Cupra Ateca review

Prices start at £37,825 for the 148bhp 1.5-litre, £42,040 for the 187bhp 2.0-litre, and £49,530 for the 296bhp 2.0-litre.

As mentioned on the opening page, you’re looking at over £60k for a Porsche Macan S or over £70k for the even pricier Audi SQ5 with similar performance. Which makes this seem good value.

The Cupra Formentor, however, will set you back around the same figure, even for the spicier versions. So well worth trying before committing to one of these.

What are the trims like? 

The V1 is the entry trim, but don’t let that fool you into thinking you’re getting some sort of poverty-spec model. The car comes with 19in alloys, auto lights and wipers, digital instrument panel and touchscreen, heated steering wheel, bucket seats, ambient interior lighting, cruise control, dual zone climate and keyless entry. Phew.

The V2 introduces heated black leather (rather than Alcantara) bucket seats, a wireless phone charger, rearview camera and electric tailgate. 

The VZ2 is the next step up and your entry point to the more powerful 2.0-litre engine. It swaps the alloys for sportier black matte versions, and adds twin exhaust pipes, sports suspension and dynamic chassis control. The VZ3 nabs you 20in alloys, a sportier steering wheel, performance brakes and a better sound system.

White is the only free colour, it’ll cost you £695 for metallic white (or grey), or £995 for ‘premium metallic’ in black, or what Cupra calls ‘dark forest’. Let’s say green-ish.

Which one should I go for? 

Quite frankly that depends on what engine you’ve got your eye on – if you’re after the 1.5-litre or less potent 2.0-litre you’ve only the option of V1 or V2.

But if you’re buying one of these we’d wager you want the bigger engine – we’d save the cash and go for the VZ2 because it already comes fairly fully loaded.