CUPRA FORMENTOR

Sporty, different, well equipped and still with a shiny lustre of newness, this SUV will turn heads. Oliver Young is your guide

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Familiarity breeds contempt, they say and some people feel that way about SUVs after their boom in popularity. In the current SUV market, there are so many colourless, familiar faces, but there is an antidote: the Cupra Formentor.

Even today, the Cupra brand remains new and exciting for many buyers and the Formentor arrived in 2020 as its first dedicated product. Unlike the Ateca and Leon, this is a model you won't see bearing a Seat badge. So to those asking what’s that?”, the answer is a sharp and sporty, coupé-esque crossover, rather than a luxury SUV or rugged off-roader, and the performance reflects this. Apart from a pair of rather sensible offerings making 148bhp and 187bhp, pace is up there with hot hatches such as Volkswagen’s Golf GTI and R.