Cupra Formentor VZ Edition 310 – long-term review

As ever, it’s been a busy month in the Formentor - albeit I’m just not covering the miles that I have been doing for the past decade. What a strange thought. Still, I’d rather time spent in a car is ‘quality’ time rather than just bashing up and down the UK’s motorway network, so it’s not all bad. 

First things first, and that’s the fact that the Cupra has been back to a dealer to have an upgrade to the multimedia system to try and cure some of the lag and occasional total freeze. And yes, it is more responsive from this week’s prodding, and there have been no total meltdowns (which involves switching the car off, locking and unlocking it etc), so it appears to have been as much of a success as it could have been.

The only caveat really is that I noticed the lag issues more when the temps were colder, and it’s been quite warm, so I’ll have to reserve judgement slightly. 

It also doesn’t really address the fact that the UX is generally unintuitive and confusing, and in a lot of cases adds in a ‘step’ where there would be only one with a physical control. And often that step requires you to scan the entire screen to find it and accurately press the section - not great when on the move.

I’ve really lost interest in the system, and need to really delve more deeply into what frustrates me the most, and make absolutely sure that I’ve got it set up as well as I can - there are tutorials on screen if you dig through the menus, so that’s the next job. Which I keep putting off. Gah. 

I’ve also habituated myself into switching off the Lane Keep Assist as soon as I move off. Where I live, plenty of the lanes are not-quite two lanes wide, and the system will try and move you back towards a verge with alarming regularity. As well as back towards cyclists should you drift wide around them without indicating. So off it goes.

As for changing stuff like temperature and radio station (the two things that get fiddled with the most with teenagers in the car), it’s do-able, but annoying. Perhaps more accurate to say more annoying than it should be. More on that in the next couple of updates. 

On the driving side of things, I’ve recently brought in a few things to compare the VZ to, and it has proved enlightening. First was a go in the 1.5-litre, 148bhp Tsi Formentor, and it was largely excellent. Still DSG but front-wheel drive, it had plenty of grunt for the day-to-day, all the usual space and produced more like 45mpg.

The 310 AWD we’re running is sub-30, for reference. For £30k, it’s a real contender, and there are some excellent lease/PCP deals on the internet within 5 minutes of browsing. I also recently had a go in the 245bhp front-wheel drive plug-in hybrid, and that was actually a hoot in the right circumstances  - slightly counter-intuitive for a saintly PHEV, surely? - as well as looking exactly like our 310 VZ.

Which means I’m starting to think the 310 might not actually be the sweet spot in the range. It’s great fun on the right road at the right time, but those moments are depressingly few and far between…

A quick context check this month also popped up in the shape of a Golf R MkVIII. Slightly more power, slightly more efficiency, slightly less cost and space, same engine and drivetrain, or just about. Have to say that I much preferred the Formentor, simply because it feels like it has a bit of personality versus the über-competent but slightly soulless Golf.

The R is faster, but not quite as much fun at moderate speeds, and even though both cars feel very front-wheel drive biased, the Formentor is keener to rotate if you bung it - probably because of the slightly higher ride height.

But then again, I preferred the cheaper, slower, more efficient Golf GTI MkVIII with a manual gearbox. Something is obviously wrong - I’m leaning towards slower cars that are more comfortable and efficient? Send help!