Future Born Owner, Opinions and advise

[JCF226]

Good day.

I'm looking at buying the below Cupra Born and would love to get some peoples opinions on this. Really love this car in Blue or Red

Keep going back and forth between a V2 and V3, is there much difference between the 2 outside of 20inch alloys, electric seats and massagers.

I'm coming from an Audi TTs and the new insurance and Tax prices are absolutely ridiculous. Average weekly milage I do is approx 50 miles. Plus a trip to Lincolnshire once every 2 or 3 weeks around 50 miles each way


https://listers.co.uk/used/stock/cupra/ ... uto/398721

Many thanks

[Roborn]

There hardly any difference between the V2 and V3 from what I can see. I have a V2 58kwh and with kids I prefer the fabric of the seats to the suede like fabric on the V3 - I’m sure it would get dirty very easily and be hard to clean. The wheels on the V2 are large enough and I’ve learned over the years that bigger wheels means a worse ride. If I was doing your mileage I certainly wouldn’t bother with the larger battery pack at all. No point paying for that with your tiny mileage. Without sounding rude if I was doing 50 miles a week I’d buy a 10 year old Nissan Micra - your cost per mile of use is crazy imho but we are all different!

[cloudfury2]

Hi

A lot of people, myself and my partner included get dazzled by the external looks and a single test drive but after living with this car for 2 months I have huge regrets and cannot hand on heart recommend this car to anyone. We have the V2 - 23 plate. Sadly it doesn't even have keyless (add on) entry which our 11 year old Leaf has? Also no lane changing blind spot indication like the 2020 Renault Zoe has.

The drive is quite nice but a little bumpy, acceleration is very nice but costly on the range. But as the controls are completely handed over to the infotainment, you soon learn just how much of your experience is ruined by this. Firstly, I think it's simply not powerful enough so there is a lag, this is unpleasant whilst your driving in itself. It constantly crashes or the phone link fails. I've had the climate control just deciding to be greyed out and not work - especially bad as I needed to clear the screen fog - needed a hard reset.
The Auto climate is absolute BS, decides randomly to start blowing full blast ice cold AC? Very little good stuff to say tbh.
The usability of the screen when it is working, still seems to need several presses before you get to core controls, things like steering wheel heat or seat heat take a few presses. They start on full heat, and go down, rather than up. It's pretty crap , but as it's mainly software issues hoping they will get some proper user experience testing done to sort these annoying things out during my ownership. The climate controls are misleading, they have AC labelled twice, one being Climate control, and the other being actual A/C. So watch out for that.

It's a good concept car, but as the price point shows us, they are certainly not selling it as a 'not quite finished' prototype.

We're the early adopters paying for a car that still needs several iterations of improvements to be actually worth it's price.

Oh yeah and the doors seals are rubbish, rain gets and drips as you open doors, and the boot drips on your head. Lovely considering the £30k+ price!!

Lastly, if you like music - might be worth getting the Beats speaker upgrade, as stock speakers are weak.

You do get a stupid bit of merch though, which I actually thought was a smart bracelet that opens the doors keylessly, but it's just a dumb piece of plastic - something about being part of tribe, what a load of bollingbrooks!

Unimpressed, is what I say when people ask me how it is

[Ponk]

Moral of the story (what I did, I guess I'm not part of "a lot of people), is to research what you are buying, especially if it is 40-50k of your cash.
Watch all the youtube stuff you can, especially on infotainment. Learn how to set it up and customise the home screens and favourites, learn the shortcuts and tricks etc.
Then talk to a dealer and get a demo car for a few hours. Drive it, test it, mess around with controls, check everything on it, spend some time on the infotainment.

I don't have any problems with the infotainment at all, I actually like it.
No problems with AC, it works perfectly, I precondition the car and often never touch it once driving as there is no need. If I need to change it I have the shortcut for the fan speed on the main screen, or I voice command it to activate iClimate functions which I use more than I thought I would.
Double tapping the temp setting activates heated seats, or you just voice command and AC function and it does it for you. Just press the button, or say HOLA HOLA and tell her what to do, heat the wheel, the seats, warm my feet etc.
No problem with door seals.
Love the BEATS.
Keyless entry works great.

My apple car play works perfectly, however for phone call connection, I can't comment, I don't use a phone when I'm driving, even hands free.

[cloudfury2]

Moral of the story (what I did, I guess I'm not part of "a lot of people), is to research what you are buying, especially if it is 40-50k of your cash.
Watch all the youtube stuff you can, especially on infotainment. Learn how to set it up and customise the home screens and favourites, learn the shortcuts and tricks etc.
Then talk to a dealer and get a demo car for a few hours. Drive it, test it, mess around with controls, check everything on it, spend some time on the infotainment.

I don't have any problems with the infotainment at all, I actually like it.
No problems with AC, it works perfectly, I precondition the car and often never touch it once driving as there is no need. If I need to change it I have the shortcut for the fan speed on the main screen, or I voice command it to activate iClimate functions which I use more than I thought I would.
Double tapping the temp setting activates heated seats, or you just voice command and AC function and it does it for you. Just press the button, or say HOLA HOLA and tell her what to do, heat the wheel, the seats, warm my feet etc.
No problem with door seals.
Love the BEATS.
Keyless entry works great.

My apple car play works perfectly, however for phone call connection, I can't comment, I don't use a phone when I'm driving, even hands free.

Thanks for this summary, sorry, I made it sound like we did no research, but we did plenty. Research is never actually like owning one. The showrooms here in UK only let you drive it while a salesperson sits in, so it's never that useful.
I think we can learn to live with the infotainment quirks as long as it stops crashing or failing with every drive. Getting in and having none of the buttons working and it needing a restart gets a bit boring when it's with every drive.
I must admit I've not used the voice commands enough so will try that, thanks, guess all will be fine as long as it stopped crashing all the time. Maybe it's faulty?
Will get it checked in for the door seals issue.

Does anyone else get the moisture on inside of the door/boot, which then drips into the car?

Sorry for hijacking this thread, I'll duck out now, nobody like a moaner

Thanks

[aussieBORN23]

Hi,
In Australia I am pretty sure we have the V3 spec compared to the UK without the over the air connectivity (which I don't miss at all) & no HUD. Options are for 20" wheels plus sports suspension or Alcantara seats and the Beats audio with 19" wheels. We went for the latter option. Love the Alcantara fabric but our kids are long gone from the nest...although my daughter sat in the seats just after applying sunscreen and I was able to get that off successfully with the recommended cleaner. The trick with that fabric is not to scrub it and you will find it very durable. It is plastic after all. Worst case, if you have kids (and what I did until they were slightly more trainable), was seat covers or at least a rug on the back seat on previous vehicles.
The sound upgrade is also worth it in my humble opinion, it is not hi-fi but pretty damn good.
Never had any real issues with the infotainment setup. I use short cuts on the main screen and a quick swipe or hand wave gets me to where I need to be. Most other things are set and forget functions in the background. Both my wife and I have also never had an issue with the steering wheel controls. Don't know what some of the testers have complained about. Hands are set a quarter to three all the time, just above wheel centre and never had something "haptic" happen. I also have wireless Android auto that covers most other things I need so the phone stays in my bag!
Love the "CUPRA" button that gives that extra punch, no boy racer here but love pushing it around the hills in CUPRA mode. Once you get used to the brakes, I have no issues. The large battery makes it a heavy car (in comparison to an equivalent ICE vehicle) but you get used to that...and I love that rear wheel drive feel after so long in FWD cars. A firm but pliant, quiet ride.
In my part of Oz we don't get a lot of rain so I only notice water issues when it is washed. Yes, the rear hatch does drip a bit due to the positioning of the seals and I don't have any probs with the door seals even after a pressure wash but you will get a drip or two from any car after a water event.
My 2 cents worth...

[Blackeunos]

The infotainment controls/screen I don't find a big issue. I think that some people find it a problem because they expect to be able to use it without finding out how to use it.

You can set it up with short cuts on the main screen and some within one tap.

Screen demist can be done with a switch next to the lights, to the right of the steering wheel.

I have had the infotainment system 'freeze' on me, but I find that this is when I jump in the car, stick it in reverse and haven't pressed the okay button that comes up on start up. So basically me being impatient. Sometimes pressing and holding the off button to the bottom left of the screen and then turning back on solves this, if not hold the voice control button in, then eventually the prompt from start up reappears, press okay and all is well.

[tevez]

Loving mine so far. Had it a couple of weeks . I do find in the rain when you open the door it drips on the mat but not a big issue. I've had to soft reset the infotainment once but overall it runs fine. It can sometimes respond a bit slowly but every press has an audible beep so you know what you selected and just need to wait a couple of seconds. Charged it a few times and once the plug wouldn't unlock. Awesome car

[WoT]

I've had mine 18 months and the touch screen is still just infuriating: I came from a BMW 118 which had a joystick to control similar screen functions, which was far better and safer at speed. I have deleted a detailed rant (phew) but this kind of control issue is my reason for saying - wait 3 or 4 years for this to settle out. Don't just assume you'll get used to it.

[milkyway55]

I've had mine 18 months and the touch screen is still just infuriating: I came from a BMW 118 which had a joystick to control similar screen functions, which was far better and safer at speed. I have deleted a detailed rant (phew) but this kind of control issue is my reason for saying - wait 3 or 4 years for this to settle out. Don't just assume you'll get used to it.

I got used to it quite quickly.