Also less to go wrong on the Type-R and cheaper to maintain, but on the other hand the Cupra might be more suited to my daily commute than the Type-R and better on fuel... anyways would like to hear your opinions.

Thanks.
 
Cupra R feels more grown-up/better built, and is more comfortable day to day. However you might find the Type-R more engaging to drive if you don't like lazy power delivery.

I drove both back to back before choosing the Cupra R, although I continued to drive a Type-R from time to time, due to a friend purchasing one whilst I owned the Leon. The Leon continued to be the better car day-to-day IMO.
 
What was your Leon like reliability wise? Most of the ones in my price range have all done 80k+ which isn't a lot on that engine, but I would be keeping the car for 3 years probably.
 
Mine had over 100k when it finally disappeared from my circle of friends/colleagues. The only problem mine ever had was caused by me (oil starvation on track). Other than that, I had the typical coil pack problem (always keep a spare in the car, takes 2 mins to swap out, although the later revisions are much much better than the early coils), and the thermostat failed once.

Could return 35-40MPG if being gentle on the throttle, but pressing on would see <18MPG :p
 
Likelihood is the Leon will cost you more in upkeep - they aren't bad but the 1.8t tends to develop silly faults. The ep3 is less likely to break, though Honda parts can be funny money whereas most bits and pieces for the 1.8t are pretty cheap.

If I were buying one of the two I would probably have the Leon but tbh that's mostly due to the amount of ep3s around here that are owned by idiots
 
I used to have a facelift CTR and driving it 50 miles a day would kill me. It's buzzy, noisy, hard etc etc. Plus I never saw over 30mpg really out of mine (although I didn't have as long a commute).

Even my MPS can reach 35mpg on the motorway. The EP3 never did.
 
As long as the ep3 can do 30mpg then I'm not too bothered. Also ride comfort doesn't bother me too much, all of my cars usually get lowered.

Cheers for linking the Corolla never knew they done a supercharged version, they still look ugly though and not for me.

I welcome any other suggestions in this price/performance bracket...
 
It's not so much ride comfort, as the seats being uncomfortable after a while and the constant drone from the exhaust was just godawful on long motorway jaunts.

EDIT: I think I'd actually be tempted by a 325ti if I wanted a sub £5k hatch. RWD and ~200BHP.
 
you would be lucky to get 30 mpg in an ep3. £4500 could net you a premier edition ep3 which would have the much better Recaro seats.

you still wont get 30mpg though, unless you only do motorway miles

I hit around 21-25 around town with some long distance journeys but i put this down to mods having impact on economy.

I would see 25-28 ish mixed driving before the mods went on.
 
Whats the cost of a suspension rebuild on a EP3 compared to a Leon, given theyre both likely to be worn well past their best now
 
paradigm said:
It's not so much ride comfort, as the seats being uncomfortable after a while and the constant drone from the exhaust was just godawful on long motorway jaunts.
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^ what he said. I used to tired after a long drive. The steering is dead just off centre so can be frustrating keeping it dead straight and also the throttle is very sensitive so speed used to fluctuate a fair bit.

It's not designed for the motorway. At all.
 
Matt82 said:
Whats the cost of a suspension rebuild on a EP3 compared to a Leon, given theyre both likely to be worn well past their best now
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depends how mental you go really. i believe Stormster on here went in for the popular lowering springs, camber arms & bolts mod and ended up refreshing a lot of his suspension totalling 600+ from memory but the majority of this would be the cost of the springs and adjustment hardware.

my 04 FL EP3 was checked after my last track day and again few months back and the suspension came back with a clean bill of health both times.

i had a split bushing on my rear ARB when i first got the car as well as a bent drop link but i replaced the drop links at a cost of circa £40 and changed the rear ARB to a JDM one as it is a popular mod.
 
The EP3's arn't that bad on fuel are they?!

My DC5 with the 'tuned up' version of that engine averaged 35mpg in my ownership doing 70-80 miles a day in it.
 
My ep3 was pretty good on fuel, 30mpg was a fairly realistic figure and probably what i averaged with mixed driving.

I dont have much experience with leons but i would have no problem picking up another type R
 
paradigm said:
Cupra R feels more grown-up/better built, and is more comfortable day to day. However you might find the Type-R more engaging to drive if you don't like lazy power delivery.

I drove both back to back before choosing the Cupra R, although I continued to drive a Type-R from time to time, due to a friend purchasing one whilst I owned the Leon. The Leon continued to be the better car day-to-day IMO.
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This sums it up really, though I'd add the Civic will probably be more reliable and can take a lot more abuse. Brakes will be considerably cheaper too on the Civic.
 
I have to admit I've been eyeing up EP3's again as I want 200BHP be it boosted or vtec'd as my Fiesta ST, albeit fun and frugal, just aint quick enough.

I was looking up to 7500 but nothing is REALLY lighting my fire.

As for EP3's, I liked mine day to day when it was standard, but because I went full retard and decided the huge arch gap looked silly, as Rich said I spent a bomb on suspension mods such as Eibach Sportline Springs, Eibach front camber bolts, DME rear camber bolts, Superpro caster increase polybushes. FRSU after, must have spent near on 800 doing that.

My advice? Leave it alone, replace worn bushes with OEM ones, they are easy to live with like that :)

More reliable than 1.8t stuff, more fun by far, but both are quite good motors. Having had a Type R I'd be inclined to look at the Leon because old man, but depends what kind of ride you can stomach.

I was looking at Reno Megane 225 boosted things earlier but I expect they are unreliable heaps? :D
 
I've got an FN2, and just ticked over 21k in it. I'm running the 19" Rage alloys and I have a 30mile round trip to work at back 5 days a week. I also do a good bit of ferrying around on a Friday and I average 34-35mpg constantly.
 
DJ_Bucho said:
I've got an FN2, and just ticked over 21k in it. I'm running the 19" Rage alloys and I have a 30mile round trip to work at back 5 days a week. I also do a good bit of ferrying around on a Friday and I average 34-35mpg constantly.
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The FN2 is better on fuel. The EP3, for some reason, was designed to run rich from the factory, so uses more fuel.
 
My journey to work consists of about 7 miles of twisty country back roads and then 18 miles of motorway, surely the ep3 could average 30mpg on that drive?
 
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