- B​Ig wheels and sharp angles mean sportiness. Grrrrrrrr.

Should you make a non-sporty car sportier?

Can you turn a cruiser into a bruiser? And can a sporty car still be sporty if it doesn't have much power? Let's find out

38w ago
17.9K

Phill is a freelance motoring journalist who has worked for loads of places, including Autocar, the Daily Telegraph, Evo Middle East and AutoTrader.

***

I​t's car change time. My faithful long-term Skoda Superb Sportline Plus is going back to the manufacturer press fleet, and in its place is something new – a Seat Ateca. And the change has made me ponder the question of automotive sportiness.

T​here was a time when a car's identity was obvious. Either it was a sports car, or it wasn't. The end. But then manufacturers started making performance versions of non-sporty cars. Still fine; you know which model you're buying, no identity issues there.

B​ut today, the lines are rather blurry. Cars are tested at the Nurburgring left, right and centre, often ignoring the fact that no owners will ever take their cars onto the track. And cars that, ostensibly, have no sportiness to their core character are given a tracksuit and some go-faster stripes to at least give the impression that they could be in the Olympics if they wanted to. They're given a trim name that's not quite sporty, but is sportish. R-Line. AMG Line. S line. Sportline. It's a blurry... line.

S​ports seats and a flat-bottomed steering wheel FTW

S​ports seats and a flat-bottomed steering wheel FTW

I​n my outgoing and incoming long termers, we have two interesting cases in point. Let's start with the Skoda Superb, which I've been running for six months. First up, it's a great car. I've been a proper paid-for owner of a Superb before, so I know how good the range is. It's well thought out, practical, comfortable and excellent value for money. But this one is much more beefy. Even without the big 272-horsepower engine under the bonnet, the Sportline Plus trim adds a bodykit, sexy big alloys and lowered sports suspension. It has a flat-bottomed steering wheel and super-huggy sports seats, which are great. Snug. Mmm.

T​he problem with it is, though, that it's trying to be something it's not. I've previously written about how the engineering tweaks do make it a bit more entertaining when you find the right road and don't have a baby strapped into the back, but at all other times it just makes it a bit firm. A bit less comfortable. It compromises an excellent car that wasn't designed to be sporty at all, because it didn't need to be.

T​he powerful engine, I will concede, is nice to have. It delivers boatloads of power at the flex of the right foot, and if you need to overtake or nip quickly onto a motorway, it's great. But it doesn't half drink petrol, and I can't help thinking that a slightly less powerful but torquey diesel engine would suit it better. My wallet agrees.

Having a Superb Sportline Plus is like putting alloy wheels and a rear wing on a wheelbarrow. Sure, it looks snazzier, but it makes it harder to do effective wheelbarrowing, which is the core point of a wheelbarrow and something it's very good at.

T​he Wheelbarrow MR Sportline Fruit Edition (photo: Heather Suggit on Unsplash)

T​he Wheelbarrow MR Sportline Fruit Edition (photo: Heather Suggit on Unsplash)

Any this point I should stress that, overall, this is a very minor quibble. W​ould I recommend the Skoda Superb? Hell yes. As far as I'm concerned, it's one of the best cars on the market in almost any way you care to look at it. Practicality, attention to detail, value for money, tech, interior quality are all great, and it drives well too.

But would I recommend the Sportline trim? I would not. It just doesn't suit it. Go for a model with smaller wheels, fatter tyres, softer suspension and a more economical engine. Embrace the cruising lifestyle. Emphasise the things that the Superb is best at rather than fighting against them. The whole experience will be much better for it.

Ateca chance on me (Photo: Tim Rodie)

Ateca chance on me (Photo: Tim Rodie)

All of which brings me to its replacement, which is almost the polar opposite. Where the Skoda was a non-sporty car on steroids, the Seat Ateca is designed to be fun to drive from the off – it's the very essence of what Seat as a brand is about. But where the mighty and tremendously-good-fun Cupra Ateca sits at one end of the range, this one, in SE Technology trim with a 1.0-litre TSI petrol engine dribbling out 115 horsepower, is at the other. It has only around a third of the power of the Cupra. So can this compact, family SUV really still be sporty and engaging with just a single litre of oomph to play with?

T​his is the question I'm aiming to answer over the next few months. The Ateca will have to do everyday duties like ferrying Small Child around, and carry all her stuff too. But I'm just as curious to find out whether it works as a genuinely entertaining car while keeping my fuel bills low and, had I bought or leased it, costing me much less per month.

There's an oft-quoted adage that it's more fun to drive slow cars fast than it is to drive fast cars slow. Let's see if that's true.

S​hould you make a non-sporty car sporty? Let us know what you think.

Photo: Tim Rodie

Photo: Tim Rodie

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Comments (11)

  • My 2015 Toyota Yaris is nothing near sporty : 90hp diesel... FWD (of course) and suspensions that are especially designed to be not sportive (McPherson in the front, torsion beam in the rear)

    However I still enjoy driving it a lot! It may lack some low rpm power sometimes but it has a kind of soul that really makes me happy to take it everyday.

      8 months ago
  • 'Sport'? It's just marketing bollox. A way to help us convince ourselves that we aren't buying a family and crap hauler. Put a few bits of pseudo rallycar, stick-on plasticy bits, and paint the wheels black... or some such nonsense. NONE of these 'Sport' versions have a single thing to do with sports or sports driving that you couldn't do just as well with the cooking version. The thing is, us ordinary mortals must live much of our wished-for existences, vicariously. A 'sport' version of our rather tedious, yet essential, set of practical wheels, is like Dads wearing their team colours when they watch them play on the TV whilst pouring cheap lager down their necks. It lets you live the dream without ever having to take part for real. Most of us know we are, at best, very average at a sporting activity. We know we will never win the Monte Carlo rally or a Grand Prix. The things we hold precious to our hearts are our partners and our children, which eat our time and money to the exclusion of all else. This is normal, good, and as it ought to be. Those whom we envy, who are great sportspersons, great drivers and so on, are a vanishingly rare breed of humanity. So much of their short time on Earth is eaten up staying under the spotlight of exceptionalism. In reality, most of us wouldn't want a life like this once we understood the costs to our freedom it required from us. But still we can dream, and part of that dream is the chance to buy ourselves a little bit, a taste, of living that dream, in the form of our 'Ford Boring Porridge Hatchback SPORTS EDITION!'

      8 months ago
  • I think at the end of the day, it’s up to your personal preference. I think the Hyundai i30 is a case in point. They offer a sport package for the luxury spec of the car, which doesn’t affect performance whatsoever, yet the N-Line Performance exists too. If you don’t have the money for the N-line performance, the sport package can be a great starting point.

    Brilliant article, certainly worth a read!

      8 months ago
  • Me: Yes. why? Because I want to

      8 months ago
  • I used to get very exorcised about “but it isn’t a real AMG” when Mercedes put body kits on a C180, but now I think only you know/care what engine your car has. If having the car look good and be something you are proud to drive with sporty alloys etc. then that is great. Car marketing departments would be phoning it in if they launched the Skoda Superb Pretty, and the Skoda Superb Slightly Prettier.

      8 months ago
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