By Ian Strachan.
The CUPRA range, launched by Spanish carmaker SEAT six or seven years ago, has rapidly become one of my favourite car ranges available in the UK. With its distinctive styling, attractive badging and trim, and excellent performance, it’s hard to fault these cars.
Now the latest in a bewildering flurry of launches has hit UK roads. The CUPRA Terramar family sports SUV launches into a competitive sector, but excels in driver involvement, handing and practicality.
The Terramar borrows features from its stablemate, the Tavascan, as well as other vehicles in the VW Audi stable including the Skoda Kodiaq and VW Tiguan with which it shares its underpinnings. But the Terramar has a personality all of its own and a wide range of models to choose from including hybrids and 4x4s.
I test drove the Terramar 1.5 eTSI variant in V2 trim level. It is powered by a 1.5 litre direct injection petrol engine, married to a stepless seven-speed automatic gearbox. This specification costs £40,455 on the road.
The 150 PS engine has impressive performance, taking you from 0-60 mph in a tad over nine seconds. It has top speed, where legal, of 127mph and will give you almost 43 miles to the gallon in mixed driving.
The Terramar certainly has a quality feel to it inside and out. It feels substantial and is also a good looker. My test car came with very smart 19 inch machined alloy wheels. It is well-proportioned and practical without looking too functional. Its looks are helped by shark-like front headlights.
Inside the car has a lot of class about it. It’s roomy, with attractive upholstery of a very high quality. The heated front bucket sports seats with copper stitching are superbly comfortable and supportive with a good range of electric adjustment and a memory function. The dash is simple and uncluttered, with sensibly placed, easily accessible controls and a 12.9-inch touchscreen angled towards the driver. You also get a head-up display.
Interior space is very good, with plenty of load carrying capacity. Sliding rear seats and a removable boot floor increase its 540 litre load lugging capabilities even more if required.
Handling is light, with smooth and predictable steering. The suspension set-up smoothes out rough roads.
As you’d expect you get bags of extras as standard. Wraparound interior lighting, CUPRA puddle lights, electric, folding and heated door mirrors with memory, heated steering wheel, linked smartphone integration with wireless phone charging, nine-speaker sound system, satellite navigation, voice control, rain-sensing wipers, cruise control, three-zone climate control, advanced lane change assist, rear traffic alert, high-beam assist, hill hold and front, rear and side parking sensors with top view and front and rear cameras all come as standard.
It’s difficult to fault this CUPRA. It’s a roomy vehicle with good performance, style and practicality.
