Yesterday

Cupra Formentor set to earn 400hp option

Abt is moving from aftermarket to showroom; family-friendly SUVs will likely lead the way

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You might remember earlier in the year that Abt and Cupra confirmed a formal partnership, whereby cars fettled by the former could be directly ordered through the latter. All made sense, what with the two having teamed up for Formula E and the Abt upgrades already proving popular aftermarket. Why not make it easier (and potentially more profitable) to give the people the 400hp SUVs they’re so keen on?

That partnership will kick off properly next year; expect cars like these two to feature as part of the new Cupra-Abt joint venture. The Terramar is a new one for Abt to get their hands on, Cupra’s most family-friendly of combustion SUVs with its big boot and entirely conventional silhouette. Given it shares a 2.0-litre turbo with the VW Golf GTI (and about 10 million other cars on the road), power gains are easy to come by: the standard 265hp becomes 325hp with nothing more than an ECU tickle. And it wouldn’t be an Abt Cupra Terramar VZ without a few ‘striking visual accents that convey its additional power to the outside world’, so the upgrade package includes a set of 21s, spoilers front and rear, plus a smattering of Abt badges. You’ll be the talk of the toddler group. 

The new Abt Cupra Formentor VZ is a little more interesting, for the simple fact that it boasts 400hp. And that’s quite a lot, even with 333hp to start with. Alongside 347lb ft as well, even those pesky EVs might be in trouble at the traffic light GP outside softplay. As well as being the most potent of the 2.0-litre Cupra SUVs as standard, the Formentor is arguably the most visually striking of the bunch as well, which Abt has fully embraced with its changes. It now boasts ‘muscular’ spoilers as well as 21-inch wheels, which there seems little danger of missing. 

For now, these Abt kits are only being offered in Germany; they cost €6,190 (£5,350) for the Formentor VZ, or €6,420 (£5,550) for the Terramar; the go-faster bits are warranted for five years, and it can all be ordered through the Cupra dealer network over there. Come next year though, the Abt special editions will be available through the Cupra configurator, an exciting development that you can expect to roll out elsewhere in the fullness of time - including option-mad Britain. If you can't wait, this Formentor has 370hp already, and there’s not a muscular bumper in sight…  

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• Official Formentor and Leon Abt editions announced
• 2025 Cupra Terramar 2.0 TSI | PH Review

[pSyCoSiS]

That's actually a decent-looking car and a good overall package.

[Dazdot]

Looks like a young Urus.

[fantheman80]

Huge amount of the formentors on the road around me, have to look for the tailpipes but the golf r engine one very rare. Wouldn’t mistake this one! A great collab especially warrantied parts good luck to them

[Mackofthejungle]

Always look a bit crap on the road. Odd proportions, wheels which are always under tyred. Exactly why these images fade to black in the wheel arches - so you can't see how silly it looks.

[CG2020UK]

Looks really good.

Be a great dad wagon

[Wren-went]

Really do like the Formentor was behind the same colour & model with it's 4 exhausts earlier.. Can definitely see me owning 1 at sometime really do like Cupra as a brand.

I've a 17 plate Seat Leon Cupra 290 & ok it's not a Cupra branded car but it's been brilliant after 4 Golfs admittedly all GT TDIs & a GTD but regardless can't see me buying another VW when Seat & Cupra offer as much for less

[visorfett]

Will it come in better and more interesting colours?

[mikef]

“Set to earn 400hp option”

[Mr Tidy]

It must just be me then.

All those fake scoops and strakes on a mini-van look desperate!

[foxhounduk]

I have a 310ps Formentor for the school run around. It’s a cracking piece of kit. Spacious , fast, EA888 from the Audi S3 pulls strong, body control is excellent. The only niggle is the VAG electrical foibles with that centre screen / HVAC controls.

Sat in a Terramar the other day and was a mighty fine thing; the interior is even better. I don’t know why didn’t just put the 333ps engine in it. It’s a hefty thing and would still leave a gap for the Formentor.

[msportpanda]

I have the 333ps Formentor VZ3 at the minute and it’s the most fun I’ve had in a daily for years. Great performance, reasonable mpg and I even find myself taking the long way home and going out for a Sunday morning blast in it over the weekend car!

[TheMilkyBarKid]

These look like good family cars to me, encouraging hearing owners above rate them highly too.

[dvinell]

We have one as the family car.

The SatNav has a mind of its own: it sulks and refuses to talk for a while and the graphics look to have been designed for an 8 yr old.
Don t get me started on the non-illuminated heater controls (fixed on later models).
Performance from a 1.5 is adequate as opposed to exciting.

But it works very well overall - its not too massive, its light and responsive to drive (better to drive than a Kia Sportage, which has better tech / warranty) and deals very well with the sihtty mineshaft-ridden roads that are around me.

A Formentor VZ5 is quite a thing:
https://youtu.be/u2uzEmTRKy0?si=huhiFupIs8Uc-Cvs
https://youtu.be/yaLDuESctXs?si=tMiKDrj_330Eymcz

Edited by dvinell on Saturday 13th September 10:49

[Dashnine]

visorfett said:

Will it come in better and more interesting colours?

In a word no - the Formentor palette goes from white to black via Primer Grey with a dark purple or £2K matt bronze. The only free colour is an insipid greenish blue.

ETA: The Formentor came in a nice red pre-facelift, I was considering that to replace my (admittedly) dark blue Formentor but it’s vanished on the facelift car which also has a gaping whale mouth to get used to.

Edited by Dashnine on Saturday 13th September 10:54

[MB140]

Looks really nice. I could see me in one of these.

Only problem I had when I test drove a Formentorer VZ3 was the absolute dog terd of a user interface for the infotainment system.

[Pickle_Rick]

Have mentioned this on other threads, but the formentor is the worst car I've driven in over a decade.

Had one (2024 plate) as a hire car for 2 weeks, but couldn't wait to get back in to my dacia jogger.

Media system is awful, slow, laggy crap resolution. Has the word 'clima' as it can't fit climate on which wound me up. To change air speed, temp and direction you needed to go to two screens!

Takes near 30s for the compass to load on the dashboard after setting off. Apparently this is improved over earlier VAG cars. Feels like a £20 android tablet from a decade ago.

Stupid dashboard layout, under the media unit are two tacky looking temp sliders and a plus / minus. Awesome, I can change speed of the fans from here instead of the crap screen. Nope, it's volume control haha.

Boot is tiny. Like something from a city car.

Interior is cramped, my Jogger is only 10cm longer but can fit 7 adults.

Visibility is st.

Electric range is about 20-25 miles of a38 driving in summer, which for the size of the battery is appalling.

Poverty spec really is poverty

So much shiny crap plastic everywhere.

Even the phone charging bit was annoying

Unlocking the car for all doors requires pressing unlock 3 times.

Stereo sounds crap (at least Compared to a tesla)

Engine sounds like my bedroom aircon unit, whenever someone says EVs are crap as they have no sound, this is the sort of car that makes me think they're a moron. Really slow, yet wheelspins far too easily, on board Computers easily flummoxed.

Why is the bonnet so long?

Seats were poor, cramped in the back. Good luck fitting 2 car seats and an adult in the rear.

Steering felt completely lifeless, seemed to bear no correlation to where the wheels were pointing, certainly isn't a car you'd go in to corners with any confidence at speed. Partly because it would under steer, and partly it handled like a boat

This piece of crap would have cost £40k too.

I hope they improve the brakes on this new model as the hire car had poor feedback, and there's no way it can handle 400bhp

Utterly awful car.

Edited by Pickle_Rick on Saturday 13th September 13:58

[Yahonza]

Have to agree with some of the above. I came away from having one of these thinking it was a bit crap, less than the sum of its parts.
I couldn't work out if it was an SUV or a car, as it was failing to do both. Disagree about the steering and infotainment, which were pretty good. It looks the part as well - which will be its main selling point.

[dvinell]

"Media system is awful, slow, laggy crap resolution. Has the word 'clima' as it can't fit climate on which wound me up. To change air speed, temp and direction you needed to go to two screens! "
Agree

"Unlocking the car for all doors requires pressing unlock 3 times. "
You can change this in the settings

"Steering felt completely lifeless"
Something wrong there, steering on mine is v.good