OK, so as you may or may not be aware we picked up our (the wifes, but mine really) Cupra yesterday. The car was purchased via drivethedeal and involved a bit of a trek to the supplying dealer. Free driven delivery was offered, but I really didn't want that so the wife and I took the train to Kent in order to drive it back ourselves. Part of the adventure and an excuse to stop off on the way home for a nice pub lunch. What we didn't bargain on was the traffic which was horrendous for most of the journey, however, this gave me the chance to go off route through Surrey in order to avoid a lot of M25 which was grid locked.
We arrived at the dealer at 10am and the car was sat outside the showroom waiting for us. I spent a good 20 minutes running through my checklist which I did as a list in google keep so I didn't forget anything I wanted to check before driving off (simple things like mats and media system leads present and correct) as I have a habit of overlooking things when confronted with shiny new vehicles. Couldn't spot any problems other than a few smears from dodgy cleaning and tyre dressing spattered on the wheels. All the paperwork was already signed so it was just a case of shaking the salesmans hand and being on our way. I did mention the lack of a 280 badge but got the response "talk to Seat" which was a little disappointing. Ah well.
The wife didn't want to drive as she wanted her first go to be on familiar roads. Fine by me! Drivers seat adjusted, home address programmed into sat nav (or so we thought!), comfort mode selected and we're off. First thing that struck me is how solid the car felt, only having a pretty short demo drive many weeks earlier I had forgotten what it was like. Ride, as I remembered from test drive, quite firm in a solid controlled sort of way but steering way too light for my tastes. Within minutes we are on the M20 heading towards London and at this point I'm wondering why the satnav is so quiet. Didn't find out until later in the journey that you have to give it chance to calculate the routes before selecting one of the blue, red, green (can't remember the colours) options. I selected the top one straight away and this has the effect of canceling the route guidance completely. Should have had a proper play with it before leaving, but just wanted to get on our way.
The car is incredibly refined in comfort mode on the motorway, glancing at speedo thinking I'd be doing 70ish was surprised to see it was (ahem) quite a lot faster. Time to try out the adaptive cruise I think. This really is a fantastic option if you do any motorway miles on your commutes. The M20 was quite light traffic wise (pity about the M25 and M4), so, I set the distance to its furthest setting as paranoid about stone chips before even getting the car home and let the ACC do its stuff. It really is impressive, all I was doing was the steering, car was doing the accelerate / decelerate as we hit small pockets of traffic. Next I tried the lane assist, but I have to say on first impressions I don't really like it and doubt I'll use it. It does what it should in that if the car veers out of lane the steering auto corrects, but it feels really weird, especially when you are meaning to change lanes. Almost like fighting the car. Don't bother spec'ing it if you're looking to order.
Once we hit the M25 the problems began. Traffic at a crawl, but it did give me chance to have a poke about with the toys. Lots of toys! Will need to sit in driveway like sad person to run through everything properly after the F1. Anyway, we'd got the satnav working by this point and it suggested we get off the M25. We took its advice, but the local roads were equally congested for a good few miles until we got a bit of free air. Car in Cupra mode and it completely changes personality from refined GT car to snarling asbo yob. The sound is slightly artificial but fun and very addictive. Steering weights up, but not enough for me as it is still too light, throttle response becomes much sharper but I can't say I noticed a great difference in the damping. Need to have an extended run on familiar roads to get a better feel for the modes I think.
Back on the M4 at Reading, gridlocked again so start thinking about lunch. Found a place in the good pub guide just off the M4 at Hungerford (J14). The Pheasant Inn, lovely food, can recommend. Motorway was still log jammed until we cleared Newport quite some considerable time later and the weather also turned unpleasant after Bristol. Ah well, can't have it all. Back home 12.5 hours after we set off, but it was worth it.
It really is a cracking car and anyone anxiously waiting will no doubt be chuffed. I'd whittled the choice down to Cupra or S3 and at this proint I don't regret my decision in the slightest. Ironically, the registration document was waiting in the post by the time we got home, so both the tax and the V5 arrived before the car
Anyway, need to get the thing cleaned, decontaminated and sealed before posting decent pics, but it won't be today as the weather is looking dodgy here. Off to watch Monaco GP instead.
We arrived at the dealer at 10am and the car was sat outside the showroom waiting for us. I spent a good 20 minutes running through my checklist which I did as a list in google keep so I didn't forget anything I wanted to check before driving off (simple things like mats and media system leads present and correct) as I have a habit of overlooking things when confronted with shiny new vehicles. Couldn't spot any problems other than a few smears from dodgy cleaning and tyre dressing spattered on the wheels. All the paperwork was already signed so it was just a case of shaking the salesmans hand and being on our way. I did mention the lack of a 280 badge but got the response "talk to Seat" which was a little disappointing. Ah well.
The wife didn't want to drive as she wanted her first go to be on familiar roads. Fine by me! Drivers seat adjusted, home address programmed into sat nav (or so we thought!), comfort mode selected and we're off. First thing that struck me is how solid the car felt, only having a pretty short demo drive many weeks earlier I had forgotten what it was like. Ride, as I remembered from test drive, quite firm in a solid controlled sort of way but steering way too light for my tastes. Within minutes we are on the M20 heading towards London and at this point I'm wondering why the satnav is so quiet. Didn't find out until later in the journey that you have to give it chance to calculate the routes before selecting one of the blue, red, green (can't remember the colours) options. I selected the top one straight away and this has the effect of canceling the route guidance completely. Should have had a proper play with it before leaving, but just wanted to get on our way.
The car is incredibly refined in comfort mode on the motorway, glancing at speedo thinking I'd be doing 70ish was surprised to see it was (ahem) quite a lot faster. Time to try out the adaptive cruise I think. This really is a fantastic option if you do any motorway miles on your commutes. The M20 was quite light traffic wise (pity about the M25 and M4), so, I set the distance to its furthest setting as paranoid about stone chips before even getting the car home and let the ACC do its stuff. It really is impressive, all I was doing was the steering, car was doing the accelerate / decelerate as we hit small pockets of traffic. Next I tried the lane assist, but I have to say on first impressions I don't really like it and doubt I'll use it. It does what it should in that if the car veers out of lane the steering auto corrects, but it feels really weird, especially when you are meaning to change lanes. Almost like fighting the car. Don't bother spec'ing it if you're looking to order.
Once we hit the M25 the problems began. Traffic at a crawl, but it did give me chance to have a poke about with the toys. Lots of toys! Will need to sit in driveway like sad person to run through everything properly after the F1. Anyway, we'd got the satnav working by this point and it suggested we get off the M25. We took its advice, but the local roads were equally congested for a good few miles until we got a bit of free air. Car in Cupra mode and it completely changes personality from refined GT car to snarling asbo yob. The sound is slightly artificial but fun and very addictive. Steering weights up, but not enough for me as it is still too light, throttle response becomes much sharper but I can't say I noticed a great difference in the damping. Need to have an extended run on familiar roads to get a better feel for the modes I think.
Back on the M4 at Reading, gridlocked again so start thinking about lunch. Found a place in the good pub guide just off the M4 at Hungerford (J14). The Pheasant Inn, lovely food, can recommend. Motorway was still log jammed until we cleared Newport quite some considerable time later and the weather also turned unpleasant after Bristol. Ah well, can't have it all. Back home 12.5 hours after we set off, but it was worth it.
It really is a cracking car and anyone anxiously waiting will no doubt be chuffed. I'd whittled the choice down to Cupra or S3 and at this proint I don't regret my decision in the slightest. Ironically, the registration document was waiting in the post by the time we got home, so both the tax and the V5 arrived before the car
Anyway, need to get the thing cleaned, decontaminated and sealed before posting decent pics, but it won't be today as the weather is looking dodgy here. Off to watch Monaco GP instead.
