DRIVING THE T-ROC

2021-04-30 - GORDON HALL

While you wage slaves were suffering through yet another, never-ending, meeting and wishing you’d poured something stronger than milk over your breakfast cereal, I was out on the Meander having fun.

The car was the top model of Volkswagen’s new-to-us, medium sized T-Roc, its fifth SUV range in South Africa. A two-litre, 4Motion R-Line, it was fitted with all-wheel drive (AWD), the engine and gearbox from Audi’s A4 40, lots of sports kit and almost all the toys you could wish for. Being slightly lighter than the aforementioned Audi, it sprints to 100km/h a tenth of a second quicker and tops out six clicks faster.

Selectable terrain settings include Snow; Highway, from which you can choose between Normal, Eco, Sport and Individual; Off-road Auto and Offroad Expert. These two may sound exciting but it’s still a “Soft Roader.”

Limited ground clearance and lack of low-range gearing see to that.

There’s also an “entry-level” 1.4-litre version with plainer trim, eight-speed Tiptronic ‘box rather than seven-speed DSG, and twowheel drive. It’s equipped, and runs, pretty decently too.

It compensates for a slightly smaller fuel tank, and not having AWD, with 3mm more ground clearance and a boot that’s 53 litres larger. Standard kit includes six airbags; ABS brakes with ESP, ASR, EDL, XDS, MSR and multi-collision braking; ISOFix mountings; eight-inch Composition Media touchscreen audio system with all the basic connectivity; fatigue detection; parking distance alarms front and rear; fabric upholstery; 17” alloy wheels; rain sensing wipers; and dual zone automatic aircon.

Graduate to the 2.0-litre R-Line, with added sports suspension, heated leather seats, 40-profile tyres on 19” rims and extra features: a “Premium” version of the display, LED lights with high-beam control, electric tailgate, tinted rear windows, push button starting, gear shift paddles and an armrest for the split-and-folding back seat.

But adaptive cruise control with speed limiter, autonomous emergency braking and pedestrian detection are optional. So is blind spot monitoring, rear traffic alert, lane keeping and lane assist. Parallel parking assistance plus rear view camera, and satnav cost extra too.

But what you really want to know is whether it’s fit for purpose as a Soccer Mom Transport Module.

The cargo bay is reasonably big, loading sill at mid-thigh height for taller people, with a light and four tiedown rings, the seatback releases can be reached from behind and the Spacesaver spare is under the floorboard.

There’s plenty of head-, knee and foot space in the back for two lanky teenagers and a little one, extension vents, central courtesy lighting, adequate cup and bottle space and two powered mini-USB sockets.

Front seat riders have plenty of room, most minor controls are easy to find, there’s a resting pad for the driver’s left foot. It turns easily and stops safely and vision outward is good. Both engine versions go like Stukas in power dives too.

Quite pricey but I really enjoyed it.

The numbers

Base price: R593 600

Engine: 1984cc, DOHC, 16-valve, four-cylinder turbopetrol

Power: 140kW between 4500 and 6200rpm

Torque: 320Nm between 1500 and 4400rpm 0-100km/h: 7.2 seconds

Top speed: 216km/h

Real life fuel consumption: About 8.8 l/100km

Tank: 55 litres

Luggage: 392 – 1237 litres

Ground clearance: 158mm

Turning circle: 11.1 metres