Sunday Drive: Volkswagen T-Roc

Friday, 21 August 2020

The T-Roc is here - for good, this time.

VOLKSWAGEN T-ROC R-LINE
Base price: $52,990
Powertrain and economy: 2.0-litre turbo-petrol inline-four, 140kW/320Nm, 7-speed automatic, AWD, combined economy 6.8L/100km, CO2 156g/km (source: RightCar).

You wouldn’t suspect the T-Roc is based around the Golf from its design. This crossover is sharp.

Vital statistics: 4234mm long, 1992mm wide, 1572mm high, 2593mm wheelbase, luggage capacity 392 litres, 19-inch alloy wheels.
We like: Sorted chassis, plenty fast, good looks

The plastic cladding around the arches might make the T-Roc look like it’s ready to tackle some trails but it’s happiest in the city.

We don't like: Plasticky interior, flat seats

Volkswagen has the T-Roc here for good now after the model launched a couple of years ago. Is it just a repurposed Golf or does the T-Roc have genuine SUV creds?

T-Roc is smaller in real life than the pictures make it seem. Promise.

VW released the T-Roc at the tail end of 2018 in R-Line form exclusively but it only managed to get 150 or so. Because NZ is such a small market, we sometimes have to live with a “we get what we’re given” mindset. In this case, T-Roc originally arrived here in small numbers due to overseas markets having surplus stock. Then the T-Roc became a bit of a sales sensation overseas and New Zealand got pushed back down the queue.

We were originally meant to get the full three-model range last year but have only just got new models in over the last few months.

Inside is where the Golf underpinnings begin to show. Function over form (and keeping costs down) are targets here.

**READ MORE:

* Sunday Drive: Volkswagen T-Cross

The 2.0-litre turbo four is only available in the R-Line. Cheaper T-Roc models get the 1.5L version and front-wheel drive only.

* Volkswagen finally admits it has enough SUVs

* Sunday Drive: Mazda CX-9 and Ford Endura

* How Volkswagen has turned the Golf into an SUV

Like the smaller T-Cross and its Polo cousin, you could view the T-Roc as the SUV version of the Golf. But, like the T-Cross, it’s not really that simple.

Firstly, it has 4Motion all-wheel drive, something our crop of Golf’s don’t have (aside from the top-rung Golf R, and that’s a different beast to the T-Roc) and secondly T-Roc looks almost totally different. There are points where you can see the family ties but most casual onlookers either won’t notice or won’t care.

The front end has a thicker grille, two DRL rings on the corners that double as indicators, low-mounted foglights and different headlights. There are chunky wheel arches to show that this crossover could go off-road (if it must) along with plastic cladding on each end and strong character lines stretch along the sides. “T-ROC” is spelt across the boot in large lettering while two fake outlets on the corners house the rear parking sensors.

Proportions are short and wide, emphasised by chrome accents. It looks good and it’s visually smaller in reality than the pictures sometimes make it look. I’ll leave it up to you to decide that’s a good thing or not but I like it.

Inside is a different story. VW has clearly cut costs here because its almost identical to the soon-to-be-replaced current Golf, from the rotary HVAC dials to the gear selector and even the digital screens. It’s not the worst interior ever but it’s far from special. This is where T-Roc really does feel like a Golf on stilts.

As in the T-Cross, things feel plasticky and on the cheaper side, though not to the same extent. There aren’t any obvious soft-touch plastics, although I did like the leather used on the steering wheel. It felt softer than the T-Cross and better to hold. The seats look quite good but are relatively flat and unsupportive.

While it might have all-wheel drive and chunky cladding, this isn’t an off-roader. Just look at it – there’s a mere 158mm of ground clearance which is actually less than the front-drive models (161mm). That said, T-Roc is more than happy moving from tarmac to gravel. Turning the dial in the centre console to off-road mode adjusts the gearbox and chassis to better handle loose surfaces and it works well. This is a city SUV that could handle a bi-annual ski trip. I wouldn’t push it much further than gravel though, those low-profile Potenzas aren’t meant for it.

The 4Motion system here is more suited to on-road life, allowing quick getaways from give-ways and more fun out in the countryside. Paired with the 2.0-litre turbo four that you’ll see in about every other warm-to-hot vehicle the Volkswagen Group makes, here tuned for 140kW/320Nm, T-Roc is a zippy little thing. VW says it’ll hit 100kmh in 7.2 seconds but it feels faster.

On performance, the R-Line gets multi-link rear suspension instead of the torsion beam the lesser models use, which helps the T-Roc hustle through the bends. Brakes are good too, with strong bite. Some might find them a bit too sensitive, a byproduct of VW’s habit of overboosting the brakes but it’s quickly adapted to and something you’ll be glad to have if the need to slam the anchors arises.

So should you part with more than fifty thousand of your dollars for the T-Roc R-Line? That really depends on if you need the all-wheel drive system. The R-Line is the only T-Roc with it so if you’re primarily operating within city limits you can save $7.5k by going with the Style, though that also means you move down a powertrain step to the 110kW/250Nm 1.5-litre turbocharged four-pot.

Fuel use duly drops to 5.7L/100km from 6.8L/100km, thanks also to two less driven wheels and 68 fewer kilos to move.

It also pays to mention the R-Line has the least boot capacity out of the T-Roc range, with 392L compared to 445L for the other two models. The R-Line can fit just 12L more than the Golf, for further comparison.

Rivals at the $50k mark include the Mazda CX-30 Limited ($50,990), the Seat Ateca FR 4Drive ($45,900) and Ford’s upcoming refreshed Escape, which will cost between $42,990 to $55,990 for petrol models. Two plug-in hybrid versions will go for $58,990 and $64,990.