Test drove a Cupra 280 SC this morning

[Nick]

I like carwow's simplicity.
Also, got my first quote within 5 minutes of signing up! (£2500 discount (£3500 with seat finance)

broadspeed are showing around £3000

drivethedeal shows £3600, but the fine print says you loose £1100 if you don't take out a 4.9% loan. Also reading between the lines it looks like it factors in the seat finance £1000 deposit assist into that number also. I may be wrong.

 

[morini]

I like carwow's simplicity.
Also, got my first quote within 5 minutes of signing up! (£2500 discount (£3500 with seat finance)

broadspeed are showing around £3000

drivethedeal shows £3600, but the fine print says you loose £1100 if you don't take out a 4.9% loan. Also reading between the lines it looks like it factors in the seat finance £1000 deposit assist into that number also. I may be wrong.

You do lose £1100 with DTD if you don't take the finance, but you can take 0% instead of the 4.9% PCP. You only lose £100 of the discount by taking 0% instead of the PCP.

You are correct that £1000 is a dealer contribution conditional on taking one of the finance deals. The 0% seems like a no brainer to me though, assuming you have the required deposit and want to own rather than rent the car.

 

[robdf2]

You do lose £1100 with DTD if you don't take the finance, but you can take 0% instead of the 4.9% PCP. You only lose £100 of the discount by taking 0% instead of the PCP.

You are correct that £1000 is a dealer contribution conditional on taking one of the finance deals. The 0% seems like a no brainer to me though, assuming you have the required deposit and want to own rather than rent the car.

The 0% is tempting as you say of you can afford it , but is you pay full whack of £28k
And put a deposit down of £14k , the balance of £14k over 36 months is quite expensive for the average person £389 a month , but as you say you do own the car.

But if If the average person had £14 k to put towards a new car don't you think they would either buy a car outright eg seat Ibiza , fiesta ect or use the money for a higher value purchase , Audi , BMW ect ?
I would t have thought many people are rolling into seat dealerships and having £14 k in their back pockets to hand over.
Just to put things into perspective when I bought my mk2 Leon Cupra it was 3 months old ex demo fully loaded and cost me £17k out right purchase.
It's either very frightening the way car prices have gone or seat think there product is worth £28k less discounts , on paper it's really not IMHO.
The country is still in a recession and is only just starting to turn the corner.

 

[P0LKR]

The 0% is tempting as you say of you can afford it , but is you pay full whack of £28k
And put a deposit down of £14k , the balance of £14k over 36 months is quite expensive for the average person £389 a month , but as you say you do own the car.

But if If the average person had £14 k to put towards a new car don't you think they would either buy a car outright eg seat Ibiza , fiesta ect or use the money for a higher value purchase , Audi , BMW ect ?
I would t have thought many people are rolling into seat dealerships and having £14 k in their back pockets to hand over.
Just to put things into perspective when I bought my mk2 Leon Cupra it was 3 months old ex demo fully loaded and cost me £17k out right purchase.
It's either very frightening the way car prices have gone or seat think there product is worth £28k less discounts , on paper it's really not IMHO.
The country is still in a recession and is only just starting to turn the corner.

Car prices are obscene. I bought my first Cupra brand new in 2003 for £15k. My salary certainly hasn't doubled in that time

 

[shhhhh]

I had my test drive this morning. Was very impressed with the active dampers. I went to put the car into cupra mode to see how bad the ride was (assuming I was in comfort at the beginning) only to find that I was in Cupra mode already. Granted I couldn't tell a huge difference in comfort but I was pleasantly surprised by how well the car handled bumps in the road.

As for the power, immense and smooth delivery. It's a good thing my licence is clean at the moment, I'll have a bit of a buffer in terms of points lol. The car really does go. I was expecting traction issues as some people have said but I really didn't have any. Gave it some welly a few times and it had no problem whatsoever putting the power down (granted it was a lovely morning - 16 degrees and bone dry). I think my fr 170 has more traction issues if I'm completely honest, in first and second at least.

I love the variable steering at low speeds. Makes manoeuvring around small car parks a doddle. At higher speeds I didn't really notice it at all. Very intuitive. The car is very refined in comfort but if you floor it you get what I thought was a very nice engine note compared to other 2.0 petrol I've driven.

Having never driven a DSG gearbox before I don't regret my order one bit. It was very easy to use and smooth. In manual mode it was pretty awesome too, liked it more than the Mercedes version, at least.

The interior looks to me a lot nicer than in the photos. The seats especially look much more impressive in person. Can't wait to get mine now!!

 

[morini]

The 0% is tempting as you say of you can afford it , but is you pay full whack of £28k
And put a deposit down of £14k , the balance of £14k over 36 months is quite expensive for the average person £389 a month , but as you say you do own the car.

But if If the average person had £14 k to put towards a new car don't you think they would either buy a car outright eg seat Ibiza , fiesta ect or use the money for a higher value purchase , Audi , BMW ect ?
I would t have thought many people are rolling into seat dealerships and having £14 k in their back pockets to hand over.
Just to put things into perspective when I bought my mk2 Leon Cupra it was 3 months old ex demo fully loaded and cost me £17k out right purchase.
It's either very frightening the way car prices have gone or seat think there product is worth £28k less discounts , on paper it's really not IMHO.
The country is still in a recession and is only just starting to turn the corner.

The sums get a bit more attractive when discounts are factored in. I have never run a car on pcp (rightly or wrongly I see this as lease / rent car and it has never appealed to me). My normal approach is to put a large deposit down and take a bank loan out for the balance over 24 months. Keeping a car for 36 months gives a bit of opportunity to save some extra for a year while we own the car outright. Come new car time we have the current car equity plus whatever saved in a year.

Not saying this is the best way to do it, but it works for me. If you apply this principle to 12 - 18 month old cars rather than brand new then it makes much more sense (wish I could listen to myself). I know I am a mug suffering the early depreciation on a brand new car, but I can live with it as I factor it in to the overall running costs and accept the costs of being the first owner.

In short, I usually can't wait for exciting main stream cars to come on to the second hand market. I want it now and end up paying the premium. I am a bad person!

 

[-=Rob=-]

Has anyone noticed the mpg the Cupra achieves? In the brochures it states upwards of 40mpg combined, I realise test drives will not get this - but, how achievable is 40 plus on the latest 2.0tsi on a motorway run? Realistic?

 

[morini]

Has anyone noticed the mpg the Cupra achieves? In the brochures it states upwards of 40mpg combined, I realise test drives will not get this - but, how achievable is 40 plus on the latest 2.0tsi on a motorway run? Realistic?

Probably going to be at least three months until I can comment on this However, if our MK2 economy is anything to go by it won't get anywhere near 40 on a motorway run. Ours has averaged 26.2MPG from new and it is a real struggle to get the "trip" economy over 30. I have done it on a couple of occasions, but you need to drive it very gently indeed.

 

[scrich7]

I would suspect that you would see mid 30's. My 1.8 sees between 40 and 45 mpg on motorway runs, and that is normal driving, not tip toeing around.

 

[-=Rob=-]

Thanks guys, so I suspect if you're careful you may actually achieve 40mpg on a run. The mk3 Leon is more efficient and the MK2 and weighs less, so I would expect it to do better than the previous generation. 40-45 out of the 1.8 is promising!

 

[DeanC]

I have driven hundreds of hire cars over the years and I find (since they last changed the lab tests) that the book combined figure is achievable when you sit at 60 with a warm engine. On a normal run you get 2/3 of the combined figure. Around town, short trips on a diesel or ragging it you get 1/3. I reckon people will see mid 30s on normal driving or sub 70 motorway cruising.

 

[P0LKR]

I have driven hundreds of hire cars over the years and I find (since they last changed the lab tests) that the book combined figure is achievable when you sit at 60 with a warm engine. On a normal run you get 2/3 of the combined figure. Around town, short trips on a diesel or ragging it you get 1/3. I reckon people will see mid 30s on normal driving or sub 70 motorway cruising.

From my test drive and watching the on board computer I would agree that the overall mpg will be mid 30's with a bit of urban, a bit of motorway and also a bit of fun.

On a run taking it easy 40mpg may well be possible.

 

[morini]

From my test drive and watching the on board computer I would agree that the overall mpg will be mid 30's with a bit of urban, a bit of motorway and also a bit of fun.

On a run taking it easy 40mpg may well be possible.

Hope you guys are right as that will be a bonus. I'll be chuffed if I can get mid 30's average. However, I'm not expecting it and will be happy with 30 to be honest. Not the sort of car you buy for economy reasons and mine is going to spend its life in cupra profile

 

[shhhhh]

I was getting 23 average on my test drive but I was driving like a **** and obviously the car had about 130 miles on the clock so it's not exactly broken in.

I average ~40mpg in my 170 (50.4 quoted) but I can get over 56 if I drive consciously on a longish journey. Record is 57.8 over 66 miles. But I don't hang around usually and get 4/5 of quote combined so I would say guesses of mid 30's for the Cupra are probably bang on.

 

[Amir_dan]

Do people know where the nearest cupra 280 I could test drive everyone I try doesn't have a demo preferably around Lincolnshire or Hampshire???

 

[Mk1Cortina1964]

shhhhh "I can get over 56 if I drive consciously on a longish journey"

I find it's best to stay conscious whilst driving, but then that's just me. (Sorry - couldn't resist!)

 

[shhhhh]

shhhhh "I can get over 56 if I drive consciously on a longish journey"

I find it's best to stay conscious whilst driving, but then that's just me. (Sorry - couldn't resist!)

Lol! Yea yea