CUPRA Terramar SUV (2024 - ) review

Your choice of Terramar will probably come down to whether you’re buying privately or as a company car with an eye to tax costs like Benefit In Kind. If that’s you the e-HYBRID plug-in models (available in two power outputs) score the low CO2 you need, while also covering up to 70 miles on electric power alone and saving on petrol costs if you can charge at home. For everyone else the regular petrols are a tad cheaper to buy, finance or lease and, having tried both, nicer to drive as well. If not exactly cheap a Terramar looks better value than an equivalent Tiguan with the same engine, is fresher than the Audi Q3 and gives you a lot more for your money than a BMW X2. If your tastes are to the sportier side a Mini Countryman JCW like the one we’ve been running as a long-term test car is faster and a bit cheaper to buy, mind.

As part of the wider VW family Cupra shares engines, parts and platforms with various other brands in the group, and those under the Terramar feature in a wide range of cars. Early wobbles from the infotainment on this family of cars have hopefully been sorted out and Cupra is to be applauded for offering a five-year warranty, which is more than VW, Skoda or Audi does for its models built with the same bits.

As a brand-new model the Terramar comes with the latest safety kit and driver aids. Or, at least, does if you go up one trim level from the base V1 or VZ1… You’ll need to do this if you want things like a top view camera for parking, more advanced lane keeping assist capable of steering the car to a safe halt if the driver is incapacitated for any reason and more everyday useful stuff like alerts if you’re about to open a door into traffic, merge into a vehicle in your blindspot or haven’t seen something driving past as you back out of a tight parking space. We’d prefer this stuff as standard, but pays your money and all that. Credit is meanwhile due for the ease with which you can disable mithering ‘aids’ like speed limit bongs and lane-keeping steering interventions via a single downward swipe on the central touch-screen. While well-intentioned this does lock out if you spend too much time fiddling with it, which is a pain when you’ve asked your passenger to input an address to the nav or suchlike. You can override it but it’s a bit of a faff

We need to caveat our first impressions on the basis the Terramars we tested were top-spec versions with all the toys, the smart leather trim on the seats and the sophisticated variable suspension you can adjust via a slider on the touch-screen. Driving it on smooth Spanish roads may have flattered to deceive as well but, while sporty, the set-up feels a nice balance between agility and comfort, with the option to skew either way as you see fit. We’ll be keen to try the lower trim levels with their conventional suspension on British roads to see how these measure up, Cupra saying it’s gone with a sportier set-up than related cars like that VW Tiguan. As fits its image, the Terramar’s interior is very much oriented towards the driver, and there’s plenty of space up front, a suitably commanding seating position and decent visibility for a car of this type. In the back it felt a little dark, and while you can slide the rear seats back and forth to balance legroom against boot capacity it doesn’t feel the most spacious. We’ll say adequate rather than spectacular, the boot a decent size with a two-level floor and plenty of stash space beneath on the petrol models with this taken up by the battery on hybrid models.

Cupra’s trim levels can be a little confusing at first glance but basically divide between regular V1, V2 and V3 with the less powerful engines and the better-equipped and sportier VZ equivalents. The paired digital instruments and central screen, three-zone climate control, power tailgate and a heated steering wheel are standard on all but we’d advise going up to V2 for the sportier bucket seats, ambient lighting, head-up display and extra safety systems mentioned above. Generally, we like the Cupra style with its muted colours, copper trim details and other flourishes, the Terramar more exciting inside and out than many rivals. The interface through the touch-screen is also reasonably intuitive, if perhaps not quite as logical as the set-up in the Born with its bold, swipeable ‘tile’ menus. If not included on your selected trim level we’d recommend the impressively crisp Sennheiser stereo system as well – money well spent if you like your tunes.

Unlike the related Tiguan there’s no diesel option here, reflecting the Terramar’s sportier ambitions. Your choice is therefore limited to a 1.5-litre petrol driving the front wheels with various levels of hybrid assistance and a 2.0-litre all-wheel drive version geared more to performance than efficiency. We drove the most powerful versions of both, the 272 horsepower 1.5 e-HYBRID purring around town on electric power but getting a little thrashier when you asked more of it on faster roads. It’s also heavy, which you feel when you have to slow for corners or roundabouts even with the fancy optional brakes fitted to our test cars. While unfashionably fast and thirsty we much preferred the 265 horsepower non-hybrid for its sharper feel at the wheel, more comfortable ride and impressive agility given the overall size. Both had silly fake engine noise over the speakers, though you can at least turn this off in the configurable Individual mode.