A copper-bottomed delight
The Cupra is new to our roads but Damien O’Carroll finds it offers one of the best bangfor-your-buck performance bargains around.
As a brand, Cupra is relatively new to New Zealand. As a spec-level it has been around much longer. Make sense?
No? That’s OK, because it is about to get much clearer next year as the brand expands its presence with some seriously exciting vehicles.
Cupra started life as the label slapped on hot Seat performance cars, so you had things like the Seat Leon Cupra hot hatch being, if not exactly ‘‘regulars’’, at least occasional sightings on New Zealand roads.
Cupra the label then morphed into Cupra the sub-brand in 2018, a separate but not really separate offshoot of Seat that would take care of all the hottest versions of the Spanish company’s cars and even spawn a few of its own.
Although the word ‘‘cupra’’ sounds vaguely sporty in a romantically foreign way, it actually has no motorsport connections. It is the name of a pre-Roman fertility goddess and the Latin word for copper.
Likewise, the angrily sportylooking logo is completely meaningless – it’s simply designed to look cool (which it admittedly does). Its copper colour is a nice nod to the name, though.
The birth of Cupra as a subbrand came at a rather inconvenient time for Seat, as it had just begun relaunching the Seat brand in New Zealand.
As well as having to explain exactly what ‘‘Seat’’ was
(reportedly a lot of people were confused by the brand’s ‘‘S’’ logo, thinking they were walking into a Suzuki dealership), it now had to explain what Cupra was all about, too.
It did have an easy way to do that – just let the cars do the talking, because hot Cupras are one of the best bang-for-yourbuck performance bargains at the moment.
Probably the best example of this is the Cupra Ateca (remember how it goes – that’s the hot version of the Seat Ateca SUV that would previously have been called the Seat Ateca Cupra. Simple really.)
The Cupra Ateca is a medium SUV that belts to 100kmh in 4.9 seconds, thanks to the 221kW AWD drivetrain from the
Volkswagen Golf R, and at a notinsignificant $10K less than the VW (when it was on sale here, that is) it is a rather good thing indeed.
The Ateca we drove was one of only a handful of Limited Edition models that landed in New Zealand and sold quickly, so you probably can’t buy one now, but I would argue that this is perfectly fine, because you really don’t need it anyway.
At $78,900 the Limited Edition scores a fair bit of kit over the top of the already well-equipped standard Cupra Ateca that retails for $63,990, the most desirable and instantly noticeable of which are the unique (and very cool) Graphene Grey exterior paint colour and those striking 20-inch copper
machined alloy wheels, both of which are exclusive to the Limited Edition.
Also only on the Limited Edition are a set of Brembo performance brakes, alcantara sports seats, copper and carbon fibre interior mouldings, a copper carbon fibre roof spoiler and mirror covers as well as copper-coloured badging.
Plus, you also get an Akrapovic exhaust system for extra attitude.
So why do you not really need any of that rather cool stuff? Because, aside from the brakes, sports seats and nice interior detailing, you are really paying the extra just for the enjoyment of people outside the car.
Sure, it does look rather brilliant, but then a ‘‘standard’’ Cupra Ateca looks pretty damn good and its 19-inch copper alloys are almost as striking, while the attraction of the Akrapovic exhaust wanes somewhat when you realise that you can’t really hear much of its effect inside the car.
Sure, pedestrians get to hear the impressively savage edge the system brings to the Ateca, but inside the car you are only left with the slightest hint of it.
What is common between the Limited Edition and the standard car is the star of the show anyway – that fantastically powerful and capable powertrain and the joyously responsive chassis.
The Cupra Ateca is a hot SUV that is a lot of fun to throw around a winding road. The AWD system provides remarkable amounts of traction, the chassis has a playful, tenacious feel and the engine has an almost endless supply of grunt right throughout its rev range.
So is it a shame that you probably missed out on the Limited Edition? Not necessarily.
Is the standard Cupra Ateca worth buying in its own right? Absolutely yes, particularly if you want a comfortable, practical all-rounder that is also an absolute ripper on a winding back road.
And what the hell is Cupra again? Go drive one and then get back to me.