I’m sure some of you will have read the book or seen the film Fifty Shades of Grey, but according to our good friend Google, the maximum shades of grey that humans can see is thirty.
What has this got to do with a car review you may well ask. Well, last week I drove a Graphene Grey coloured car and I have rarely got so many compliments. But was it the shade of grey or the styling of the Cupra Formentor that I was driving that attracted all that interest?
Grey is not the most distinctive colour, so I think it was the Formentor, which is a really classy looking motor. Several people asked me what was the name of the car I was driving, as they had never seen a Cupra Formentor previously.
The Cupra is part of the Seat family but three years ago Seat decided to turn their Cupra performance line into a stand-alone brand. I have seen Cupra versions of the Leon, Ibiza and Ateca and last week I drove their second SUV, the impressive-looking Formentor, which is based on the same platform as the Ateca.
The car is very well sculpted and has some lovely curves. The 19-inch exclusive Aero alloy wheels, which came in black/copper were gorgeous, but they will cost you an extra 2k.
When I sat in the driver’s seat the first thing I noticed was the height of the bonnet, which was dominated by two creases. I’m well off six foot and I had to raise up the seat up to get a good view of the road, but I suppose nothing wrong with that for safety purposes. At first I thought the bonnet was a bit intrusive in my line of sight.
A neighbour asked me if the Formentor was an electric car as he couldn’t see the exhaust. No, it was a petrol version, but very quiet on the road.
Externally it’s a nice shade of grey, but definitely black inside. However, there is red stitching on the leather seats and at night you get a lovely red ambient light. But I think the car could have done with a sun roof to brighten the interior.
Also at night when you open the front doors you get a ‘puddle light’ incorporating the Cupra logo, which is carried on the grille and back door. A nice touch.
As with most SUVs the dash is dominated by the information display screen. And thanks to DAB radio I picked up some unusual radio stations from home and abroad.
It’s a really solid car to travel in and with that high driving position I did feel like the ‘King of the Road’. You also get a flashing amber light on the door if your being overtaken.
There is plenty of head and leg room in the back seat for three well-built adults The boot is huge, but no spare wheel, only the dreaded repair kit. But there is a ‘well’ for a spare so make you get a spare if buying new.
Prices for the Cupra Formentor start at from €40,885, but my automatic 1.5. litre petrol version with a few extras, will cost you €47,472. It’s gorgeous, but at that price you couldn’t honestly say that it’s a bargain buy.
No complaints from me. The only issue was the charging point for my apple i-phone as the charge lead on the phone, which is best suited to a USB point, naturally didn’t fit the connection on the dash which is a USC point. But that is happening with a lot of new cars.
