Seat Leon 2017 wonky wheel and firm ride

[rufusgti]

Hi all.
I test drove a 2017 1.8 TSI seat Leon estate today. Lovely car but a few niggles that I wanted to pop in here and ask about.
Firstly, the car did not pull left or right, not while excellerating or braking. Yet the steering wheel was not straight. So while driving straight the wheel was off to the left.. I've had this on a Clio 172 cup I used to own and it was resolved with wheel alignment. I just wanted to check that was the likely issue with the Leon. Like I say it drives nicely, no pulling around.
Secondly, the ride was pretty good. But slightly firmer than I'd expect, maybe even slightly crashy down a bumpy road. The car has the 18 inch wheel option, the dealer said that's why the ride isn't as good as others. Again, is that to be expected on the Leon? I read the 1.8 estate has the indipendent rear suspension so expected it to fairly smooth.

[somouk]

The wheel alignment is common where the car has been in to have its wheels aligned and they didn’t straighten the steering wheel before doing it. Easy enough to fix usually but you would want to dealer to sort that.

The rise is subjective, I find Seats are typically a bit firmer riding and ‘sporty’ compared to other VAG products so depending on how bad the roads are near you it can affect them a lot.

[Glosphil]

Is it a face-lift model? The FR had suspension changes in 2017/2018.
I drove a 2018 1.4 & a 1.8 & couldn't sense any difference in ride comfort.
My 2018 1.4 FR came with the optional 18" wheels & definitely rides better on its 17" winter wheels; but that could also be due to the different tyres.
The face-lift FRs also have brighter LED headlights.

[_Mja_]

I've had a few Seats and apart from my current one (Seat Exeo) the ride was much firmer than the VW/Audi equivalent and I always had problems with the steering wheel being off centre driving straight - I think it is a combination of large wheels and road camber. No amount of alignment sorted it. My Exeo is a completely different car to the Leon/Ibiza before it and feels more Audi like (it is heavily based on an Audi A4).

[SteBrown91]

_Mja_ said:

I've had a few Seats and apart from my current one (Seat Exeo) the ride was much firmer than the VW/Audi equivalent and I always had problems with the steering wheel being off centre driving straight - I think it is a combination of large wheels and road camber. No amount of alignment sorted it. My Exeo is a completely different car to the Leon/Ibiza before it and feels more Audi like (it is heavily based on an Audi A4).

Heavily based is an understatement - it is a B7 A4 that Seat rebranded and facelifted into what it should have been in the first place. Seat literally bought the entire production line and transferred it to their factory. They then fitted EU5 compliant engines and completely changed the suspension to make it less audi like (I think I read somewhere that one of the things they did was fit a6 springs to make the ride and handling better but could be wrong)

[_Mja_]

SteBrown91 said:

_Mja_ said:

I've had a few Seats and apart from my current one (Seat Exeo) the ride was much firmer than the VW/Audi equivalent and I always had problems with the steering wheel being off centre driving straight - I think it is a combination of large wheels and road camber. No amount of alignment sorted it. My Exeo is a completely different car to the Leon/Ibiza before it and feels more Audi like (it is heavily based on an Audi A4).

Heavily based is an understatement - it is a B7 A4 that Seat rebranded and facelifted into what it should have been in the first place. Seat literally bought the entire production line and transferred it to their factory. They then fitted EU5 compliant engines and completely changed the suspension to make it less audi like (I think I read somewhere that one of the things they did was fit a6 springs to make the ride and handling better but could be wrong)

I am not sure re: A6 springs but it certainly rides better than a S-Line audi of the era and mine is the sport tech estate model with the sport spings. It still has broadly the same suspenion set up with the audi front end and longitudinal engine but probably different damping and spring rates over the S-line. Had it since it was almost new in 2013 and it's been a great car. I have thought about changing it over the years but it does everything well enough and they aren't worth much so a big jump to a modern version of itself, that said it was half the price of an equivalent specd A4 when I bought it at 6mths old with 3k on it (£15k). To date I've only had to change the rear pads above annual servicing and am at 86k.

[rufusgti]

Thanks for the replies as always. I have put a deposit on the car and dealer will do a few bits including alignment.