New 290 (anyone disappointed)

[Peller]

I've had my new 290 since November and I'm sort of regretting it.

As much I love the Cupra (2nd MK3) I feel like I've been robbed of the old 'Cupra' attitude. Please don't get me wrong as the 290 is still a great car. I feel that the character has gone now as this run out model throws spec at it with good build quality.

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[CUPRoAr]

The 184 diesel and the Cupra both have 280ft-lbs of torque, so the 184 cant be a lot quicker to overtake with.
Axle tramp always gets worse with more power, do you have ps4s tyres or an engine mount insert?

 

[Blowski]

We all say things we don’t mean when we’re angry and frustrated

The Golf GTI thing I can understand, FR diesel bit I’m at a loss with. I’ve had diesels with similar power to the 184 and my 280 is so much faster in every way.

The axle tramp is annoying yes but can be rectified at the expense of a bit of ride quality.

On a nice hot day when there is heat in the road surface and the tyres and it all hooks up you’ll get that feeling you used to get with your old 280SC.




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[Tara]

I love my 280 SC Sub 8 , I've had mk1, mk2 , mk3 , mk4 , mk5 GTIs and a MK7 GTI performance lol , performance was a good car but my Cupra just feels better to me and I also had plenty of rattles in my golf that drove me mad , the new Mk7.5 gti in Performance quise is a great car but they are all becoming more boring and less edgy , I also have owned numerous diesel cars with my 330d m sport being the best but it's still a diesel which should only be fitted to vans lol .

 

[Jaco2k]

*cough* 4drive *cough*

About diesels, I had a play with some 330d the other day and it was insanely fast... I couldn't keep up and could tell from the amount of smoke his car was not stock.
Eventually we pulled up in the same service area and he came to have a talk - he was as surprised by the Cupra as I was by his car.
He said his tuned Beemer had 700nm of torque!
.. he was also very surprised the Cupra was stock and kept repeating "that is a very fast car"

 

[Tara]

Diesels can be really fast with instant power as my lad had a 335d xdrive when he worked for bmw and that had a real snarl to the sound and would leave any stock Cupra for instant pull but it's still a diesel abiet a 6 pot but all the 4 pots are even worse and just sound like a taxi turning up lol.
4 wheel drive is great day to day but to safe a boring for me as I like the edgyness of my sc and makes it a real hoot but the 4x4 is a great thing.

 

[Damo H]

*cough* 4drive *cough*

About diesels, I had a play with some 330d the other day and it was insanely fast... I couldn't keep up and could tell from the amount of smoke his car was not stock.
Eventually we pulled up in the same service area and he came to have a talk - he was as surprised by the Cupra as I was by his car.
He said his tuned Beemer had 700nm of torque!
.. he was also very surprised the Cupra was stock and kept repeating "that is a very fast car"

Hate to say it but passed the 0-30 drag, the 4drive is slower. So from a rolling start normal 300 is quicker still.

As for axle tramp, get an insert as soon as possible. No use ruining the standard mount then putting it in. Always better to get it in whilst it’s still solid.

Then tyres. PS4S or hopefully the new Goodyear Super Sport range.

 

[Craig Elliott]

Axle tramp??

 

[Tara]

Axle tramp??

When you floor it and it feels like your front wheels are going to snap off until you get traction.

 

[Craig Elliott]

Ah.. like wheel hop?

 

[JACUPRA280]

I

To be very honest and if I could turn the clock back I would've went back to the 184 diesel. It has more torque than the Cupra which in turn makes overtaking so much easier!

What a load of ****.

I traded in my Cupra 280 for a Golf GTD last year. I put 20,000 on the Cupra and have already put 15,000 on the GTD. The GTD is much slower in EVERY scenario. Sorry to burst your bubble and offend any 184 owners but it's not in the same league!

And I know what you're thinking - yeah but what about a tuning box, that would even it out, right? - wrong again! I had a TDI Tuning box on the GTD for 10,000 miles making over 350 lb-ft of torque - and it is still slower than the Cupra.

Overtaking in the GTD is shite compared to overtaking in the Cupra. Any gear any revs the Cupra will dry bum the GTD. I should know I've had and lived with both back to back!

 

[Cupra_2019]

I agree with the above. Ive just changed from a GTD. I had used two different tuning boxes on it, a DTUK CRD2 and more recently a Racechip One box. Both caused nothing but issues and finally resulted in the DSG gearbox starting to slip, hence the change to the Cupra 290.

With the most potent box I was pushing nearly 225bhp and could have some fun with a Golf GTI but come up against anything with more than 250 bhp and I was left. I played with a friend's Golf R and the outcome wasn't a shock.

Even whilst running in my 290 I'm amazed at the urgency and pace of the thing. I couldnt rate the car highly enough.

 

[Lmbarrett83]

I've had my new 290 since November and I'm sort of regretting it.

As much I love the Cupra (2nd MK3) I feel like I've been robbed of the old 'Cupra' attitude. Please don't get me wrong as the 290 is still a great car. I feel that the character has gone now as this run out model throws spec at it with good build quality.

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Coming from a stock manual 280 this 290 is everything that wasn't - and I loved that car.

The performance of the 280 was more than enough for the streets, country roads and m'way.

*The the DSG 7spd makes the 290 feel so much quicker.

*The induction note and exhaust notes are there from stock too.

*The build quality and interior of the car seem more solid.

Only thing my car is missing is 4 drive and a meaner looking front end

Guessing it depends on where you've come from as the A45 to a Cupra sounds like a massive difference.

Saying that i had a 2016 S3 as courtesy car for a couple of months in 2017 when my 280 was being repaired. Apart from the levels of grip I have off the line there's very little in it.

Learning use the DSG properly makes a huge difference with regards to rewards and enjoyment. This was a lesson I had to learn coming from the manual.

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[Tara]

Glad your liking the 290 , dsg will feel faster than manual it's just how it feels and the 7 speed will make it feel quicker by the shift point and the exhaust is a nice upgrade but they are identical apart from that in terms of speed and build quality is as bad as it's always been you only need to look at the posts for rattles,creeks and sound proofing but that's the trade off with a seat.

 

[surrealjam]

I know the conversation has moved on slightly... but I currently have a Cupra 300 ST and came directly from a pre-facelift Golf GTI performance pack which I had for 30k miles. Admittedly the pre-facelift is the 230hp 350nm variant, but the Cupra is significantly faster. They are almost identical under 3,000 RPM but from 4,000 to the redline, the Cupra is pretty mighty where the GTI seemed to taper off. I haven't driven a GTD or 184, but seeing as those probably only rev to 5k, I doubt they can compare.

I still loved my Golf GTI though, despite the rattles...

 

[CupraRobX]

See, this is what happens when people fixate on torque. Before someone says “bhp is how fast you hit the wall and torque is how far you push it” then that’s a fundamentally incorrect statement too.

It’s much better to think of mid-range punch rather than torque as torque is dependent on RPM. A diesel might have the same ‘torque’ value as petrol, but it has much less power – torque is force multiplied by radius. With a derv, you’ve more or less 2500-3000rpm less than a petrol, hence the petrol with the same torque producing more power.

Here's a good example: on a good day a professional cyclist can produce around 500NM of peak torque – that’s waaaay more than any FR diesel or petrol Cupra can make – so why can they not overtake us or go faster? Simple…rpm.
Let’s say he can cycle at 60rpm – that means although his/her torque is high, his power is low – only 4.2bhp.

Another relevant example: the 184ps diesel produces its peak power (and torque) at around 3800rpm and with 350NM makes it around the 184PS mark. The petrol is at about 6100rpm and makes nearly 300PS….with the same torque value.
So why isn’t it quicker…because it has less power due to lower rpm! In order to make use of it’s very narrow power band the derv has shorter ratios and the petrol longer.

The diesel ‘feels’ faster lower down the rpm range as the peak power is lower down the rpm range than a petrol – with the petrol all you need to do is drop and cog and you’ll have more power as you’ve increased the rpm.

Torque is cheap...power is King!
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[Nora2004]

Overtaking in the GTD is shite compared to overtaking in the Cupra. Any gear any revs the Cupra will dry bum the GTD. I should know I've had and lived with both back to back!

Quote of the year right there! Lol

 

[CupraGeezer]

See, this is what happens when people fixate on torque.

In particular, this is what happens when people fixate on torque ..... AT THE ENGINE.

As previously stated, both an FR184 and a Cupra have 280 lbf.ft (380 Nm) torque.

However, an FR184 has an overall gear ratio of 2.074 while its 2.800 in a Cupra (both DSG). This means that torque at the wheel, which is what counts for acceleration, is 788 Nm in the FR184 but 1064 Nm in the Cupra. No contest.

Just about every magazine I've ever read ignores this fact and it irritates the hell out of me.

 

[Blowski]

The same magazines that take a 280bhp hot hatch like the Renault or the Hyundai and then compare it to a standard Golf GTI and ignore the fact the Cupra even exists?


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[CupraGeezer]

The same magazines that take a 280bhp hot hatch like the Renault or the Hyundai and then compare it to a standard Golf GTI and ignore the fact the Cupra even exists?


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Yep, those ones.