Ateca Cupra
Flat Seat Mii revived, all in a day’s work
So I’m rewinding the last 2800-odd miles I’ve now travelled in this car, thinking about the things I most like, and what’s popping up first are the excellence of the Volkswagen Group infotainment system – a model of usability and in stark contrast to the confused controls of the new Toyota Corolla driven recently – and the usefulness of the powered tailgate, which has the handy feature of merely unlatching if you stab its centre console release button briefly. The lid only rises fully if you hold said button down to trigger the lifting mechanism. It’s a good precautionary feature if you’ve reversed into a tight spot.
Neither of these items has anything to do with the fact that this Ateca is not a Seat but a Cupra, and therefore comes with 296bhp and the potential to harpoon 60mph from rest in only 4.9sec, although there are many moments when this car doesn’t remotely feel like one with that much power to unleash. As mentioned in the car’s introduction in the 27 February issue, an indolent seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission does much to blunt its performance, with its inability to select a gear, any gear, when you mash the throttle being a source of some frustration. It’s particularly an issue when you want to overtake or need a bursting surge to blend with the traffic on a busy roundabout. The pause can be that long that you sometimes have to abort.
So the transmission, the tailgate and the sat-nav have all stood out so far, as has the continued interest in the Cupra from others. A fellow Ateca owner encountered at a vehicle dismantlers asked what it was like with nearly 300bhp. The answer is, if you’re in the right gear, startlingly swift and pleasingly smooth with it. The Cupra also feels stable and secure enough to handle the power with ease, although I have yet to drive it hard in rain.
Years ago, magazines ran long-term test cars knowing there was a fair to good chance that the vehicles would develop paragraph-generating faults. That’s rare today and so it proves with the Ateca, which had been fault-free until a week ago, when it generated a couple of sentences. I reached inside to pull the bonnet release, which did its job before coming off in my hand.
In its defence I tugged at the lever, which lives on the passenger side, from behind the wheel, and the angle perhaps caused it to come adrift. Nothing seems broken, and I’ve clipped the lever back on. The bonnet was being opened not to investigate trouble but to access the battery to jump-start another car (a longdormant Seat Mii, as it happens).
The improving weather will doubtless yield more opportunities to enjoy those 296 horses, which run a lot more willingly if you knock the gearlever rearwards for Sport mode, or paddle the paddles. Using these techniques, it looks highly likely that this Cupra will be able to consume roads at quite some pace. The same may also apply to unleaded, which has improved from the 29mpg or so of the first few miles to more than 33mpg now. But I suspect this figure will take quite a tumble when the throttle dips deep.
Such numbers are easily gleaned from the display tucked between speedo and rev counter, with a combination of a large rocker button and a small rotary drum on the steering wheel enabling you to shuttle between different trip logs as well as the navigation map, your radio station and so on. Details like this provide light entertainment on duller roads, while radar-controlled cruise shares the load of traffic-snarled motorway slogs. So it’s an easy car to live with, and one whose power is well hidden – although that’s an arrangement not without appeal, the character of the car changing substantially when you work it hard.
It’s now due a wash, although at least for now it has an authentically rugged look.