Cupra Born VZ 6 Months Owner's Review

I've had my VZ for 6 months. Here's what I think about it now.

[@andydavid4710]

Thank you Darren , great informative video , helped me decide to buy one this week 👍🙏🌟

[@DarrenMansell]

Great stuff. Not perfect but not far off. Also not the cheapest but I couldn't find anything better for less.

[@Yorksboy]

As a current Born V2 owner, I've been interested in your progress. As I know the car's qwerks, the VZ is definately on my list of replacements due to the increase in range & performance. The Born often seems to get overlooked, but it's hatchback size, not SUV and still retains some buttons rather than all on screen, which is a bonus.

[@DarrenMansell]

It's perfect for us. There's not as much space in the boot as we were used to with the Octavia estate but you get used to it and make it work. Taking out the parcel shelf or folding down a seat can help. I haven't really missed rear air vents because the Aircon and heating is very quick to operate and fill the cabin. Anything bigger would be too big in my opinion.

[@D1zzle777]

I'm getting mine end of the month hopefully ( need to beat the lux car tax cut off🤞🤞).. Do you happen to know if it will play Spotify either as an app or via Android Auto? Many thanks.

[@DarrenMansell]

@D1zzle777 yep it'll play through android auto

[@D1zzle777]

​@@DarrenMansellthanks👍😊

[@nathb89]

VZ owner here. I have speed limit alerts as a favourite from factory? I have a love hate relationship with it so far, the hate mainly is the software.. - why you can preheat the car using the app, but have to go into the car and spin the mirror button to the bacon symbol to get it to heat up the mirrors. - Why the passenger mirror doesn’t just go down in reverse (my E46 did this!!), instead you have to select L on the mirror. - sometimes it opens when I’m next to it, many other times it doesn’t. - likewise sometimes it locks when I walk away, sometimes I have to press the lock button on the fob 10 times. - the app crashes, all the time. - the app has pop ups that the “don’t show me this again” seems to be ignored. - If in the app I’m preheating the car I can’t then select to preheat the seat(s). - ⁠I have had to disconnect the rear parcel shelf as it fouls my kids car seats anchor tethers - annoying rattle.. - ⁠the headlights are misting up on the inside. The drive and seats are great though 😂

[@DarrenMansell]

I can't figure out how to save the speed alerts as a favourite. It just gets removed the next time. Other favourites stay. Is your fob battery OK? I don't have any problems with locking and unlocking but I did have to change the battery recently. The app is rubbish I agree. The headlight misting should be a warranty item?

[@Yorksboy]

'bacon symbol' 😂

[@mikees60]

Whats the inbuilt satnav like for planning a long trip? Does it plot charge stops en-route, pre heat the battery, etc?

[@DarrenMansell]

To be honest I've not tried to use it properly. I'm sure it's fine but it doesn't seem especially intuitive and I'm very used to Google maps. It knows about charge points and capacity so it should be able to plot the route correctly and theoretically battery condition but I don't know for sure.

[@rayjones9231]

Re charging on IO. Did you ensure that both the car limit and IO limit were on 100%?

[@DarrenMansell]

Yep, I've been through everything and there's a whole story behind each one with support cases raised with Ohme etc. Twice that it happened, the charging stopped at 4:10am on a Sunday morning. Oddly specific and I'd bet that Cupra were doing updates 2 weeks apart. It hasn't happened for a while. Then Ohme identified that the CT clamp was on the wrong cable inside the meter box so the epod couldn't accurately measure the house usage and was getting confused. It's all been pretty spot on for a few weeks now so I'm hopeful problems will get even rarer. The Ohme/IOG integration is not perfect still but I can live with it.

[@ryl0n]

@@DarrenMansell I had issues with Intelligent Octopus not charging the first few times that turned out to be caused by dangerously high voltages from the grid, around 257 volts, and the charger was shutting off for safety. They had to go and tinker with the local substation and it's been fine ever since. The way I operate it, the car is just on dumb mode with a charging limit (usually 80%), and the charger itself is then controlled by Octopus. Great review by the way!

[@DukeBen316663]

Can the central screen be turned off totally, if perhaps you don''t want the distraction at night?

[@DarrenMansell]

Yeah just press the power button bottom left

[@neilfennell6833]

Are flappy padels only on the VZ?

[@DarrenMansell]

Yes I think so. I don't think they're on any of the other next generation Borns.

[@bllxy8226]

Tesla is the only answer when going electric, everything else is second class.

[@nickd17VZ]

Totally disagree. My VZ is excellent and I don’t feel like I have supported Elon Musk by owning it, which is a major bonus!

[@DarrenMansell]

I looked at various models including Tesla and a few things put me off. The Model 3 is a saloon so quite impractical. I have a few friends who own various Teslas and none of them are happy with them because of lots of daft design choices. Not being able to use Android auto and Apple Carplay is absolutely shocking. Finally the Model 3 wasn't especially premium feeling. The doors don't shut tight, the seats are too flat. They're decent cars but nothing special and they have bizarre designs for things like indicators, windscreen wipers and rain sensors.