2026 Cupra Terramar V long-term review part two: V good on a rally road

Taking an SUV up a rally stage is usually a recipe for car sickness, but the Terramar V might just be a family hauler that you can race to a mountain summit without losing your lunch.

The road up to Mt Buller’s summit wasn’t built for racing, but then again, neither was Pikes Peak. Yet both are hallowed ground for rally drivers and enthusiasts alike. One is the best international event of its kind; the other is arguably the best hill climb Australia has to offer.

Stretching 16 kilometres from the gatehouse at Mirimbah to the Mt Buller alpine village in north-east Victoria, this winding ribbon of bitumen has become the ultimate proving ground for tarmac rallying in the past two decades.

Much like the road itself, the history of the Mt Buller Sprint is a bit of a rollercoaster. It kicked off in the 2000s as a pure hill climb sponsored by Porsche and was patronised by over a hundred punters, who would spend the weekend scrambling to the summit, navigating 132 corners through the snow gums and sometimes even snow, despite the season heading well into summer.

Those early years established the mountain’s reputation for being both technical and unforgiving. The road climbs over a thousand metres in elevation, starting with fast, sweeping sections before tightening into a series of steep hairpins, the most infamous being the aptly named Hell Corner. Situated near the end of the run, it hits a 13 per cent gradient that tests a car’s braking, a tyre’s sidewall, a driver’s patience and a co-driver’s stomach, all in equal measure.

Speaking of which, the thought of taking a medium SUV up and down this mountain on reconnaissance would have been enough to set the most hardened navigator heaving. A roly-poly tow vehicle often doubles as a recce vehicle, and reading pace notes without a wheel to hang on to in a softly sprung SUV is not the easiest to stomach.

Not so in our Terramar V. Thankfully, our long-term SUV has some strong foundations in both the rally world and the real world, so when we hit the tarmac for recce runs ahead of the 2026 Mt Buller Sprint, there was no need for emergency roadside evacuations. Not only did it turn out to be a solid choice as mountain runabout, it also acquitted itself well as a comfy, fuel-sipping chariot on the round trip from Sydney.

We’ve had our Terramar for two months now, and decided on a long-haul test that incorporated highway, town and a bit of performance climbing all in one. So, on a weekend that saw a lot of Sydneysiders heading to a different Mountain for the Bathurst 12 Hour, we turned south and started the seven-hour journey to Mirimbah via Albury and Mansfield.

Resetting the trip and topping up with fuel before departure, the highway stint clocked 6.2 litres per 100 kilometres with only one passenger but a full boot. The 508-litre boot is wide and fit two large gear bags comfortably, plus there is a spare tyre, albeit a space-saver, under the floor as well.

The Terramar has an edgy, futuristic feel to its cabin, enhanced by our car’s $1600 option pack that lends it a fantastic stereo and leather seats and trim. Some of our Drive staff could give or take the leather, but it proved practical and comfortable, and gives the cabin a bit more style.

And, of course, despite it being late summer, Mt Buller put on its best alpine morning, so the seat heaters and heated steering wheel were very welcome features.

Key details	2026 Cupra Terramar V
Price	$61,990 plus on-roads
Colour of test car	Cosmos Blue
Options	Leather and Sound Package – $1600
Price as tested	$68,090 drive-away
Rivals	Audi Q3 \| Volkswagen Tiguan

The central 15-inch infotainment display and 10.25-inch digital instrument cluster, bright orange head-up display, and orange LED blind-spot indicators worked into the interior’s mood lighting are all fabulous, to be frank. The car’s modes and safety settings are also easy to navigate despite being almost solely screen-based, and the wireless Android Auto connection was seamless to set up, though it did tend to drop out at random times then reconnect.

Not so fab is the propensity for the Terramar to be a heavy-handed nanny with a spicy Spanish tongue. Though we would turn almost every intrusive alert off due to poor integration, from auto stop/start to driver attention and alert monitoring, they would lurk in the background like an overbearing schoolmarm.

The driver alert monitoring on the long highway stints was particularly overbearing, flashing up big red threats on the digital dash like “TAKE OVER STEERING NOW!” if it detected the driver loosening grip on the steering wheel for too long.

However, my rolled eyes (at such strict theatrics) turned to gratitude at one point, when a large grey kagaroo decided to bounce its way onto the road past Mansfield and right in front of the Terramar’s front bumper. The split-second decision to swerve and mount the kerb rather than take the big kangaroo out (and likely the front quarter and headlight along with it) was aided by a chorus of beeps, bleeps, expletives and the car’s crash avoidance system, and the end result was a gentle crawl over the rocky kerb.

Thankfully, the lovely alloys, which are a real feature of the V with their copper-toned highlights, were unmarred, though the sill behind the passenger wheel copped a small scrape despite the SUV’s raised ride height.

2026 Cupra Terramar V	Dimensions
Seats	Five
Boot volume	508L
Length	4519mm
Width	1869mm
Height	1610mm
Wheelbase	2681mm

Given that a day later, over at Mt Panorama, Skippy made a rather explosive entrance into the windscreen of a Mustang, we were lucky to have suffered a mere rock rash. And we will stop moaning about the safety systems from here on in.

Back to our own mountain race now, and it’s time for a second history lesson. Cupra is short for Cup Racing, and the brand, which many of us still think of as Seat (pronounced ‘say-at’), has some deep rally roots. The first Cupra road car, the Ibiza Cupra Sport, was produced as a celebration of the brand’s first FIA World Rally Cup win (a F2 category for front-wheel-drives) back in 1996. The Spanish brand went on to win the Cup another two times consecutively with its Ibiza, cementing itself as a bit of a rally icon.

While today’s cars are still designed and engineered largely by Seat in Spain, Cupra is a satellite brand of the Volkswagen Group, and the platform our Terramar sits on is shared with the Audi Q3 and Volkswagen Tiguan four-cylinder turbo all-wheel drives. It is also built at the same Hungarian plant and on the same assembly line as the Q3.

Still, we would like to think the Cupra rally roots are still evident in the fact that this little SUV manhandled the run up the mountain with surprising vim and vigour.

Key details	2026 Cupra Terramar V
Engine	2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo petrol
Power	150kW @ 6000rpm
Torque	320Nm @ 1500–4400rpm
Drive type	All-wheel drive
Transmission	Seven-speed dual-clutch automatic
Weight (tare)	1794kg
Spare tyre type	Space-saver
Tow rating	2200kg braked 750kg unbraked

The figures on paper actually don’t do the car justice: a conservative 150kW but a respectable 320Nm, weighed down by a 1794kg tare, still offered a sprightly and responsive sprint up the hill and a positively sweet punt on the descent.

The seven-speed dual-clutch transmission snaps through gears with a clinical efficiency that keeps the engine right in its sweet spot as the elevation climbs and the air thins.

There is a genuine sharpness to the steering and an able-bodied feeling through the corners that belies its SUV proportions and 1800kg pork. The electrically assisted rack offers great feel and feedback, and even as the road tightened into the technical sections that once broke the spirits of lesser hill climb entrants, body roll is kept well in check.

The lower ride height and seated-in driving position further help you forget you are piloting an SUV. The all-wheel-drive system offers plenty of grip and operates largely seamlessly, running in front drive to save fuel until the foot is planted. While it never feels truly rear-biased, it does a convincing impression of a hotter hatch.

Keen drivers might occasionally pine for the extra grunt of the more expensive 195kW and 400Nm VZ variant, as you can feel there is scope for this chassis to handle more. The Terramar VZ gets 20-inch alloys, a bigger brake package, adaptive suspension and adaptive LED headlights, and a growlier ‘Cupra’ go-faster mode, but for $6210 more at $68,200 plus on-road costs.

That said, the entry-level Terramar S at $53,990 plus on-roads gets a 1.5-litre turbocharged engine with only 110kW and 250Nm. You pay $8000 for our V’s all-wheel drive, mildly spicier 2.0-litre engine, and the Coppertone alloys at $61,990 (plus that sound and leather pack for $1600) plus on-roads, and we think the V strikes a sweet balance.

On one particularly hilarious run, we shoved three burly boys into the somewhat squishy second row to transport them to the service park, and somehow the biggest bloke ended up in the middle with knees high and feet straddling the transmission tunnel. While they did not complain too loudly en route, all three certainly spilled out with some relief once the ride was over. This isn’t a three-adult second row for anything longer than a (mountain) sprint.

With the boys and bags dropped off, and the 132 corners of Mt Buller in the rear mirror, it can be said that the Terramar indeed taps into that Cup Racing DNA, if only at a mild level.

It is not perfect. The schoolmarm safety systems can be a nagging presence, and the second row is better suited for kids, but otherwise its everyday usability is proving to be a real-world boon.

If you want a car that differs from the other Euro turbo SUVs, and can handle the school run during the week and a spirited alpine ascent on the weekend, the Terramar V may be a hill you would stand on. Or sprint up.