• Loads of space up front
• Surprising amount of headroom in the rear
• Boot smaller than Audi Q3 Sportback’s

How much space is there?

Ample for occupants sitting in the front. Headroom and legroom are good – and there’s plenty of space for your elbows. The front seats also have plenty of rearwards adjustment, which makes it easy for taller drivers to get comfortable.

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There’s a surprising amount of space in the back, too. So long as you’re not sitting behind Andre the Giant, you’ll have plenty of legroom. Headroom is equally good, despite what looks like a plunging roofline from the exterior. In all, the Formentor isn’t as impractical as it seems.

Boot space and storage

The amount of luggage the Formentor can carry depends on the engine you opt for. The 150hp and 245hp variants have the biggest boots at 450 litres each. However, the 190hp and 310hp versions can only carry 420 litres, as they’re four-wheel drive and the rear differential eats up some space.

Plug-in hybrid models are smaller still. They offer just 345 litres of space, as the powertrain’s 13kWh battery pack consumes the extra capacity under the boot board. In any case, every version of the Formentor offers less luggage space than cars like the Audi Q3 Sportback and a Range Rover Evoque.

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The figures don’t make for encouraging reading, but we found the Formentor to be practical enough for most family duties. If you need a little extra storage space, the rear bench also folds in a 60:40 split, meaning you don’t need to choose between transporting people or luggage.

There’s loads of storage bins for your odds and ends, too. The door cards can swallow litre water bottles, the centre console has a storage tray big enough to hold the largest flagship smartphones and those narrow trays either side of the gear selector are great for holding keys, coins and cables.

Is it easy to park?

Despite outward appearances, the Formentor isn’t a particularly large car. It measures 4,450mm long and 1,839mm wide, which means it’s only 68mm longer and 9mm wider than a Ford Focus.

However, the Formentor’s sloping roofline and thick C-pillars create a rather narrow rear window, which makes it hard to see out of the back. Thankfully, every version of the car comes with rear parking sensors as standard – and all but the most basic V1 models feature front parking sensors and a rear-view parking camera.

Safety

• Five-star Euro NCAP rating
• Plenty of standard safety tech
• No front Isofix points

Euro NCAP crash tested the Cupra Formentor in 2021 and it achieved a five-star safety rating with an impressive 93% adult occupant protection score. The Formentor protected its child occupants well, too – and the testers were impressed by the SUV’s standard safety equipment.

They had an awful lot of kit to pick through, too, because every version of the Formentor comes as standard with predictive adaptive cruise control, lane-keeping assist, autonomous emergency braking and a tyre pressure monitoring system. VZ1 cars feature high-beam assist and blind-spot monitoring, while VZ2 and VZ3 cars get a function that can autonomously bring the vehicle to a halt if the driver passes out.

Watch the Cupra Formentor crash test video