Copper-bottomed class

As the last Cupra to be launched with an internal combustion engine, Sean O’Grady finds the Terramar a fine last hurrah

- Sean O’Grady

It's really quite surprising what some copper highlights and nice soft leather bucket seats can do for a car, and the sense of wellbeing it imparts to its driver. The brand-new, petrolpowered Cupra Terramar is one such "feel good" and, while not exactly cheap (£50k for my test version), it does indeed have the sort of tasteful ambience that is usually found in far more expensive machinery - the grander Mercedes-Benz and, though I’m getting carried away here, a little bit of the personal reassurance I found the last time I settled into a Bentley Flying Spur. As the motoring cliche goes, the Cupra Terramar, in its plusher versions, is a nice place to be.

Or maybe I’m just easily fooled. Underneath the tasteful accoutrements lie some standard Volkswagen Group componentry, shared mostly with the Audi Q3 and, most familiarly, in the VW Tiguan (the company’s best seller across Europe, by the way – but also the Skoda Kodiaq, another excellent offering.