I'm Sick Of Explaining What A 'Cupra' Ateca Is To People
A few weeks ago, I complained about the fact that I was forever having to explain the Honda Civic Type R’s aero to people. Comments like “It looks like you drove it through Halfords, mate!” got boring really quickly, and try as I might to educate folk that “it’s all there for a good reason,” they’d already made their minds up, having decided that the wings and swollen arches were stupid and pointless…
So imagine my delight when the next car I used as a daily driver for a couple of weeks - the ‘Cupra’ Ateca - confused people even more.
And all of this boils down to one little feature: the badge. “Is that a Transformers logo on your car?” was a question I heard day in, day out, and for good reason; it looks a lot like the Decepticons logo from Transformers…
Once they’d seen past the Decepticon thing, the next thing people wondered was “what is it?”, which meant me having to explain that Cupra is to Seat what AMG is to Mercedes; so think firmer suspension and more power.
In fact, it’s been given the same 2.0-litre ‘EA888’ turbocharged inline-four as the existing Leon Cupra, which produces 296bhp to all four wheels for a 0-62mph time of 5.2 seconds. Of course, I omit the power and performance figures when explaining the car to normal people because, like the Type R, they already think it’s stupid…
That said, however, it is fast, it gets a tonne of looks and it’s OK to drive. For me, though, the prospect of having that much power in something as tall as the Ateca - not to mention its heavy glass roof which raises its CoG even further - is completely counter-intuitive, so a Golf R estate wins hands down. (It’d also save me lot of wasted time having to explain what it it is).
So let me open the floor to you guys: ‘Cupra’: are you in or out?
Comments
im in
Im in
Hi i have question, is there any new mx-5 vid comming?
Yes, can we get an update on Phil after the ‘living with’ series.👍🏼
Or during the living with series. Living with a car that’s constantly broken
I’m in as well 🤙🏻
I’m in, for the Leon, and anything else that’s not a SUV.
As long as it’s a proper SUV, it’s fine
I like the idea of a lower-price performance-only brand…
Currently performance-car-only brands like Lamborghini, Ferrari, McLaren etc are quite out of reach for most
Whereas Cupra seems to be at a really good price point. The only thing they did wrong imo is launching with an SUV.. they should have started with a halo-car, maybe something like the R8 but a bit cheaper and a 5/6 cylinder engine. That perhaps would grab a bit more attention to the brand and make it more well-known, at which point you can start selling your Atecas etc…
Lmao if you want a cheaper R8 with a 5/6 pot get a TTRS
SEAT was and will always be considered to be the cheap, poor brand of VW.
It is like you don’t have money to buy a Polo so you buy an Ibiza.
Making a car like that would be stupid for them cause they would have to ask for too much money from people who don’t want that. Also VW already has the TT which would be making them lose some money.
The Ateca is actually one of those cheap SUVs with power and it was the only way going forward.
For real the only way for them to make money on the market they are in would be to compete against cars like the Megane RS, Golf R and Type R. And also try for the smaller hatchbacks like the Clio, the DSs and others.
In!
Seems good, I’m in
I, before this series on the Cupra, had never heard of Seat or Cupra before