SEAT León Mk2, 1P

4 variants from the facelift on, carrying a real market premium of roughly 9% over an otherwise identical pre-facelift car. Variants appearing in both tables were sold either side of the changeover, the build month decides which one you're looking at, not the model year.

Market availability varied by country; check the engine code stamped on the block rather than the badge on the boot. · Compare every engine side by side →

Cupra cars share a shell with the range and little else, so they sit apart to keep the ordinary prices readable.

Prices above are for Cupra cars only and aren't included in the range figures quoted elsewhere on this page.

● full year · ◐ arrives or leaves mid-generation. Years from 2009 in the accent colour are facelift (LCI) cars. Verify the engine code, not the model year.

Every standard engine in the chassis, plotted at its good-buy price against its risk level. Cheap and low-risk is the top-left; expensive and fragile is the bottom-right. M cars are excluded, they would stretch the price axis and tell you nothing about the rest.

Every standard engine on one euro axis: the bar spans the 10th to 90th percentile of asking prices, the tick is the median and the green marker is the good-buy figure. Cupra cars are excluded; they sit an order of magnitude above the rest.

Written once against the chassis and shown on every variant page below, so nothing here is repeated 5 times: Cupra cars included, since the bodyshell and electronics are shared.

Best value: 1.9 TDI. The pump-duse 105 is the durable classic of the group, and the León is among the cheapest bodies to find one in. Best petrol: 1.8 TFSI, on the usual chain-tensioner and oil-consumption terms. Avoid a common-rail 2.0 TDI with no oil-pump history. The Cupra is quick and worth having if it's standard and documented.