I feel for you Chris. It’s lovely looking forward to a new car but such a let down when it disappoints. When researching our next SUV a few people suggested Seat, but I was surprised to find that the budget VW brands have less standard equipment than the full fat Tiguan, which seems a very strange policy by VAG. Re the Tiguan, the Elegance is the smart choice now, not the R-Line. It has over £2k worth of kit above the R-Line. The biggest negative with the Tiguan is that leather is a hefty £1,500 option on all models, which includes an electric drivers seat with memory. We chose that option on our current Tiguan SEL as both my wife and I were driving at the time, so the memory function was useful, but I’m the sole driver now. We did want leather though so that was a pain.
Whilst I am sorry to hear that you have had some issues, it is so refreshing to have ‘warts and all’ feedback as too many people just state the positives. I’ve lost count of the number of cars I have owned or driven over the years and only one has come close to being perfect. All cars have weak points and I hope that you manage to overcome the issues with the Seat. I echo the comments of others that it looks very nice.