NEW Cupra Leon 300 TSI Review: Has The GOLF GTI Met Its Match? | 4K

this is the new golf gti obviously it's not but it is it's a golf gti for people who don't want a golf gti it is in fact the new 2021 cupra leon 300 tsi if i sound slightly confused that's because the car itself is slightly confused it's a cooper leon which is based on the seiyat leon which itself is based on the vw golf but what's it actually like it's basically a slightly updated say at leon but with a few major tweaks shall we say the most obvious being this new badge it's very distinctive partly because it's finished in copper partly because your eyes are drawn to it by these leading lines on the bonnet and on the lower bumper and partly because it looks like it was designed by a child if i ever start my own evil megacorp i'm definitely going to steal that i'm also a big fan of these lights which have a very distinctive drl pattern they look almost like either side of the cooper logo in fact and it's been bejeweled slightly around the edges so it looks very bling in profile nothing too crazy is to say at leon after all but there are a couple of standout features at the side these wheels are 19 inch one inch bigger than you get on a golf gti plus they're finished in that familiar cupra copper color very distinctive i think these wheel designs aren't available in the uk at the time of doing this review this is a european spec car but here's hoping that cooper actually bring it to the uk the brakes are absolutely enormous on this car as well 370 millimeters at the front with some brembo brake calipers again finished in that cupra copper color the car's also lower and sits quite nicely in its stance 25 millimeters lower at the front and 20 millimeters lower at the back you also get a panoramic glass roof it doesn't go all the way back but it ends about there and i think it's still quite a nice addition this color incidentally is called petrol blue again not available in the uk as far as i know but here's hoping they bring it over here sometime soon little roof spoiler at the back nice touch and then the rear of the car is probably my favorite angle by far i love these rear light clusters which again mimic the cupra logo and you get a full width light bar at the back which is very in keeping with vw groups other cars so porsches bws and now cooper's all have a very similar thing going on and it looks tremendous plus you've got these quad exhausts which not only look good but as i'll show you later sound good as well as for practicality you get the same 380 liter boot you get in a golf although here in the cupra you also get an actual spare wheel rather than a puncture repair kit in the cabin there's plenty of space for rear passengers with two usb ports individual climate control and good leg and headroom up front i think cooper have done a pretty decent job with the interior again this class stands out thanks to ample use of copper in this case around the vents in the center and on the outer edges and copper all over the steering wheel the steering wheel itself is very interesting because you get the engine start stop button again ringed in copper and a mode button if you push that you can cycle between different driving modes again all finished in copper and copper included on the stitching on the interior edge of the steering wheel plus around the seats incidentally one of the best things about this cooper steering wheel is the fact that it has physical buttons on the wheel as opposed to those capacitive buttons you get on the vw golf so it's a much more intuitive easy to use system i like that you also get some ambient lighting in this case halfway along the doors all the way around the dashboard and back around the other side and they're not just there to look pretty either these ambient lights actually illuminate to let you know when there might be someone in your blind spot and the ones on the dashboard will flash up to let you know when you might be about to crash into someone in terms of materials pretty good you get some plasticky elements again that's pretty standard on most modern cars these days but you get some faux leather on these sport seats and on this two-tier dashboard you have some brushed metal effect plus some leather effect finish up here as well so it actually looks fairly premium in terms of storage it's not too bad actually the door bins are a reasonable size you get two cupholders of different heights in the center console an okay amount of storage in the center compartment there and also a dedicated place to wirelessly store and charge your mobile phone that brings me very nicely onto the infotainment system in this car which is not the best should we say if you watched any of my vw group reviews over the last few months and you know exactly how i feel about them and i don't like them this screen in front of you is not too bad it shows all your driving information and that's absolutely fine the main culprit is this 10 inch display on the dashboard and it's that's not very good is it one of the big issues is that it doesn't do the basics very well the volume control for example isn't a simple knob it's a strip that doesn't always work the temperature control is also a strip which doesn't always work and again you can't actually see these illuminated in a dark because they're not backlit there is some gesture control as you've just seen right there but when would you ever use that to me that's fairly pointless and one of the most absurd things to me is the fact that a lot of these icons don't reveal themselves until you move your hand towards it for example if i bring up the air conditioning system there are a row of icons along the left hand side and i can't work out what those are until i bring my hand close to them and then it shows you that's for the front that's for the rear that's for the eye climate whatever that is and then you move your hand away and that text disappears so it's all a bit confusing it takes a long time to get used to and can be quite infuriating luckily it is all compatible with android auto and apple carplay so you don't actually have to use it as much as you might think right let's get on the road [Music] okay so we all know that cooper's deal is that they're going after customers who are interested in looks and performance we've already seen the looks and i'll talk about performance in just a second but before we put the hammer down let's talk about what this cars like to drive when you're just cruising on the whole it's actually pretty nice the driving position is nion perfect there's plenty of adjustability in the seats which are electrically operated of course there's lumbar support and everything just feels pretty comfortable the seats themselves are nice as well there's a good blend of comfort and support and i don't think anyone is going to find any problem with this car from an ergonomic standpoint whether you're 411 or 6'5 you're gonna get on with this car high up on my list the first impressions though is that this isn't the quietest car in the world it's running on 19-inch alloys and fairly wide tires and i am getting a fair amount of road noise coming up into the cabin it's not the end of the world by any stretch of the imagination but yep you can hear that connection between rubber and tarmac and after a long journey especially on the motorway for some people that might get slightly tiresome as for the ride comfort well it's pretty good i'm on a fairly bumpy stretch of road right here and it's it's not bad by any stretch of the imagination however this car isn't fitted with the optional dcc dynamic chassis control which allows you to choose from 15 different levels of ride comfort all the way from super soft to super hard this is the standard suspension which means that you get what you get and while it's absolutely fine if i was going to buy this car i would definitely go for the dcc as i kind of alluded to earlier there are several different drive modes in this car you can cycle between them using the button on the steering wheel so there's road there's sport and there's cooper cooper being the most hardcore let's wind it up into cooper mode now this car uses a two liter tsi engine the same engine you find in a lot of vw group products so it's the same engine you find in the golf gti for example except in the basic gti it generates 245 ps in this you get 300 ps so a lot more punch for your money of course there are other versions of the gti like the club sport which also has 300 horsepower and the golf r which has 320 horsepower but 300 in this thing i mean it's ample isn't it you also get a very healthy 400 newton meters of torque and according to cooper that's good for naught to 62 in 5.7 seconds but occasionally these manufacturers can underestimate the performance of their cars shall we say so why don't we find out what this thing actually does okay i've got my race box it is connected let's whack it into cooper mode traction off foot on the brake set there we go a little bit of wheel spin and we are at 100 kph that's zero to 62 in 5.6 seconds so a tenth quicker than cupra say it is but look at you can see there's water this car is exceeding their expectations even in the way i reckon this car can probably go half a second quicker than this nor to 62 in five and a bit of seconds in fact later in the day i managed a 5.45 and in the dry a 5.18 which is mightily impressive for a front wheel drive car in fact it's up there with the fastest accelerating front wheel drive cars on the market it's definitely got more than 300 horsepower come on the acceleration is super impressive it's so aggressive you put your foot down in it it teleports in a straight line basically the acceleration and traction is so good that despite being front-wheel drive it actually feels more like an all-wheel drive car there is the merest hint of torque steer and tiny amounts of wheel spin but there aren't many front wheel drive hot hatches with this much power that can put their power down this efficiently it's really something the gearbox as you might expect is the seven speed dsg unit that you get in pretty much every volkswagen product and i've gotta say it's super impressive in terms of the way that it rifles up and down the gearbox very very fast shifting and also very responsive a lot of cars are very shy about shifting down and giving you all the revs but in this there's no problem with that whatsoever it doesn't matter whether you want second gear or first gear coming into a low hairpin like this it downshifts the exhaust pop and off she goes really good gearbox there is one criticism if i may and that is that it doesn't lock the gear in it seems to want to up shift when you approach the red line look at this it up shifts and i would have preferred the car to actually bounce off the rev limiter so that i feel as if i'm more involved in the experience i don't want to feel like you know i'm just a passenger along for the ride so let me fail let me bounce off the rev limiter and learn from my mistake and then shift up at the appropriate time just going back to the sound of that exhaust for a second you get the pops and the bangs it's not anti-social by any stretch of the imagination but there are enough noises coming out the back end to remind you this is a performance car it's quick let's see what these brakes are saying now here we go into a corner no drama whatsoever it slows down just as nicely as it goes to be honest 370 millimeter discs on the front with those brembo 4 parts very very capable stopper the cooper leon really impressive how does it handle through the corners there's a little bit of body roll there's some lateral movement in there but it's not alarming in the slightest it settles down quite nicely and there's plenty of grip and also lots of feedback through the steering wheel you know when you're about to exceed the grip limits and that gives you just all the confidence you need to push on is a tighter corner now yeah tiny bit of understeer and you can get on the power super early and trust that it will deploy all of that power at the time of doing this review the top spec cooper leon will set you back 36 760 pounds a golf gti club sport with the same power costs 37 230 pounds and comes with smaller wheels also a lot of the options on that golf cost more than the options on the layon if you're looking for better value the cupra might be where it's at you know what above anything else it just feels fun it's playful enough to make you feel like you're part of the experience it's it's an engaging charming car the cooper leon i i like driving it i would definitely pick this above the standard entry-level golf gti it's a tiny bit more expensive but you get a lot more for your money a hell of a lot more performance more engaging handling and also i don't know maybe the brand is slightly more interesting in this day and age as well you're not joining the rank and file of people who end up buying a golf gti when they want a really good hot hatch if you want to stand out from the crowd if you want a car that is enjoyable to drive if you want a car that is fast and fun then maybe this is the golf gti you're looking for and copper all over this [Music] forgot we can call this for a second steering wheel [Music] you

Channel: AutoTrader

Views: 496,068

Keywords: cupra, cupra leon, cupra leon review, cupra leon 0-60, new cupra Leon, 2021 cupra leon, cupra leon vs golf gti, what is cupra, cupra leon acceleration, cupra leon badge, cupra interior, cupra formentor, golf gti, best hot hatch, autotrader, Rory reid, car review

Id: r4mluIiaEYw

Length: 14min 5sec (845 seconds)

Published: Fri May 07 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/Echo1201]

'Petrol Blue' and the copper wheels and brakes are an awfully nice combo. I really like that interior design's copper accents and ambient lights, except for the infotainment.

For anyone who doesn't know, Supra Cupra (or SEAT Cupra) is the performance car and motorsport subsidiary of SEAT; a Spanish carmaker owned by the VW Group. All their cars are essentially faster and more premium versions of SEAT cars (like a sporty Buick I guess?)

[u/three_shoes]

Like this quite a bit. The Leon Cupra has always had the power boost over the normal Golf GTI (as part of the brand deals I suppose) but this is the first generation between them where I would say I entirely prefer the Leon Cupra over Golf GTI.

[u/Gareth321]

I’ll be pulling the trigger on the upcoming AWD wagon version of this car. I test drove the Formentor, also AWD, which comfortably hits 4.4s 0-60. Close to 4s with a plug in ECU upgrade.

[u/KittenM1ttens]

What are the chances of Cupra entering the US market? Every single young dad whose wife wants them to get a practical SUV would flock to a Cupra dealership for something like the Formentor.

[u/iMZee99]

5.18s to 62mph in the dry for a fwd car is awesome.