Cupra Formentor review

We’ve only driven the latest Formentor in its most punchy 328bhp guise, so we’ll update this review with more detail once we’ve had a go in the entry level 1.5 and the plug-in hybrids. The higher spec cars create a better sense of occasion, though: a button hung from the steering wheel starts the engine, which immediately sounds raucous and purposeful. Mainly because it’s being amplified through the speakers. If that’s getting tiring, you can tell it to shush by cycling though the many modes – use the Cupra steering wheel button for that. The quad tailpipes at least add to the theatrics. 

There are Comfort, Normal, Sport, Cupra and Individual settings to choose from, with the latter letting you tailor the drivetrain’s mood, the noise, the steering weight, and endlessly fiddle with the ride comfort by altering a sliding scale. It feels terribly scientific.

It's still just an SUV though isn’t it?

This isn’t a high-riding road warrior. In fact, with the supportive bucket seat lowered electrically into its base position, you could be forgiven for imagining you were ensconced in a Leon hatchback, not a coupe crossover SUV thing. In the pre-facelift Formentor, there was a slightly diminished sense of occasion in the less powerful car, with fewer fancy buttons. The 1.5 offered a promising burble at idle, which was fine as long as you didn’t go anywhere because it wasn’t quite as characterful on the move.

About town, even the 2.0-litre range-topping Formentor is easygoing, as we’re used to for a modern hot hatch. Obviously it feels a bit bigger, but never cumbersome: the steering is quick and light at low speeds, and even on hulking 20in rims the ride isn’t crashy in Cupra mode. It’s better still if you slide the scale right over towards Comfort, though. The Formentor does feel quite wide, mind.

Sometimes the twin-clutch gearbox gets caught in two minds slipping its clutches as it does its best softly softly impression of a true automatic, and it can be rather slow to switch between forward drive and reverse when parking, but the Cupra is far from the only DSG car so afflicted.

In short, this is a sporty crossover that will handle the daily grind without complaint. And on the motorway, it’ll cruise at the national speed limit at a tickle over 2,000rpm. Wind noise is hushed up well for a taller car, but that fat rubber kicks up a fair bit of tyre roar and it’s not the most economical with the biggest engine. We saw an average of 33mpg over 100 miles of city, country and motorway driving.

And if I want to take it for a proper drive? 

Normally, a decent job around town and on the motorway would be job done for a Seat. But since this is stubbornly a Cupra, it’s supposed to also be an enthralling, thrilling performance car when it’s let off the leash.

With everything dialled up the Formentor behaves like a slightly overgrown VW Golf R. It’s not the first time we’ve seen these ingredients (remember the VW T-Roc R?) and the results are pretty similar. It’s rapid point to point, with the advantages of seamless gearshifts, 4x4 traction, huge on-demand torque, punchy Akebono brakes with strong pedal feel and a slightly higher vantage point blending to create an undemanding overgrown hot hatch.

It’s easy to go fast in, though the overdubbed engine noise and overly heavy steering in Cupra mode might get on your wick after a while. Setting up a perfectly balanced Individual mode immediately after switching the car on would be our advice. 

The Formentor retains its composure even when you get properly aggressive with your inputs and ambitious in the corners, and it’s now even better with a torque splitter that can shift power between the left and right rear wheels during cornering to help tuck the Formentor in. Is it a sweaty-palmed, life-affirming invigorator? Well no, but neither are lower slung ‘true’ hot hatches like the Golf R or Octavia vRS, and this is never going to be as tactile or involving as, say, a Honda Civic Type R.

That said, if you want to dabble in the Porsche Macan experience for a heap less cash, the not-a-Seat ticks that box. Oh, and it now gets a new Drift Mode a la Golf R and Audi S3. Probably not something you’ll use regularly. If at all.