Monday, February 26, 2024

Spanish firecracker is a wolf in sheep's clothing



Cupra Ateca drive by Steve Rogers

Come the day when the only new cars are electric there will still be plenty of used firecracker motors to satisfy the petrol heads.

And here is one of them, the hotshot Cupra Ateca. It might look ordinary but under that modest exterior lies a mean machine with a more than solid pedigree.

But isn't this family SUV a Seat? Well, yes and no. Seat set up a stand-alone sports brand in 2018 and Ateca was the first to wear the Cupra badge.

Cupra is growing into a serious sports brand and shares the company's high-tech racing division factory next to Seat's Barcelona HQ. Convincing stuff.

Yes, it is an Ateca, the SUV we have come to love, but this one growls. As part of the Volkswagen group Cupra was able to raid the engine store and come away with the well proven, 300bhp 2-litre turbo, the same as you will find in a Golf R and Audi SQ3, and mated with the razor sharp seven speed double clutch automatic gearbox. And it has steering wheel paddle shifters. Oh joy!

The car is very much a wolf in sheep's clothing and is certainly not dressed to impress. It has quad tailpipes but there is little else to distinguish it from a bog standard Ateca, apart from the zany Cupra badge and copper alloys, a £1,135 extra.

Less obvious but a significant part of Cupra's fun factor is the slightly lowered stance and beefed up suspension. Thrown in with the all wheel drive and you have a boxy SUV that will give a hot hatch more than a run for its money.

For a more racier body you could look at the Formentor which is pure Cupra, sitting lower to the ground than Ateca, and with more style.

The Cupra Ateca range has been expanded to take in less powerful engines, all of which are available in the cheaper Seat Ateca, but look to Cupra for the big horsepower.

With a sprint to sixty taking less than five seconds and a virtually unusable 155mph top speed, this is one quick motor with solid handling to harness the power. It is also surprisingly comfortable given it sports pedigree and is good at stifling the effects of our awful road surfaces.

This should be fairly obvious but I will mention it anyway. If low running costs and economy are on the wish list then this is not the car for you. About 30mpg is the going rate with may be 35/36mpg tops in slow moving traffic. Exploit that performance and you are quickly into the twenties.

Ateca has always been an excellent family choice and the same applies to Cupra for those wanting adrenalin rush performance. There is ample room for five adults, although the transmission tunnel is a hindrance for the middle seat passenger, while the big boot will cope with all the holiday luggage.

By today's standards the Cupra interior, which virtually mirrors the Seat model, shares the same bland look and looks outdated compared with the wow, wow Peugeot 3008 rival.

Yet it is one of the most user friendly fuss free layouts I have come across, an easy to master central touch screen and clear, physical switches for the heating. The digital driver's binnacle has a choice of three layouts and is faultless.

As for the price, well it can't be sugar coated, it is jaw dropping. My teenage great niece posed the question and gave a critical critique from her front seat ending with 'this car doesn't shout £50,000 to me'.

With the flash copper alloys and a sun roof at £1,210, my VZ2 model was within touching reach of the half century at £49,675. It is well equipped and with a raft of safety features, and of course it is all wheel drive.

You can make an argument that this car is decent value for money. This sort of performance in a similar sized Porsche Macan would be upwards of 60 grand. Okay, it has that magical name, but the Cupra is nevertheless something to ponder and emphasises my point that this will be a hell of a second hand buy in years to come.

Fast facts

Cupra Ateca VZ2 4 Drive

£46,700 (starts £36,045)

2-litre TSI 296bhp

7sp DSG automatic

0-62mph 4.9secs; 155mph

31.7mpg combined

202g/km. 1st tax £1,565

Insurance group 31

Boot 485 litres

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