Formentor VZ2 metallic black with no extra options.
I will start with my cars history, to give proper background to
review. Last few cars that I had, were brand new: 2014 Mercedes C63 w204, 2015 Audi S8, 2017 Audi A8 3.0 TDI Black Edition, 2019 Abarth 124 Spider. I also had 2x 2014 Mercedes SLK55 weekend cars, during S8 and A8 ownership. I parted with A8 in September and use Abarth as my daily. I didn't keep A8, because I was fed up with barge size and it was going out of warranty. It also had number of issues while in my ownership and I hated going to Audi service. Except that, it was great car to drive. I also went through hundreds of rental cars of different brands including sports cars and pickup trucks. I'm 5'7" tall and normal build, that's for seat and space comparison. I use cars for commute, at the moment mostly on M25 and I go on Eurotrips and to drive on mountain passes in the Alps.
I went to test drive the car in Crawley, where I know the roads and there's a choice of local ones with good and bad surface, and dual carriage with roundabouts, where you can test acceleration to 70mph.
Exterior and Interior.
Car was exactly the size I expected, a bit taller than Leon, but not real SUV. I don't need or want SUV, but a bit more clearance is welcomed for forest and fields roads I drive when on holiday.
Demo car was black with petrol blue seats. In general, everything looked good quality. Yes, at the rear plastic on the doors is harder than on front ones, but it was already raised in number of
reviews I watched. And I'm not going to travel at the back anyway. There was a lot of space above my head and around me.
Rear has individual climate zone and 2 x USB C ports. There's enough space at the back for adults to travel comfortably. I don't expect to have passengers in my car, maybe a few times a year max.
I was able to open the door using keyless by touching the handle, but I was not able to lock the car the same way. It's either software fault or it's supposed to work this way? Virtual kick under the boot worked. I also used button on the driver's door to open and close the boot. You have to hold it, while boot is closing. Had the same boot functionality in Audi.
IN VZ2 there's a spare wheel in the boot. In Edition there's no spare wheel and you can move the floor to
lower level. There was road assistance kit. But there are
NO SOCKETS in the boot at all, not even 12V, which I think is strange and rather inconvenient if you plan to take portable fridge on a day out or a trip. The only 12V socket is under the armrest at the front.
I only drove for 20 minutes, but I thought that seats are hard. And I'm coming from Abarth which is not very comfortable, but apparently has softer seats. Maybe you can get used to hard seats and setup them in optimal position, 20 minutes test drive is not enough for that. Also, when getting off the car, the bolster was touching my tights. That might be standard with taller cars, but I'm not used to it. It's not as bad, as metal seat belt holder in Camaro that was bruising my leg every time I was getting off and discouraged me from buying one.
Drive.
Before driving off, I switched off Start/Stop, Lane Assist, Front Assist. I didn't use ACC either, as it seemed a bit complicated with all the options. It's also worth switch off Eco tips which are hidden in settings. Otherwise, you will get advice to change from S to D or other tips and it will take over main part of the dash and cover speedo.
I tested all driving modes, starting with Comfort. It felt like a boat, but you have to consider, that I'm driving daily sporty car with hard suspension, so most cars can feel that way to me. I also thought the same about Audi S8 in Comfort mode, when I changed from Mercedes C63. I got used to it after some time and it was fine. Sport mode was a bit better.
Cupra mode is supposed to make more noise, but it wasn't that loud. And I definitely didn't hear any engine sound from speakers. People complained about it in some
reviews. I didn't feel a lot of difference between D and S mode of the gearbox, like I felt in previous Audis. I don't think
Cupra mode is too much, inconvenient or noisy. I think it would be the mode, I would drive as standard, until I would get used to more comfortable ones.
310bhp, well I must say, that I didn't feel that at all. Maybe my test drive was too short. I thought that A8 diesel had better pull with 262bhp and felt quicker when flored. It supposedly was 5.9s to 62mph,
Cupra is 4.9s to 62mph. Even Abarth feels faster with measly 167bhp and 6.8s to 62mph, because it makes more noise and you think, you're driving faster.
Standard brakes were ok. Fuel efficiency wasn't great but it was a short drive. I usually get decent mpg in my cars.
Infotainment.
It wasn't as bad, as I thought, but I read
Formentor manual and watched instructional video in German on YT. So I knew a bit about it. Accessing Car menu to switch all assistance annoyances was easy, but you have to do it, every time you start the car.
I paired my phone easily, contacts were imported, audio function connected. I tested the sound and well, it wasn't that great, but not tragic. I didn't have car with standard audio since 2009, so difficult to compare it.
Wireless charging worked ok. I forgot to bring USB cable to test other functions like mirroring and Android Drive. Salesman had Iphone and I could see he used it with mirroring.
I lowered volume to zero, but when I was going through different audio options and media, volume was turned up again couple of times. You can change in Setting startup volume, so you could just take it to zero and keep it this way. Much better than in Audi, where there's no option to switch off the infotainment and when you start the car, audio will come up. I usually switched to Jukebox, which was empty, to make sure, I don't have any music playing at startup.
There's also switch off "button" on the screen. You will get black screen with clock and few basic functions like start/stop, parking aid, etc.
I reversed into parking bay and camera was very clear. However mirror didn't dip, not setup in options of the car.
When I put my post code into navigation, it gave me two choices and none of them had street name, but grid references. I clicked on one of them and it was post code with one digit different than mine, the other one was my street. Never had something like this in any car. How am I suppose to know grid referenced for post codes? I didn't do any searches for POI. I saw on
Ateca forum, that people said the same thing about their last destinations shown as grid reference, not actual address.
After playing with Infotainment for 20 minutes, my left shoulder started to ache from the movement. Infotainment screen was a bit too far and I had to reach to touch it. Also, sometimes it was difficult to press the icon precisely, especially while driving. Or I pressed on icon and nothing happened.
I played with interior lighting but wasn't aware that you have to have exterior lights switched on, for it to come on. Salesman showed me this after the test drive. Orange side assist light was working during the test drive.
Summary.
I wasn't thrilled but I wasn't disappointed either. For a daily it would do, but it's not as fast as I expected and seats felt hard.
The thing is, I find it difficult to find exciting new car for daily driver function. I either don't like exterior, or interior, it's wrong brand, wrong engine, or something else. I don't treat cars like white goods, there must be something that makes me want them.
Formentor is the only car that caught my eye in recent months. I liked the way it looked, equipment list is good and brand is a bit niche.
Ordering and delivery.
Good news is, you don't have to order white to be under £40K tax bracket in UK. P11D price for VZ2 is £38,470.00 and then you have £1305 for 1st Year RFL and £55 registration fee. So you can order standard and premium metallic. Demo car had standard metallic and list price on documents was £39025. I checked DVLA website with salesman and there's no additional road tax for 5 years. You can check it for yourself, car reg is GY70YYD.
Another good news: there are some stock vehicles available in different colours and versions.
I can certainly recommend
Cupra Euro Crawley. Salesman was very knowledgable.
Now, I have to think if the car is good enough to be my daily and if some missing options will be a
problem or not. I can't think of any other brand new car that fits my long list of requirements, I like it, etc.
Edition in Metallic Grey Tech.
Metallic Grey Tech. Looks nice, but I could see small scratches on it already.
have car for the morning so i can give it a good try out, see what bits I like etc,
if anyone wants to know anything I will have a look and report back.
, big question will you order ?? i am now looking at 
