Our cars - final report My type of car
The past six months have allowed our tester to reflect on his own particular motoring needs. How many boxes has the Cupra Formentor ticked in that time?
Pete Tullin
Whenever I assess a car, whether it is aimed at a first-time teenage buyer or a top-end luxury car executive, I always approach it by putting myself in the shoes of the prospective owner. I’m such a zealot when it comes to this policy, I can distinctly remember telling a junior road-tester that if I ever heard him utter the words ‘it’s not my type of car’ ever again, I’d take great pleasure in fast-forwarding him his P45. Consequently, if I pull on a pair of my metaphorical favourite trainers, and think about my motoring lifestyle, then the Cupra Formentor I’ve been running for the past six months has come pretty close to fulfilling all my requirements. To my eyes, it’s one of the sharpest-looking cars currently on sale. I’m a big fan of the way it is so well resolved from every angle, something I’ve long considered to be the hallmark of great design. Most of all, I love the fact it has a rather unique look, marking it out from the ubiquitous SUV clones that almost every
Why we’re running it
To see how the latest Formentor Hybrid works for fleet.
manufacturer pumps out these days. Has there ever been an easier period in history for car designers? It’s almost like all they do is find a drawing of their rival’s latest offering, smudge a couple of lines, nail on the most ludicrous grille they can imagine, and hey- presto! another cookie-cutter SUV. This is certainly not the case with the Formentor. That rakish bonnet and those razor-edged wheel arch extensions, lighting strike LEDs, copper accents and hunkered stance, bestow it with a mix of Paris-Dakar toughness and Sex And The City sophistication. I’m also a big fan of the assured composure the Formentor exhibits on such a wide variety of roads.
The chassis is essentially the same as you’ll find under more powerful versions of the VW Golf, albeit tuned to reflect the Cupra sporting ethos. Consequently, the low-speed ride is a bit on the focused side and the tyres tend to roar a fair bit when driving over coarser surfaces but hustle it down an undulating stretch of B-road and the combination of sweetly-weighted steering, tenacious grip and speedy reactions pay big dividends. Given this dynamic focus, it is surprising just how competent a long- distance cruiser the Formentor is. During the time I spent with it, I made several trips to my Northern homeland and although the fuel tank isn’t huge, I always managed to complete the 300-mile jaunt without the need to stop and I always arrived with sufficient energy left in the Tullin tanks for a lively night out on the toon.
Although the maximum power output figures don’t look particularly impressive on paper, I’ve certainly never felt short- changed performance-wise and when the opportunity presented itself, the two power sources combined to whip up some pretty strident overtaking performance. Fully charged the Formentor will cover 30 miles purely on battery power and except for the odd whirr and occasional rogue clunk, the electric motor remained near-silent in operation. It’s a similar story with the petrol engine, so, other than an initial flaring of the revs when it initially kicked into life and a bit of an exhaust drone at 70 mph, it too, remained impressively refined throughout. As for the economy, this is a bit of a tricky one. The long-term readout suggested I’d averaged a smidgen short of 50mpg, but this is because I don’t have a convenient way of plugging in. Consequently, my charging
44 | April 2024 |
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regime was somewhat hit-and-miss, so I tended to rely more heavily on the petrol engine than someone who has easy access to a home or office charger might. While the Formentor’s interior is smartly designed, and all the trim looks subtly expensive, the elegantly sculpted seats provide excellent comfort and the driver’s seat comes standard with the godsend that is multi-directional lumbar support. If I could change a couple of things, then one would be the limited amount of boot space. I learned to live with it, but I never really came to terms with bending my driver shaft almost to breaking point as I struggled to get my golf bat bag in and out. The second would be the infotainment system, which remained frustratingly overly complex, mainly because of the sheer amount of prodding required to carry out even the simplest tasks. At least it seemed like an improvement on earlier VW group systems in terms of reliability, a bit like a recovering alcoholic falling off the wagon less often. These two issues aside, I’d still give the Formentor a solid eight out of ten, mainly because it is ‘my type of car.’ I’ll grab my coat and my P45 on the way out.
Cupra Formentor 1.4 TSI eHybrid 204PS DSG
P11D price £39,950 As tested £41,905 Official consumption 201.8mpg Our average consumption 39.5mpg Mileage 6,815
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