Just my final thoughts on the last three months of Cupra 280 ownership.
In my opinion Seat have pulled a blinder in the shape of the Cupra 280, its a phenomenal allrounder, it can do the shopping, a motorway commute and with the right tyres can put in some decent lap times.
Good points
-The damping is great even in Cupra mode, it isn't too firm and doesn't bounce you all over the road when you're blasting down your favourite B roads.
-The electronic dif is really quite effective with the right tyre, you can get on the power ridiculously early and it will pull you round.
-The Seat sound system is pretty good and enough adjustability to get the kind of sound I was after.
-The engine is amazing for a turbo unit, yes it has some lag but the torque and power spread are impressive. The straight line speed feels faster than the stated 276bhp to me.
-Overall an impressive car.
Bad points
-The standard seats are rubbish, why the didn't supply the buckets with all 280 is beyond me considering they marketed it as the first car to do a sub 8.
-The brakes while feelsome and good stopping power fade through heat, again why didn't they spec some fixed units like on the sub 8 pack instead of the **** single pot sliding caliper
-The rattles were annoying in the door cards, really shouldn't have them on a new vehicle
-The DSG box was great in normal use but when pressing on you had to wait just slightly too long for downshifts. The lack of a soft limiter was very irritating, the box changing up in manual done my head in. Granted, I learned to drive around it but should you have to?
-The Bridgestones were crap for a car with this power through the front a better tyre should of been specced.
Like I said a great allrounder but lacked a certain something for me. To this day my Mk2 Focus RS is the benchmark for my hot hatches. It wasn't as fast round a track, as well damped and it was chavvy but it made me feel awesome when I was on attack mode.
The Cupra 280 was impressive but not exciting enough.
To that end, I've changed tact and bought myself a runaround and a track car.
One last point i'm selling my genuine BBS CH alloys with Cup 2s, it should be in the parts for sale section once the mods approve or if I see and change yet another mistake i've made!
Thanks Seat, its been fun but unfortunately not exceptional.
In my opinion Seat have pulled a blinder in the shape of the Cupra 280, its a phenomenal allrounder, it can do the shopping, a motorway commute and with the right tyres can put in some decent lap times.
Good points
-The damping is great even in Cupra mode, it isn't too firm and doesn't bounce you all over the road when you're blasting down your favourite B roads.
-The electronic dif is really quite effective with the right tyre, you can get on the power ridiculously early and it will pull you round.
-The Seat sound system is pretty good and enough adjustability to get the kind of sound I was after.
-The engine is amazing for a turbo unit, yes it has some lag but the torque and power spread are impressive. The straight line speed feels faster than the stated 276bhp to me.
-Overall an impressive car.
Bad points
-The standard seats are rubbish, why the didn't supply the buckets with all 280 is beyond me considering they marketed it as the first car to do a sub 8.
-The brakes while feelsome and good stopping power fade through heat, again why didn't they spec some fixed units like on the sub 8 pack instead of the **** single pot sliding caliper
-The rattles were annoying in the door cards, really shouldn't have them on a new vehicle
-The DSG box was great in normal use but when pressing on you had to wait just slightly too long for downshifts. The lack of a soft limiter was very irritating, the box changing up in manual done my head in. Granted, I learned to drive around it but should you have to?
-The Bridgestones were crap for a car with this power through the front a better tyre should of been specced.
Like I said a great allrounder but lacked a certain something for me. To this day my Mk2 Focus RS is the benchmark for my hot hatches. It wasn't as fast round a track, as well damped and it was chavvy but it made me feel awesome when I was on attack mode.
The Cupra 280 was impressive but not exciting enough.
To that end, I've changed tact and bought myself a runaround and a track car.
One last point i'm selling my genuine BBS CH alloys with Cup 2s, it should be in the parts for sale section once the mods approve or if I see and change yet another mistake i've made!
Thanks Seat, its been fun but unfortunately not exceptional.