Cupra Terramar review

The cabin is a riot of shapes and materials: fake metallic plastic, and fake suede, and copper-coloured accents. OK they're imposters but they feel high quality. Ambient lighting twinkles through perforations in the door fabric. The seats have ventilation channels like the back of a rucksack.

Sounds mad, but it hangs together pretty nicely, and overall we like the effect.

It's ergonomically excellent too. The steering wheel has lots of buttons and rollers with a positive tactile operation. Extra buttons on the wheel handle drive modes and engine start, and the auto ‘box drive selector is on a stalk. Which makes the left-hand stalk a bit busy as it's handling lights and wipers, but you get used to it.

The centre screen is the VW Group's recent generation, pretty quick to respond and with useful configurable buttons. A Sennheiser stereo comes on this top VZ spec, and very satisfying it is too.

After the superb front seats in the VZ, the rears are a bit of a let-down as they limit light back there. Still, overall the room isn't bad and there are vents to keep you cool. Actually the bench slides so you can suit your people/baggage balance.

The PHEV we're testing needs a battery as well as a fuel tank, so the boot is shallow. With the back seat rearward, it's 400 litres, compared with just over 500 for the standard 1.5-litre mild-hybrid and 2.0 4WD.