Cupra Ateca Review: SUV is fast, but it’s no sports car

The badge looks like a tattoo that you might see on the arm of a drug-dealing, gun-toting member of an LA gang.

Actually, it’s the symbol of Seat’s new Cupra performance brand which makes its first appearance on the boot, grille and steering wheel of this Cupra Ateca.

This is a bold move by Seat, not the use of a wacko badge, but creating a new stand-alone brand.

It’s been done before of course; Fiat did the same when it created the Abarth brand so that a Fiat 500 Abarth became an Abarth 500 overnight.

The difference there though was Abarth was a brand in its own right, building cars (and racing them) before Fiat bought the company in 1971.

In contrast Seat has used the Cupra name for years, adding it to the name of various models to denote a hot version.

So is the Cupra Ateca worthy of a high-performance badge?

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And wouldn’t it have made more sense to launch the brand with a proper hot hatchback rather than a hotted-up SUV?

Certainly the Cupra Ateca can be classed as hot. Up front is the VW Group’s trusty 2.0-litre TFSI petrol engine wound up to an impressive 296bhp.

It’s the same engine that’s used in Audi’s SQ2, which we recently tested.

All-wheel drive and a DSG gearbox complete the powertrain, all of which goes towards a top speed of 152mph and 0-62sec in 5.4sec.

Alongside the questionable new logo, you get wider front air intakes in the front bumper, 19in copper or silver alloy wheels, quad exhaust tailpipes, a rear spoiler and gloss black front grille.

For this package, Seat will tap you up £35,900 without any options.

Considering the performance and the added space over a five-door hatchback, this is a pretty fair price.

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At 1,632kg, the Cupra Ateca is a good 150kg heavier than a hatchback such as the VW Golf R. As mentioned, we tested Audi’s SQ2 a couple of weeks ago and rather liked it.

We also hinted that it was a better car than the Ateca.

Actually, I warmed to the Spaniard after more time at the wheel but the verdict remains the same – the Seat, or Cupra, is and feels heavier and is less responsive in corners than the Audi.

The Ateca’s Brembo brakes stop the hefty car well and the car feels sure-footed enough and very brisk. Sounds good too – but it’s not as much fun to drive as a really good hot hatchback.

Inside the Cupra Ateca you get more badges and a rather stark, plasticky dashboard.

This you can remedy by chucking some more money at the car via the options list and add copper-weave carbon and various fabric colour options.

The rest of the cabin is more or less the same as a normal Ateca’s apart from digital instruments and performance-related info.

It’d be very easy to configure your Ateca to over £40k, with the bucket seats alone adding £1,600.

Interestingly, you can get to the Cupra brand via the usual Seat website, and when you’re there you will find not only the Cupra Ateca but the Seat-badged Leon Cupra and Leon Cupra ST, both of which are now no longer pukka Cupra models.

Volkswagen Group, which owns Seat, is a master of brand management, but I wonder if even these clever people have taken a step too far by launching Cupra as a stand-alone performance arm for Seat.

Plus, I’m not convinced the Ateca was the right type of car to do it with.