The Cupra Formentor VZ, worthy Macan alternative?
At a first glance, the freshly introduced Cupra Formentor VZ seems like an ideal daily. Cupra introduced a new design language combining its sporty DNA with the practicability of a small SUV. With its 333 horsepower engine, lots of fancy comfort options and the latest tech for the relatively small price of 65.000 euros, you would wonder why people stick with expensive BMWs or Macans.
Design
The Formentor VZ is… well sporty. Cupra seems to do everything in their power to make it seem as aggressive and sports-car-like as possible. Admitted, it looks very cool but having bucket seats in a 1650kg SUV or fake airvents/intakes on a daily just doesn’t really make a lot of sense.
This theme can be found throughout its entire design. The interior is very drivers focused with almost every feature located on its very sporty, Ferrari style, steering wheel (and of course, ambient lights for your aesthetic Instagram stories). And the exterior is very sharp, distinguished by its laser LED headlights, remarkably large rims for a daily driver and the Cupra logo worked into its rear lights.
Practicality
Despite its very sporty design, the Formentor VZ is actually quite practical. It has 420L of trunk space, spacious front seats and large enough rear seats. The infotainment and tech features are rather easy to use, it features Apple Car Play, Android Auto and they work (which is not a guarantee anymore on modern day cars). Besides this, the quality of materials is also good enough. You don’t get the squeaky plastics everywhere but you can definitely still tell the car is not as premium as its competitors for double the price point.
More on the mechanical side, the Formentor VZ features an adaptive suspension that adjusts the stiffness depending on what mode you drive in. Even though it does get a bit too stiff in the Cupra mode, it works rather nicely and actually provides a significantly different driving experience when changing your settings.
Driving Experience
This is where it gets tricky. Despite its very sporty design language and certainly sporty behaviour on the road… I don’t find it to drive that great. The car tends to shoot up very high in RPM’s all the time for no apparent reason, the gearbox is very slow (the opposite of what you’d expect from a sports car) and the amount of understeer in corners is simply dangerous. The Formentor is a car that wants to be sportswear, behaves like one…. but isn’t one, which is not the best cocktail. That said, it does need to be mentioned that the suspension works brilliantly and that the comfort/eco mode work just fine, but to have an average real fuel consumption well around 12l/100km to drive in comfort mode (which is also surprisingly high for a 2.0l 4 cylinder)…. I am not sure.
Tech & Features
Unlike most modern day vehicles, the Cupra actually features surprisingly user-friendly tech with a very easy to use infotainment system (that works, take notes Mercedes). I also found the menus to be easily accessible and pleasant to browse through. As briefly mentioned earlier, the car features 4 different driving modes: Eco, Comfort, Sport, Cupra mode. This affects what gear the car chooses to be in and the stiffness off the suspension.
Besides this it has the conventional luxuries you often see in new cars: heated seats, heated steering wheel, a custom audio system etc etc. Although none of these features were particularly exceptional in the Formentor, they’re all definitely more than just fine.
Price & Verdict
The Cupra Formentor VZ has a starting price of 63.950 euros which is actually quite “affordable" compared to its competition. You do get a 2.0l 4 cylinder with 333hp, a big spacious car that’s ideal for families and quite some luxury you maybe wouldn’t expect. The fuel consumption is quite a burden though and if you are looking for a sports-car, this one definitely isn’t it. But it for sure is an interesting alternative to cars like the BMW X4M or the Mercedes GLC63s.