2026 Cupra Terramar VZ review

Cupra’s three-year stint in the Australian market has been an eye-opener. From a standing start, a brand few people in Australia knew about has dropped 10,000 cars on driveways and keeps filling out its range with EVs, PHEVs and plain old turbocharged hatchbacks and SUVs.

Cupra isn’t like a Chinese brand rolling in with super-sharp pricing and spraying the market with new models – not a bad thing in this already competitive market.

But it’s certainly behaving like it has nothing to lose, even up against some serious quality product from its own siblings in the VW Group.

As is Cupra’s wont, you won’t be strolling into a dealer without having to do some thinking. The Terramar range features four quite distinct versions, from the $53,990 S, the $61,990 V, and the top-of-the-range VZe plug-in hybrid. These prices are before on-road costs, but drive-away pricing is available too – you can find it here.

Slotting in beneath the VZe is the 2.0-litre turbocharged $68,200 plus on-road costs VZ, the most obvious performance-focussed pick out of the range. While its power and torque figures are similar to the VZe’s, it weighs less and is therefore quicker by some margin to the 100km/h benchmark.

The VZ ships with 20-inch alloys in black and copper, adaptive suspension, 12-speaker Sennheiser audio, deep burgundy leather, auto matrix LED headlights, keyless entry and start, sports front bucket seats with heating and memory, three-zone climate control, head-up display, heated steering wheel, configurable interior lighting, wireless phone charger and space-saver spare wheel.

The Timanfaya Grey of the test car is a freebie – as with four other colours – while two are a relatively modest $620. A matte colour is available for a less modest $2900. Also available is the Akebono brake package, which is exclusive to the VZ, for $4200 (which loses the space-saver spare and replaces it with a tyre repair kit). A panoramic roof is $2000.

First stop for the Cupra-curious would be the website, which has plenty of information as well as a stock locator that in turn suggests a good supply of most spec combinations with a 4–8-week delivery window. Although slightly annoying is that you can’t filter right down to the VZ as the site will also show you VZe PHEVs. It also shows a filter Brembo brake option rather than the Akebono, which implies that package is by special order only.

While the Terramar is a fairly individual car, there are other cars to consider, such as the Audi Q3 Sportback and the new Volkswagen Tiguan 192 R-Line. However, neither is as overtly sporting as the Cupra, which is obviously by design. The closest to the VZ would be the Skoda Kodiaq RS, so it's worth checking that out.

By my estimation, the VZ is the Terramar to have, but each of them is very well specified and all look great. So if you’re just into the looks, you can save a bundle with the mild-hybrid S or less powerful V. The VZe doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me, and I’d look to the Formentor VZe instead.

One of Cupra’s real selling points is interior design. Not only is this a reasonably spacious mid-size SUV – most VW Group mid-sizers are spacious – but it’s quite the looker. I’m a big fan of the satin copper/bronze elements liberally applied in the cabin, and not just because it’s a nice change from satin aluminium-alike.

Also a nice differentiator is the deep burgundy (Cupra’s term) leather, which looks brilliant in this dark and moody cabin. Having said that, I’m a fan of the Terramar V’s fake suede inserts, but as ever, your mileage will vary according to taste.

The front seats are a joy to behold and quite comfortable, but I did find them a bit broad in the backside, though not sliding-around-hanging-onto-the-steering-wheel broad. The material certainly helps. There’s plenty of adjustment on the seat and the de rigueur flat-bottomed steering wheel. The wheel itself looks great with a textured boss and the Cupra button for drive selection on the left.

The slightly narrow console is made possible by a shifter placed behind the wheel, which is familiar to Born owners and also seen in the new Tiguan and Tayron. It takes a little getting used to, but it’s fine. You will also find a rubberised wireless charging mat, two cupholders, a slot and a shallow bin under the armrest, but all of it is useful. There are also two USB-C ports up front above the wireless charger and two more in the rear.

A big screen dominates the dash and does look a little like an afterthought, partly because of its sheer size. It could also do with less piano black finish, which stands out in this not-shiny interior design.

Rear seat passengers enjoy their own climate zone, good knee, leg and shoulder room, but the middle passenger is as short-changed as ever, with a tall transmission tunnel and a carve-out to try and make more space for the console’s intrusion beyond the front seatbacks. Head room is a little on the marginal side for someone my height (a scooch under six foot, or 180cm), and the small door aperture also translates to small, high windows. The price of racy looks, I guess.

The 40/20/40 split-fold seats have a fairly flat base but some shaping in the outboard backs that seemed pretty comfortable to me. A fold-down centre armrest also has two cupholders and each door will hold a small bottle.

The boot starts with 508 litres of space, which is good going in this segment. As with its Tiguan sibling-under-the-skin, the seats slide forward liberating up to 642L of cargo space and rear passengers' lower legs depending on how hard you slide it forward.

Drop the seats – and you’ll really need to ask those passengers to move this time – you’ll have up to 1415L.

Standing proud atop the centre console is a huge 12.9-inch media screen complete with a very familiar VW software setup. It’s much maligned – sometimes unfairly – but VW has promised to improve it, and we’ve already seen that in the Leon and, to be fair, here as well.

The climate settings are accessible with shortcut buttons at the base of the screen, as well as the touchscreen controls being pinned at the bottom of the screen, but there is still some menu diving required for other functions.

Smartphone integration is via wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. I had a few instances of the wireless CarPlay getting confused and losing the phone on startup, which is a problem across the board but intermittent. Some models work fine, some not so much, which makes me wonder if there’s a difference in hardware that causes the flakiness. The Bluetooth system offers dual-phone support, but that’s only useful if you’re not in CarPlay or Auto.

Along with wireless integration, you get DAB+ digital radio with an easy-to-use interface.

In the VZ you get a very nice upgrade to the sound system with a walloping 12-speaker Sennheiser setup that to my not-audiophile ears sounded really good.

The Terramar does not yet have a phone app.

The Cupra Terramar was deemed a five-star car by ANCAP when tested in 2025. The car scored 89 per cent for adult occupant protection, 87 per cent for child occupant protection, 82 per cent for vulnerable road user protection and 78 per cent for safety assist.

With seven airbags on board – fairly standard for this segment – and three top-tether and two ISOFIX points, occupants of all ages are well protected.

The Terramar has a solid safety package with AEB front and rear, exit assist and a lot of lane assistance. That final feature behaved pretty well most of the time, but was a bit nippy on the steering wheel, constantly correcting if you were anywhere near a median strip on the right and thoroughly irritating me.

It’s far from the only car that does that, but a swift punch of the appropriate button banishes it until the next time you start the car.

Annual insurance came out at $2714, based on a comparative quote for a 35-year-old male driver living in Chatswood, NSW. Insurance estimates may vary based on your location, driving history, and personal circumstances.

That feels on the high side to me, although not excessive, relatively speaking, given the car’s almost $80,000 price.

Servicing is less expensive than I had imagined given the cost of entry to the VZ. Cupra offers a five-year capped-price servicing regime that averages $518 per year over five years, which costs less than some much cheaper Korean and Chinese cars, never mind the obvious competition. The $1490 three-year service pack comes in just under $500 per year.

As a little treat, if you buy a five-year service pack and live within 10km of a Cupra service “partner”, they’ll come and get the car and then drop it off.

I could have tried hard to match the claimed 8.2 litres per 100 kilometres for the Terramar, but this car is rather a lot of fun to drive, so I ended up with 9.4L/100km. That’s not bad, really, and within my own personal 30 per cent rule for the claim.

With a 60-litre tank, my right foot would get me just over 600km full to dry. Hitting Cupra’s numbers would yield another hundred kilometres. It’s not the most efficient engine in the world, and it has to lug more than 1800kg about, but you can always spend more on the PHEV or drop down to the 1.5-litre front-wheel drive and spec it up if low fuel useage is your goal.

Sporting the fabled EA888 2.0-litre turbo four, the Terrarmar VZ’s sporting credentials start well, sharing this engine with a multitude of fast cars. With 195kW at a comparatively revvy 6500rpm (well, for a modern turbo-four, anyway), the all-wheel-drive VZ cracks the 0–100km/h sprint in 5.9 seconds. Given its chunky 1800-odd kilogram weight (tare, so kerb weight is likely a few kilos more), that’s a good start.

The VZ features a number of chassis upgrades over the detuned V's spec, justifying a good chunk of the price gap. Bigger ventilated disc brakes, adaptive damping, Continental rubber to replace the Kumho on larger 20-inch rims, as well as the additional Cupra performance driving mode.

They do share the same seven-speed twin-clutch transmission, but the VZ is a quite different beast to drive.

It’s very quick off the line as the performance figures suggest, so that’s a good start. The all-wheel-drive system is pretty much seamless and runs in front drive until you bury the foot. It never feels rear-biased, but it certainly does a good impression of a performance all-wheel-drive system with more rear bias, if that makes sense, meaning little in the way of torque steer when you’re really on it.

Cupra has done something magical with the available electrically assisted power steering off the VW Group shelf. It has more feel than most, even through fairly wide and low-profile rubber. It’s also quite sharp, meaning a strong turn-in in all modes, which I quite like. It makes the Terramar feel smaller than it is, and more hot-hatch feeling.

Inevitably, the ride suffers a bit from the big wheel/low-profile tyre combination, but it certainly isn’t a problem in day-to-day driving and serves to help build confidence in its capabilities. It reminded me a lot of the largely bonkers and dearly departed Tiguan R, which was a terrific car, so Cupra is not mucking about here. The Terramar’s lower ride and lower-in-the-car driving position help you forget you’re in an SUV.

I didn’t often use the Cupra button to activate the most aggressive modes, as that’s really best used on your favourite bit of road rather than hooning about the suburbs. The dynamic noise generator that pipes a reasonably rude racket into the cabin is not one of my favourite things either.

What is my favourite thing is how sharp and playful the Terramar is in that mode – you have to think about your throttle and steering inputs. It’s mighty on the brakes, which makes me wonder how good it is with the optional Akebonos.

But with all that said, its everyday usability is terrific. I’m not really an SUV guy, but I really liked its genuine all-round nature. Yes, with some small compromises, but nothing that will deter you if you’re looking for something a bit different.

The Terramar is rated to 2200kg in all but the S trim, but it is worth nothing that the maximum towball download is 100kg, versus the usual 10 per cent rule-of-thumb of towing capacity. That does mean you won’t eat too far into the 449kg payload, but that does leave a still-marginal 349kg for people and stuff in the car.

Given the towball limitations, we’d suggest that this isn’t the best car to tow large loads, so if you’re after more you may need to look elsewhere. Given the Cupra’s sporting intentions, that probably works well for small boats, trailers and caravans for routine towing duties.

Engine power and torque certainly aren’t a problem, however, with plenty of both on offer.

The Terramar is great fun in VZ guise, but an acquired taste both inside and out. And I don’t mean that as damning with faint praise. It’s really what Cupra is going for. I think it looks great inside and out, drives well, and goes like a stuck rat.

It’s also inherently useable for a family or for those without, with good interior space wrapped in a sporty package. As you can tell, I really liked it, in spite of it being an SUV.