Cupra Formentor VZ5 - long-term review

I, like most of the Top Gear office, am a sucker for an estate. Give me a fast wagon and I’m as happy as the proverbial dog with two tails that resides in the boot. Space, pace and er, a low centre of gravity.

SUVs on the other hand are wallowing, cumbersome and top-heavy. Only these days they’re not, because some people with big brains have thrown electronic witchcraft and 48-volt anti-roll architecture at large lumps of metal to ever more impressive effect. But no amount of automotive sorcery will save your shopping if you tip one into a roundabout with too much aplomb.

The Cupra Formentor is neither estate, nor SUV, and the Cupra Formentor VZ5 is um, neither +1. See, whilst the 328bhp (333PS) VZ3 sits comfortably in the sporty crossover space, the VZ5 sits 10mm lower than anything else in the range, and whilst all “VZ” models bring dynamic chassis control (controlling damping, not ride height), the VZ5 throws in increased negative camber and stiffer hubs for ‘more direct steering response’.

So, it’s taller than an estate, with more ride height, which is then lowered, with a stiffer setup for increased feel, and with enough clearance and sidewall to tackle a muddy farm track. Got it?

But therein lies the appeal. The fast Formentor is – at least among current cars on sale – almost uniquely positioned to cater to lifestyle-y folk who like to exploit the road to the destination, as much as the destination itself, and that little bit of extra suspension travel makes the car endlessly more usable. Hiking the Coniston Fells? Flick the drive mode to ‘Cupra’, enjoy the B598 on the way there, then back into ‘Comfort’ for the rocky car park at the top, all without scalping your carbon splitter.

Be under no illusion though, this is a stiff, engaging chassis if you want it to be, and a playful one at that. In Performance and Cupra modes it feels tight and sharp but back the dampers off and shown a fractured, pot-holed B-road, the VZ5 will lap up bumps and broken tarmac that’d take the sump off any Audi RS3 or BMW M2.

It’s brilliantly versatile, without compromising on 80 per cent of an equivalent hot-hatch's performance, and without the connotations and compromises of a proper SUV. Put Usain Bolt in a pair of hiking boots, and he’d still see off all but the most hardcore of athletes.

Now, far be it from me to wish the onset of winter, but as the nights draw in and the roads inevitably start to crumble, the VZ5’s looking like a rather enticing all-season proposition...