2025 Cupra Formentor VZ3 | UK Review

You can buy a Formentor with the same 333hp and trick rear axle as a Golf R - should you?

In a very real sense, there was Cupra before Formentor, and Cupra after Formentor. Before, there was a half-baked idea of a brand based chiefly on a funny-looking Ateca; after it, there was something more solid, something to build on. The difference was partly about the Formentor’s status as a standalone product, rightly considered essential for what was claimed as a standalone carmaker. But mostly, I suspect, it was because, against most people's expectations and unusually for a crossover, the car arrived fully-formed and surprisingly easy on the eye. Drove okay, too.

The buying public quickly took note. Cupra was up and running. In the intervening years, it has extensively filled in the gaps, not least with EVs that seem too numerous to list. But to these eyes at least, none of the models that followed, new Leon included, rivalled the catfish-faced appeal of the Formentor. They looked either formulaic or forgettable, or both. This is unfortunate, because in an effort to homogenise its latest design language across a growing lineup, they are what the updated Formentor now closely resembles. Which does rather cut across the best reason for buying one in the first place.

Having said all that, beauty is indisputably in the eye of the beholder, and returning customers might reasonably point out that they purchased a Formentor for several other valid reasons. Happily for them, these mostly remain intact. The car is sensibly packaged (like virtually all MQB variants) and benefits, vaguely speaking, from a revamped interior. Additionally, if you ignore the other engines available, it gets 333hp in VZ3 format from the same uprated 2.0-litre four-pot that powers the current Mk8 Golf R, as well as the torque splitter technology intended to make the rear axle a bit more interesting.

Cupra's main intention with the cabin is to make buyers feel warm and fuzzy about the presence of a larger 12.9-inch infotainment screen and the reworked software contained within. Neither is likely to figure high on a PH list of must-haves, though it’s worth remembering that features like the ‘retro-illuminated’ slider control are about righting previous wrongs. At any rate, the new display, turned toward you with the solemnity of Dorian Gray’s portrait, overshadows much of the hard work done on material choices, and is still weighed down by the sheer number of functions it is being asked to marshal.

Suffice it to say, it works well enough, but at the risk of ploughing over old ground, you’d trade in its zippiness and well-meaning graphics for actual switchgear in a heartbeat. The new steering wheel, mercifully, does retain these, though mounting the start-stop button under your thumb does rather feel like Cupra over-egging the salad: you’re not firing up a V8, after all. Ditto the decision to locate the stability control switch in a prominent position on the centre console. Far be it from us to disapprove of the sentiment - but a Golf R the Formentor is not: the temptation to push it, especially for owners with young families, is surely going to occur at roughly the same rate as blood moons.

On the other hand, the VZ3’s more pressing requirement - that it seem appreciably punchy no matter what the weather - is here in spades. The latest evolution of the longstanding EA888 four-pot is much like all the rest: urgent, unflagging and clearly very eager to please. Torque is unchanged, though you’ll rarely want for more, or feel the need to override the DSG’s idea of which gear you should be in. Cupra says you’ll get to 62mph in less than five seconds, which seems credible enough given the amount of traction it finds. It doesn’t sound particularly invigorating, even with the (switchable) assistance of an actuator, but this is certainly no barrier to getting a hurry on.

It helps, predictably, that the Formentor carries speed without much indication of stress. There isn’t much heft or personality in the steering, but it is plenty accurate enough for you to make the most of an adaptive 4Drive system that wants to seem unflustered no matter what you throw at it. If you wish, via the drive mode button on the wheel and Mr Skid on the console, it will pretend to get flustered by sending more torque than is strictly necessary to whichever rear tyre is on the smoky side of a corner - but it’s as tightly controlled as it is contrived, and is generally undermined by the Formentor’s broader crossover-ish-ness, which makes you feel like your trying too hard to wring excitement from a luggage cart.

In any case, the more aggressive Cupra setting is hobbled by overenthusiastic damping; better to stick with the VZ3’s strengths, which generally resemble everything else that shares its engine, gearbox and platform. Of course, the problem there is you might reasonably wonder if your £51k is better spent elsewhere - like on the Mk8 Golf R that starts from £5k less. Or, if boot space and practicality are required, the moderately less powerful (but £10k cheaper) Octavia vRS wagon. Or even, if you’re inclined to think differently about the new design language and really must have a higher hip point, the 265hp VZ2 Formentor that does without the driven rear axle, but costs from £46k.

All seem better positioned to make more overall sense than the flagship. The kicker, news of which arrived just last week, is that the VZ3 won’t be the range-topper for much longer: the VZ5 previously denied to the UK and endowed with Audi’s irrepressible 2.5-litre inline-five, is inbound. Sure, it’ll be even more expensive and is unlikely to paper over all of the Formentor’s shortcomings - but it’ll also contain one of the truly great (and genuinely distinctive) petrol engines of the last 20 years. Sufficiently game-changing to make Cupra’s instigator seriously worth considering? Time will tell.

SPECIFICATION | CUPRA FORMENTOR

Engine: 1,984cc, 4-cyl, turbocharged
Transmission: Seven-speed dual-clutch, all-wheel drive
Power (hp): 333@5,600-6,500rpm
Torque (lb ft): 310@2,100-5,500rpm
0-62mph: 4.8sec
Top speed: 155mph
Weight: 1,641kg (including driver)
MPG: 30.7-32.5 (WLTP combined)
CO2: 198g/km
Price: £51,605

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