Cupra Ateca review

The SUV that birthed Cupra as a stand-alone brand soldiers on against ever-developing competitors, write Matt Saunders and Jonathan Bryce

- Matt Saunders and Jonathan Bryce

In 2018, Seat announced that it was transforming its Cupra model line into a brand in its own right, creating exciting, youthful, sporty versions of Martorell’s vanilla family cars — and the Cupra Ateca was the guinea pig.

It was guided by a compelling recipe: combine the engine, gearbox and driveline of hot Volkswagens with the fashionable, desirable added-convenience bodystyle of a crossover. It sounds like a winning recipe - and in practice it was mostly delivered.

However, the Ateca is now one of the oldest cars you can buy new. Also consider the fact that its rivals include the BMW X1 M35i and Porsche Macan and you realise how hard it will have to work to win your favour.

Still, with fresh styling touches brought about by a facelift and some upgraded interior technology, Cupra believes the Ateca still a worthy part of the family. Time, then, for us to find out if this era-defining warrior has lost its mojo.

WHAT'S IT LIKE?

All engines available are petrols. V1 and V2 cars can be had with either a 1.5-litre turbo four with 148bhp and front-wheel drive; or 2.0-litre turbo four with 187bhp and four-wheel drive. VZ2 and VZ3 cars can only be had with a 296bhp version of the 2.0-litre unit.

The Ateca has a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic (DSG) gearbox and a clutch-based electronically controlled four-wheel-drive system as standard. Suspension is by the same arrangements of MacPherson struts at the front and multiple links at the rear that four-wheel-drive versions of the regular Seat Ateca use, but the Cupra model gets stiffer suspension springs and anti-roll bars, uprated adaptive dampers, 19in alloy wheels and uprated brakes as standard.

At its core, this is a more powerful, more performance-focused version of Seat's medium-sized crossover SUV, not a ground-up, clean-sheet creation such as the Cupra Formentor or Tavascan.