MY19 Cupra observations...

Omi

Active Member
Oct 26, 2018
14
6
Collected mine today, 140 miles back from IMG Warrington. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy and I already love the car - but I’m a negative and cynical soul, so I thought I’d offer my thoughts on the things that raised eyebrows in the first 6hrs of my 290 Copra... This is proper nit-picking, so don’t anyone get your knickers in a twist, but would be interested to hear your thoughts.

Bear in mind I’ve had a 2013 FR150, then a 2015 FR184, have probably spent about 100,000 miles with the mk3. :)
  • Feels sluggish in comfort mode especially on motorway acceleration, but found I was already going much quicker than I thought I was. Cupra mode is obviously the good stuff, I’ll have to play with Individual and see if I can find a balance. - It’s like how Eco mode was non-responsive in the FR184, would be nice to have presets like “Eco, Comfort, Normal, Sport, Pants-Off”
  • Steering feels pointlessly heavy at low speeds. I’m used to comfortable light or “sporty” heavy steering in the FR depending on mode. People will potter round town and park in the Cupra too!
  • The centre screen seems to have a mind of its own. Will randomly put the AC display on, or Sports panel, or an options screen. Only behaves itself on Nav mode. I’ll try and work that out. Likewise the cluster doesn’t seem to stay in whichever view/content.
  • OCD hugely triggered by the white dot!
  • Soundaktor is a nice sound, but it makes that sound when you really want to hear the engine and exhaust. Needs to be an option in the stock menus rather than needing plugins or tools.
  • Feels like the cluster is the wrong way round, I’d prefer speed on the left and rpm on the right, but no idea why!
  • Speedo gauge feels a bit vague... Thick 20mph increments to 180mph is silly. Maybe thick 10mph increments to 100, then 20mph increments to whatever top speed is reasonable to show.
  • Was trying to maximise economy on a motorway run, got a solid 34mpg and I wasn’t crawling along. Seems to drop like a stone with acceleration, mind! Just an observation...
  • Cluster is angled to minimise glare I guess, but I spent the whole time feeling it had flopped forward a bit!
  • Indicator stalk and DSG lever are a bit heavier or clunkier than the FR, needs more positive input. Sporty maybe.
  • Front Assist seems a bit pointless... Look away from the road to search for a little picture saying you’re too close to the car in front. Maybe I’ve missed the audio option to shout at you if you’re getting too close because you could be distracted and haven’t seen traffic slowing ahead. And the fact it’s there at all surely means it has all the hardware required for adaptive cruise, so why not just include it?
Dynamically the car is great, features are excellent, performance is also ticking all the boxes. Just feels weird in a few odd ways. Looking forward to more time with it. - Will be up on the lift tomorrow to examine the noise options. :)
 
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Omi

Active Member
Oct 26, 2018
14
6
It's called character. Hard to find these days
Think that’s a good way to put it. They all have foibles that you don’t notice after the first few goes, like most women. ;)
 

richw

Active Member
Dec 9, 2018
11
5
I've done pretty much the same mileage, approx 140 miles.

I found comfort mode fine, seemed plenty of power there made it easy on the motorway.

Steering did seem a bit heavy at low speeds

I had mine in nav mode most of the way home, so can't comment on the centre screen.

Speedo/RPM I found it took a while to get use

I did manage to get 37.9 MPG on a mixture of mainly 50/70 zones.

Cluster angle left me thinking my sun glasses were having an effect!

Front Assist - I thought it was a bit slow to react more than anything!
 

Oldbutswift

Active Member
Mar 23, 2016
285
91
Regarding the speedo,if I really want to know the speed I look at either of the TWO digital readings to get an accurate figure.
 

Omi

Active Member
Oct 26, 2018
14
6
Regarding the speedo,if I really want to know the speed I look at either of the TWO digital readings to get an accurate figure.
I know, it’s an acclimatisation thing, after decades of gauges. I already feel different about a lot of my original points after another 25 miles on errands round town today.
 

Peller

Active Member
Mar 29, 2016
600
191
Edinburgh
I'm very happy with my new 290. I'm still a little disappointed that the DSG farts have all but gone but at least the pop and bangs are still there but they're also a lot quiter than old, very hard to hear due to the tyre noise.

It's certainly a lot faster than my old 280 but I'll need decent weather before I can test the 0-60. The launch control is totally useless. I properly logged 0-60 of 5.4 in the manual 280 (standard) apart from Michelin tyres. I feel the 290 has a lot more urge when on the move. Properly mental fast with 7 speed DSG.

I find the the car much more refined than before. It's more like an S3 (without the stupid price) The build quality, 7 speed DSG and the lovely non heated faux Alcantara seats/door cards are amazing, no LUX model available at the time but tbh I wasn't too keen on the fake leather that I had in my previous SC280.

I enquired about delivery dates for the car and after literally 4 emails then one week later I picked up the car in desire red. I must've been lucky but I'll put it down to my good relationship with my dealer.

I'll have this one for a couple of years and maybe go for a MK4 unless VW decide to chuck a 5 cylinder into a Golf.



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