It’s hard work keeping up with the changing world of smallish Volkswagens. The days when the German company made two compact cars – the Golf and the Polo – have long, long departed, and the supermini sector is now awash with hatchbacks, EVs, compact crossovers, small SUVs and such like. As a one-stop shop for every conceivable sector of automotive design, VW is over all of it, often with mixed results.
Volkswagen T-Roc
The Golf continues to be an evergreen, while the Polo is en route to its transformation into the ID.Polo, an EV that mashes up the longstanding Polo heritage with the relatively short-lived ID series of standalone EV VWs, crossing the streams to (hopefully) blend the best of both and streamline the range going forward. Take a look at the company’s current model page and you’ll no less than 31 models that slice the market into carpaccio-thin segments.
Volkswagen T-Roc
There’s no ID.T-Roc just yet, but there is an ID.Cross, an EV SUV that’s closely related to the very slightly larger ICE and hybrid T-Cross. The T-Roc is barely 10cm longer, generally has larger engine options, as well as optional four-wheel-drive. And yet that’s enough to relegate the smaller car to ‘urban’ duties and allocate the T-Roc a more family-focused, long journey specialist.
Volkswagen T-Roc Black Edition
We spent a week in a T-Roc – in a city – and can happily report that this is all essentially marketing. The T-Roc is relatively modest in scale (4.23m long by 1.82m wide, excluding mirrors). It’s perfectly happy in an urban environment – have you seen the size of the vehicles people drive these days? – and is well-mannered, comfortable and practical enough for any application.
The T-Roc is flexible, practical and just a tiny but characterless
In short, it’s a perfect example of VW’s no-nonsense approach to car building, wherein the base product is fundamentally sound, reliable and sensible, over which a topcoat of lifestyle marketing can be applied to appeal to various different demographics. According to Volkswagen, ‘the T-Roc sits in the compact end of the Volkswagen SUV range, above the T-Cross but beneath the Tiguan, Tiguan Allspace and Touareg.’
Volkswagen T-Roc dashboard
What do you get? The T-Roc R-Line is the top spec model, with a sportier stance and tuning. It still has the raised ride height of the standard car but this is by no means a true SUV or off-roader. Instead, the 12cm or so it gains over the closely related Golf (they share the MQB platform) goes into creating a more elevated view over other road users. More likely, it simply brings you into eyeline with every other SUV driver.
Dashboard detail, VW T-Roc
The Golf comparisons are apt, because not only do the two cars share a platform but – height aside – they’re a couple of centimetres adrift in terms of basic dimensions. Volkswagen also emphasises the ‘hatchback-like’ handling of the T-Roc and although the steering is pretty light, it’s by no means vague. In standard driving modes, the T-Roc feels slightly underpowered, almost as if the model is being held back a little so as not to threaten the Golf’s ongoing dominance as a compact all-rounder.
Volkswagen T-Roc back seats
There are other compromises presented as positives, like the coupé-like rear roofline that only serves to cut into the usable boot space, and the chunky plastic wheelarches that want to put the ‘U’ into SUV but end up looking a little tacky. Like the Golk Mk7, the T-Roc’s dashboard has largely made up for the terrible missteps of a few years ago, when haptic buttons and sliders made a mockery of a straightforward user experience.
It’s still a little dark and austere, with only the splashes of Type-R blue on the wheel and seats to lift the mood. Other personalisation packs are available but nothing that really catapults the T-Roc into characterful territory.
The Volkswagen T-Roc is also available as a cabriolet
Aside from the lifted, four-square stance and faintly forgettable proportions, the T-Roc does at least possess some flair in the form of the shapely shoulder line above the rear wheels – a nod to the larger Tiguan and Touareg. Quirkily, the T-Roc is also available as a two-door, four-seater cabriolet – the only soft top in VW’s current line-up. A cabrio was once a much-loved derivative of the Golf; in T-Roc form, it doesn’t have the same zesty image.
Volkswagen T-Roc
In conclusion, the Volkswagen T-Roc is perfectly adequate in every respect, yet even in its second-generation outing, it doesn’t quite spark enough joy. However, as VW’s best-selling model in Europe, it’s clearly doing something right by deviating ever so slightly from the centrist consensus. Ultimately, for this Golf fan, the T-Roc still feels usurped by an ageing relative who somehow still manages to remain more relevant and desirable.
Volkswagen T-Roc R-Line, from £38,500, Volkswagen.co.uk, @Volkswagen_UK