Motors T-Roc... but no roll
Volkswagen crossover drives well but it lacks that little bit of glam
WHAT does it mean? Well, the T in T-Toc is a nod to Volkswagen’s other SUVs, the Touareg and Tiguan, and the ‘Roc’ bit literally means rock, as in solid as a…
And so it proved. VW’s great strength is in making cars that don’t just hug the road – they caress it with deftness and finesse, which is why the company also is making the not unreasonable claim that here we have a genuine crossover, a car with SUV looks but the driveability of a hatchback.
It’s not exactly a Golf, but it rides and handles better than almost any mass-market SUV. Built on the VW MQB platform that also underpins the likes of the Audi TT, SEAT León and Skoda Superb, it has a rigidity that also yields nicely when you want it to. Though it’s taller than a standard saloon or hatch, there’s no feeling of pitch in sharp cornering. In short, it’s all Roc and no roll.
As far as looks go, it’s not my favourite crossover. As I said last week about the Citroen C3 Aircross, at least the French made a fist of being different. The VW group has taken a more cautious approach.
I wasn’t overwhelmed by the SEAT Ateca, and I expected to be because the design team at Martorell consistently has produced beautiful cars.
The T-Roc too takes very few chances. The wavy grille with headlights incorporated with chrome detailing is nice, as is the addition of chrome highlighting to the glasshouse, the kick line and the roof rails, but the overall body shape remains resolutely within the parameters laid down by others. I’m sure that makes for good commercial sense, but I like a car with the wow factor, and for me, that is absent here. VW says the silhouette is reminiscent of a coupé, but that’s a leap of imagination I couldn’t make.
Inside, it’s a much better story. For driver and front passenger, it feels airy and roomy, and the virtual dashboard is neat and tidy. The Sport version I drove came with an optional extra eight-inch Discover Media navigation system touchscreen, rather than the standard 6.5-inch. It’s a lovely display, clean, crisp and intuitive. It also had 17inch Cortez alloy wheels, instead of the standard 16-inch.
Standard spec in Sport trim includes front sports seats, ambient lighting, a light in the footwell, tinted rear windows, front foglamps and cornering light, park distance control, driver alert system, dynamic headlight range control and high-beam control (auto-dimming in the face of oncoming traffic), start/stop, voice control, app connect and exterior folding mirrors.
It was one of several options on the car. The others were a winter pack (heated front seats, headlamp washer system with heated front nozzles, and washer fluid warning light); a passenger protection system, Ravenna Blue metallic paint and a panoramic sunroof.
The cargo area is among the biggest in class at 445 litres, expandable to 1,290 litres with the rear seats dropped. Those rear seats were one of the mild disappoints, though, as I felt the legroom on offer wasn’t as generous as I would have liked. At least there was no issue with headroom, which is expansive.
The car comes with a choice of engines. You can choose from a 1.0-litre 115hp TSI, the cracking 1.5-litre 150hp TSI in my car, or a 2.0-litre 150hp diesel. A fourth engine, a 1.6-litre 115hp diesel, will join the line-up later this year.
There is lots of intuitive technology offered as standard across the range, including front assist with emergency braking and lane-keeping assist. My car also had adaptive cruise control, which I’ve come to rely on heavily in the test cars, as they take all the strain off driving on busy motorways in particular, slowing down and speeding up in tandem with the car in front.
The T-Roc is the first of three new SUVs on the way from VW – a revised Touareg, the smaller T-Cross and an electric car, the I.D. Crozz. For my money, the best of the existing line-up is the recently launched Tiguan Allspace, an optional seven-seater that droves terrifically well. If you have a larger family, that’s definitely the one to go for.
Fuel economy is good at 5.3 litres per 100km in the combined driving cycle, but that 121g/km emission level nudges the car into Band B1 for motor tax of €270 a year.
I liked the T-Roc, more for how it drives than how it looks. I just wish they’d taken a few more risks.