2024 Cupra Leon Sportstourer review

CarExpert

Cupra is planning on bringing the Cupra Leon Sportstourer to Australia! It's effectively a replacement for the Golf R wagon - 0-100 in 4.6 seconds! Paul Maric tests it out to see if it should come to Australia.  More Cupra content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/cupra More Cupra Leon content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/cupra/leon  Skip Ahead: Intro: 00:00 Exterior: 00:58 Interior: 03:07 Infotainment: 04:10  Practicality: 05:19 Charging: 07:42 On the road: 08:06  We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.  Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.  Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1  You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.  Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!  Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!  CarExpert: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarExpertAus Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carexpert.com.au  Paul Maric: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulMaric Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric  #cupra #leon #review

Transcript

00:00 G'day I'm Paul. So, Cupra. They haven't been on sale in Australia for very long, but they

00:05 do want to bring the wagon back, and they're considering bringing this to Australia. It's

00:09 called the Cupra Leon Sportura, and this is available in a hot version. It basically replaces

00:16 the Golf R in Australia. So, today we're checking out the plug-in hybrid, which is this one

00:20 here, plus also the faster one as well to see if they're any good, and hopefully they

00:24 will bring them to Australia. It doesn't really have that many competitors in Australia when

00:27 you think about it. A wagon that can be plug-in hybrid or all-wheel drive sort of fastness,

00:33 I think it is pretty unique in that sense. So, we don't know pricing, we don't really

00:37 know much today. It'll just be a brief overview and a bit of a drive, and then I'll be keen

00:40 on your feedback on whether they should actually bring this to Australia. If you do want to

00:43 skip ahead to other parts of this video, please use the time codes that are on the screen,

00:47 or if you are on YouTube, scroll down and use the chapters below. And if you haven't

00:50 done so already, subscribe to our channel and press the bell icon so you can find out

00:54 every single time we drive a matte-coloured car.

00:57 So, let's start off with the design. I love the look of this, especially with the matte

01:02 paint. They do love a matte paint and it works really well, especially with those copper

01:06 highlights. I think that all looks pretty nice. So, depending on the spec you go for,

01:10 you have full LED headlights, matrix LED lights are optional as well, with LED fog lights

01:16 down the bottom there as well. Big intake here for cooling, because like I mentioned,

01:21 this is plug-in hybrid and also available in effectively a Golf R replacement. So, turbo

01:27 4, all-wheel drive, 0-100 in under 5 seconds like it is. Pretty quick stuff, so it needs

01:33 a fair bit of cooling. And I've also noticed as well in the latest Taviscan, they have

01:39 the emblem up the top here on the bonnet, but it's backlit with LEDs, which I think

01:42 is cool. So, they are really focusing on their lighting game.

01:45 We'll jump over here to the wheels. So, I like, again, the copper highlights here. They've

01:49 kind of owned the copper theme and it works really well. So, 235s on the front with 19s.

01:54 Have a look at these brakes as well, available with a big old set of Brembos. They're 370mm

01:59 cross-drilled rotors, so it gives you a bit of an idea of the intent behind the car. It

02:03 is meant to be go-fast and they're fitting it with the kit that makes it go fast as well,

02:08 which is pretty cool. Down here you've got some aero down the side there. This has a

02:12 carbon package on it, so carbon back seats and also carbon mirrors there as well, but

02:17 obviously that may not come to Australia. Being a wagon, look at this, you have so much

02:22 storage space, which is good news. Come around to the back with me.

02:26 Now, around the back here, full LED taillight, so that stretches all the way along here.

02:31 The Cupra badge here, which you push to open. Individual Cupra lettering there as well,

02:36 and then twin pipes down the bottom here. It is actually interesting, there is a version

02:40 of the Formentor, the SUV that we tested recently, that I was pretty damn impressed with. They

02:44 sell a version here that's left-hand drive only, that has the engine out of the RS3.

02:48 It sounds unreal. So, I think it just shows you that Cupra is the child in the Volkswagen

02:53 Group family that has access to all of this technology and really wants to take advantage

02:57 of using as much of it as they possibly can. So, let me know what you reckon about the

03:01 design in the comments section below. Do you think you need a wagon, or are you just going

03:05 to go an SUV? I'm keen to see what you think.

03:08 So we are inside the Sportura. Let's start off with just what this looks like, and I

03:14 think the thing that Cupra does really well is just giving a bit of style and substance

03:18 to Volkswagen products. And look, to be honest, sometimes Volkswagen products can be a little

03:22 bit boring, and I think this really just pushes it up a bit and just makes it a whole lot

03:26 more interesting. So, this is what the key looks like. You can see it's got that carbon

03:30 fibre material, or the carbon fibre pattern on the back there with the Cupra logo. Then

03:34 on the front you have lock, boot and unlock, and it's like a rubber finish on that. It's

03:39 proximity touch key, so you can leave that in your pocket there. And once you're inside

03:42 you have the push button start on the steering wheel, so slightly different location. And

03:45 then outside of that, the actual cabin itself is presented nicely with the stitching along

03:50 the dashboard there, and this sort of textured material along there with a big infotainment

03:55 system in the centre section as well. So, in terms of your touch points and build quality

04:00 and all that sort of stuff, we will wait until this potentially arrives in Australia and

04:05 do a proper check of it all then, but just based on what we've seen here it actually

04:08 all looks pretty good. Infotainment system is a 12-inch display, so it's mounted up high,

04:14 it kind of is like a tablet attached to the dashboard there. And then you have this swipe

04:18 bar beneath, and look, I'm not a huge fan of this swipe bar because it is just a little

04:23 bit clumsy to use. Stuff like putting your temperature up and down, you've got to be

04:27 quite precise with your inputs, same with the volume. There is no just easy way to do

04:31 volume up and down over here, you have to use the steering wheel for that. Outside of

04:35 that though, it is actually pretty easy to use and quite straightforward. We did a tour

04:39 yesterday of the Cooper headquarters where they showed us the Taviscan's new infotainment

04:44 system which is a 15-inch infotainment system, and that is significantly better than this

04:47 in terms of the way that it works and the layout and that kind of stuff. So, I think

04:51 over time they will just start rolling out updates to these systems to refine them and

04:55 to put in the learnings that they have from the bigger infotainment systems that they're

04:59 working on.

05:00 Ahead of the driver you also have a digital display, and it's actually quite a good system

05:04 because kind of like the Audi system as well, you can change between the different layouts

05:08 that you see on the screen, and then you can configure a lot of that to show what you want

05:12 it to show, and as you switch between the drive modes as well it all lights up and does

05:15 fun stuff. So, they've done a really good job with that.

05:18 Now let's talk about comfort. So, you've got dual zone automatic climate control, I mentioned

05:21 before it's controlled up here, and then you have a separate screen for all of the climate

05:26 control settings. You've also got heated seats and a heated steering wheel as well. In terms

05:30 of the seats, this is something else that Cooper does really well. They just go to town

05:34 with designing these incredible looking seats. So, you have the Cooper logo up the top there,

05:38 they hug you in nicely, they have a lot of definition to them, and yeah, they just look

05:42 like they're out of a spaceship and I think really suit the characteristic of this car.

05:46 So, that is a pretty impressive setup. Steering wheel is manually adjustable and offers both

05:52 tilt and reach adjustment as well, and on the reach test all of this stuff is easy to

05:58 reach while you're driving.

06:00 Now second row, what's it like? It is worth pointing out these seats, these are like a

06:04 top spec seat, which means they have the sort of carbon back on them and it means you don't

06:09 get any sort of mat pockets, but you actually have a reasonable amount of knee room there,

06:14 toe room's great, head room's really good too. Just shows you, you don't need to go

06:17 for a massive SUV to get that space. This is a fairly sort of small station wagon, but

06:23 you still have plenty of room here for adults, which is really good to see.

06:26 Under creature comforts you've got a third zone of climate control, you have two USB

06:30 C ports, you have air vents here as well. You've also got two USB C ports up the front

06:34 and a 12 volt outlet along with a wireless phone charging too. There's a centre armrest

06:38 here with a couple of cup holders and then a ski port entry to the boot as well. It's

06:44 actually a pretty sort of nice place. It is interesting here, they're allowed to have

06:48 seats in the front row and you can see there's actually a top tether down there as well,

06:52 which you don't really get in Australia. So yeah, pretty good here in terms of space.

06:56 Let's check out the boot.

06:57 Okay, so let's talk cargo space. We'll crack this open, look at this, you push the

07:01 Cupra logo and then it pops up like that. So you have a little less space in the plug

07:07 in hybrid version, but it still is a pretty decent amount. So it's just under 500 litres

07:12 here before you drop the second row and you also get a little bit of storage down here

07:16 for things like your cable if you need to. Storage off to the sides as well along with

07:19 the 12 volt outlet over there too. 150 litres is the extra amount you'll find in the regular

07:25 version. So it is slightly compromised here because of the 12-ish kilowatt hour battery.

07:30 But you can expand the space if you want to. You can drop the second row out of the way

07:34 by pulling these two things. That expands the space to around 1500 litres here in the

07:38 plug in hybrid version and then 150 litres extra if you go for the non plug in hybrid.

07:42 Now before we go for a spin, I want to run you through the charging options available

07:45 here for the plug in hybrid. So it is just AC charging, battery size is around 12 kilowatt

07:51 hours and it'll charge at around 3.6 kilowatts. Driving range of about 50 to 60 kilometres

07:56 on electricity alone and then a combined fuel economy of around 2 litres per 100 k's. So

08:02 it gives you an idea of what you can expect from this as a plug in hybrid.

08:06 OK, so we've just hit the road in the Leon Sportura, the plug in hybrid version. This

08:11 is like other plug in hybrid vehicles where it uses an internal combustion engine that

08:15 mates to an electric motor and then also a bigger battery than what you would find in

08:19 a small or a mild hybrid. In this case, I mentioned before, it's around a 12 kilowatt

08:24 hour battery and it is mated to an electric motor that services the front wheels. This

08:28 is only a front wheel drive. So under the bonnet is a 1.4 litre turbocharged petrol

08:34 engine. It makes 110 kilowatts of power and 250 newton metres of torque on its own. And

08:39 then that's mated to an 85 kilowatt electric motor that produces 330 newton metres of torque.

08:46 So it is a fairly sort of healthy little combination there. When those two combine, it's 180 kilowatts

08:52 of power and 400 newton metres of torque. And that means when you step on the throttle,

08:57 it gives you a really nice push in the back. It kind of feels like a diesel in terms of

09:00 the way that it pulls because you're getting the internal combustion engine plus the electric

09:04 motor kicking in to really sort of yank it along nicely. So the whole package works

09:09 fairly well. You do notice though, when it is out of battery like other plug-in hybrids,

09:13 that it can be just a little bit fussy at times. So if the engine is switched off when

09:18 it's coasting and then you go for the throttle, it can be just a little bit jerky when it

09:21 decides that it wants to switch on or switch off. So that can be a little bit frustrating,

09:27 but it is something that you do get used to as an owner.

09:29 The other benefit of a plug-in hybrid as well, while you're getting around sort of 50 or

09:32 60 kilometres of range, it is that you're silently motoring along when it is in full

09:38 electric mode. You don't have any interruption from the internal combustion engine, which

09:42 you do find in stuff like a RAV4 hybrid. That will always be on and off and you'll always

09:46 be hearing it doing things because it can't run on electricity alone for long periods

09:51 of time. So that's where this system actually benefits from being able to charge it overnight

09:55 and then you've got that 60 kilometres of driving. The average Australian only ends

09:59 up doing about 30 kilometres of driving a day, so it is the perfect amount for that

10:02 type of thing. But there is always that sort of thing in the back of your mind, you're

10:06 using an engine, you're then lugging batteries around, an electric motor. So when it comes

10:12 to servicing, you've got the added complexity of all of these systems in there. But if it

10:16 does serve the purpose of saving you fuel, then that is a side benefit of it all.

10:20 Now, how does it all feel while we're sort of just driving along here? So we've spent

10:24 a couple of days now driving these and typically the Spanish roads we've been on have been

10:28 excellent. So as a result of that, everything feels really nice. This on the other hand

10:32 is now a bit of a choppier section of road and look, right is okay, but it's not amazing.

10:38 It is sort of fairly firm. You've got to remember that this is sitting on fairly low profile

10:42 tyres and at the end of the day that is going to give you that very firm sort of feel behind

10:48 the wheel if you do end up in sort of city streets like this where there are a lot of

10:51 bumps and cobblestones. All of this is mated to a six-speed dual clutch transmission and

10:58 for the most part it works okay. But again, if you do catch it napping when the engine

11:02 is switched off and it's running on electricity alone and then it needs to fire back up, it

11:07 can be just a little bit stuttery and clunky sometimes and that is one of the downsides

11:12 of a dual clutch transmission. They just don't love being surprised or hills and that kind

11:18 of thing. I will reserve judgement until we actually have a proper drive back in Australia,

11:22 that is if it arrives in Australia, but to me the dual clutch transmission just feels

11:26 like other dual clutches that I've tested before.

11:29 Now let's talk about the one that you're probably all excited for and that is the Sportura with

11:33 the VZ engine and that is the Golf R engine effectively. It is an absolute missile and

11:39 we're not driving that right now but I did drive it yesterday. It hauls because it is

11:43 all-wheel drive and it uses a similar version to the Golf R's engine which is a 2.0-litre

11:48 turbocharged four-cylinder petrol engine. It makes around 220 kilowatts of power, 400

11:54 newton metres of torque and it's mated to a seven-speed dual clutch transmission and

11:58 of course it has the surety there of the all-wheel drive system. When you pack all of that together

12:03 it really just results in you getting pinned back in the seat and getting a big smile on

12:06 your face. It sounds good too. Cooper actually announced that they have optional Akrapovic

12:12 exhausts that you can fit to their vehicles and if it does come to Australia I'm hoping

12:16 that that is available as an option because it's such a great sounding engine when it

12:20 does have a good quality exhaust fitted to it and it's a big smile inducer.

12:24 So sorry this video is going to be a little bit funny because we don't really have a great

12:27 deal of B-roll and unfortunately I'm sitting here driving around the streets because I

12:32 had to film closer to the end of the day so it's just going to be a bit of talking from

12:36 me. We will have a proper drive of these if and when they do come to Australia.

12:40 In terms of visibility from the wagon it's actually really good. The envelope at the

12:43 back is great. I can see clearly out the side mirrors. You've got these sections here that

12:48 light up when you have cars in your blind spot, also when you're exiting the vehicle.

12:52 So there are really good examples here of using LEDs to get the driver on board with

12:58 what's happening and to make sure they're fully aware of their surroundings. So they've

13:01 integrated all of that really nicely and it is an easy car to drive as well. You've got

13:05 a good quality reverse camera. It's super simple to park. Front and rear parking sensors.

13:09 There really isn't too much of anything to fuss about.

13:13 Now let's talk about fuel economy for these two. So for the petrol non-hybrid version

13:18 it's around 8 litres per 100km whereas here for the hybrid version we're talking 1.4 litres

13:23 per 100km which is really not a whole lot of fuel so it's quite an impressive amount.

13:28 Whether you get that in practice or not depends entirely on if you're charging the vehicle

13:32 constantly and if you are charging the vehicle constantly you are going to get that net benefit

13:35 of having it use not a lot of fuel because it will run on electricity alone until it

13:40 needs to fire up the petrol engine and if you don't travel long enough for that to happen

13:44 then you're not going to end up using any fuel. Once you do reach the point where the

13:48 battery is empty it ends up kicking on the internal combustion engine and it supports

13:53 the hybrid system. There's always a little bit of battery left in there to give you that

13:56 boost as you're driving so it is actually a pretty decent set up in terms of being able

14:01 to drive it without having to think too much about whether you've charged the car or not.

14:05 So that has been your first look at the Leon Sportura potentially coming to Australia in

14:10 plug-in hybrid and also the Golf R replacement wagon trim, that's what I'm calling it anyway.

14:17 If you did enjoy this video please make sure you like it and share it with your mates.

14:21 Sorry it couldn't be more exciting, unfortunately we didn't really have the best opportunity

14:25 to film so this is what we've been able to put together but when it does come to Australia

14:29 and if it does come to Australia we're going to test it where we regularly test our cars

14:33 to see exactly how this thing performs. And if you haven't done so already please make

14:36 sure you subscribe to our channel but until next time, see ya!

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