Getting action with CUPRA?

Jul 6, 2021
4
0
I’m aware that there are a lot of people who have had problems with their Cupra and had to get the manufacturer themselves involved. The latest OTA has bricked our car leaving it with heating on full whack, beeping every 2 minutes and all safety controls disabled. ‘Frivolous’ stuff like music and calls are obviously a no-go. Our local garage have been fab but after a 2 week wait to get it in, we now have a courtesy Ibiza on our driveway which certainly isn’t worth the rental we are paying on the Formentor.
We have an unknown wait for a control module, indications from the garage look like months not weeks but no-one really knows.
Emailing Cupra themselves is getting nowhere, on the third email we finally got to a human who said they can’t talk to us as it’s leased - lease company is bemused as there’s obviously no reason for this.
If getting this resolved is weeks, it’s irritating but months without our main car is not acceptable.
Anyone got a contact at Cupra who has actually been useful and at minimum can get us a realistic timeline?
Love the car itself but Cupra and the blasted infotainment system are absolutely useless… despite husband and I both having Seats before (heck we met here on SCN) and had a litany of issues with them, we stupidly thought it might be better now. Obviously not!
 

johanr77

Active Member
Sep 13, 2021
64
37
Cupra were absolutely useless when mine went wrong a week after delivery. Local franchise did all the heavy lifting in sorting mine, if anything cupra were the reason they had it a week because it could have been done in a day if cupra would just answer them.

Absolutely shocking customer service.
 

/dev/null

Active Member
Nov 12, 2008
1,651
101
I’m aware that there are a lot of people who have had problems with their Cupra and had to get the manufacturer themselves involved. The latest OTA has bricked our car leaving it with heating on full whack, beeping every 2 minutes and all safety controls disabled. ‘Frivolous’ stuff like music and calls are obviously a no-go. Our local garage have been fab but after a 2 week wait to get it in, we now have a courtesy Ibiza on our driveway which certainly isn’t worth the rental we are paying on the Formentor.
We have an unknown wait for a control module, indications from the garage look like months not weeks but no-one really knows.
Emailing Cupra themselves is getting nowhere, on the third email we finally got to a human who said they can’t talk to us as it’s leased - lease company is bemused as there’s obviously no reason for this.
If getting this resolved is weeks, it’s irritating but months without our main car is not acceptable.
Anyone got a contact at Cupra who has actually been useful and at minimum can get us a realistic timeline?
Love the car itself but Cupra and the blasted infotainment system are absolutely useless… despite husband and I both having Seats before (heck we met here on SCN) and had a litany of issues with them, we stupidly thought it might be better now. Obviously not!
How long have you had it? Is it financed? You could look at rejecting it? https://www.thecarexpert.co.uk/rejecting-a-car/
 

Sly870

Active Member
Jan 10, 2021
102
16
Oh - I didn't realise Cupra are having so many problems. I was just about to sign for a Formentor V1 150 DSG...nevermind then!
 

/dev/null

Active Member
Nov 12, 2008
1,651
101
Oh - I didn't realise Cupra are having so many problems. I was just about to sign for a Formentor V1 150 DSG...nevermind then!
It's mainly the infotainment system. Do a search in this forum and you'll find the plethora of posts on the various issues.
 

ES_Formentor

Active Member
Sep 30, 2021
36
32
Oh - I didn't realise Cupra are having so many problems. I was just about to sign for a Formentor V1 150 DSG...nevermind then!
Dont be scared off by the nay sayers, many of them do not even have cars yet or even ordered them, some of those seem to pop up on every thread with tales of doom. Most people get on just fine with their Formentors. Just like any other make there can be failures and software bugs trust me i have had them with several different up market brands. The cars tech does take some getting used to but we have had ours 8 months now and nothing so far has hindered our quiet enjoyment of our asset.
 

/dev/null

Active Member
Nov 12, 2008
1,651
101
How long have you had your Formentor?
Mine is currently awaiting delivery. I assume you are hinting that unless you own one then you're not qualified to comment? If so, then the fact that there are threads hundreds of posts long with people having troubles with the infotainment system, desperate for software updates etc. vs probably about 10 people saying they consider theirs perfect (though often "perfect apart from...") is a pretty clear attestation that the Formentor infotainment system is far from acceptable. Yes, I ordered the car knowing this because I like the look of it, and it's a relatively cheap option in the VAG range. I accept it's going to piss me off, but also accept that I'm going to be paying another couple of hundred pounds a month for an Audi if I want something more refined (yes, I've owned two Audi's previously, and both were flawless on the infotainment system side of things).
 

johanr77

Active Member
Sep 13, 2021
64
37
If I went off this forum alone when waiting for my Formentor I would have cancelled it. Other than a part failure after a week which wasn't handled well by Cupra mine has behaved pretty well. Nothing like the amount of issues people have had before I got mine. Infotainment system initially is a pain in the arse but if you invest a reasonable amount of time setting it all up it shouldn't be a problem going forward. So he is right you aren't going off experience, you're just reading the complaints on a forum (many of which are valid) but they certainly have improved the car from where it was. By the time you get your car a lot of the grumbles people may have been experiencing might be sorted.
 

Spivvy

Active Member
Nov 21, 2021
292
138
UK
In perspective 7748 cars were registered upto the end of 2021
So there are a lot of people out there who don't have problems or are not part of this forum.
We all agree there are issues with some infotainment systems
And it's not built to Audi spec
But overall the car is week built and drives well



Sent from my Pixel 6 Pro using Tapatalk
 

/dev/null

Active Member
Nov 12, 2008
1,651
101
Absolutely. If it were a "bad" car then I certainly wouldn't have ordered one. There aren't many (if any?) hatchbacks/SUV's out there at the moment which match the Formentor on looks, and from what I've heard the higher end engines are great. I think what bothers me is that buying a SEAT/Cupra, one has expectations of where corners would have been cut over more premium brands. I.e. a few more hard plastics in the cabin than others, not the blazing edge in technology, slightly less overall refinement... But they are all *conscious decisions* of the designers to cut costs. A ton of bugs in the software isn't by design, and whilst you could argue less testing before releasing could be a cost cutting exercise, it's far from what a consumer should expect. Bugs in software are of course inevitable, and an oddball occurrence in some edge case of settings combination is fully excusable. However basic schoolboy problems (pre latest update of course) like not realising some cars drive on the other side of the road, incredibly slow response times etc. are just unacceptable IMO.

Yeah - great car, but unfortunately some inexcusable issues in early software releases.