High-rise hot hatches
The car market over the last couple of decades has been, shall we say, ‘sector fluid’. With all the platform sharing and niche filling that’s been going on, the product range of every German manufacturer has become as bewildering as a giant chocolate selection box – one offering every conceivable flavour, fused and blended together. Like this car, the new Volkswagen T-Roc R: if it was a chocolate, it would be a strawberry crème bon-bon with a praline filling, coated with chilli chocolate and topped with a jellied banana. As a car, you might describe it as a ‘Junior 4x4 Suburban Crossover Sports Activity Coupe Hot Hatch’.
Or, to put it another way, it’s the new Golf R SUV.
And this is seriously big news. The Golf R is one of our favourite cars: punchy 296bhp performance, all-wheel-drive security and brilliant handling. Plus compact SUVs are the hottest ticket in the car universe right now – from the Nissan Qashqai through to the Audi Q3, they’re every manufacturer’s bread and butter. So the R version of Volkswagen’s junior crossover should be the most zeitgeisty car on sale today, right? Perhaps. But we also want to know if it’s any good.
First, let’s briefly recap. The T-Roc was launched back in 2017, based on the same MBQ platform as its Golf sibling. It’s slightly shorter and wider than Volkswagen’s ubiquitous family hatch, but importantly it’s also 81mm taller, with a more upright driving position to give drivers that much-sought-after jacked-up view over the bonnet. Even if we’re only talking about a few millimetres here, the sales charts tell us it’s what customers want.
And now – just as the Mk7.5 Golf is replaced and the current Golf R dies along with it – the T-Roc gets the R treatment. That means the same 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol engine, the same seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox and yes, the same 4Motion all-wheel-drive system as the outgoing Golf R. The top-of-the-range T now puts out a frisky 296bhp and 295lb ft of torque; to signify that intent, it also gets mildly redesigned front and rear bumpers, new side sills, wheelarch extensions and a little roof spoiler. Plus there are 19-inch wheels as standard, and ‘R’ sports suspension – which, rather ridiculously, lowers the car back down to round about Golf height, thus losing that much-sought-after jacked-up view over the bonnet I was talking about earlier. Yeah, I know – compact SUV crossovers make no sense.
Even crazier is the price: while the Golf R was just over £36k, the new
The T-Roc R is just as well resolved as the Golf R, always ready to catapult you from bends
T-Roc R is £38,450. This example, with a few extras (like the Dynamic Chassis Control adjustable dampers, £695, and the black roof, £425) comes in at a sharp-intake-of-breath £41,919. It seems the manufacturers’ bread and butter also comes with a dollop of jam in the middle.
Inside, the T-Roc R gets sculpted front seats with racy cloth upholstery and R logos stitched into the backrests. The sports steering wheel is lovely – covered in fine, smooth leather, it’s one of those wheels your hands clasp and you immediately think ‘Oooh yes’. The dashboard is neat and orderly if rather utilitarian in appearance, and the materials feel strangely low-rent for such an expensive car. This might sound more than a little strange – modern Volkswagens are renowned for their solid, rubbery plastics and beautiful build quality after all. But there’s something about the body-coloured plastic strip that encircles the T-Roc’s cabin that misses the mark.
But let’s set all that aside because it’s time to drive, and the Golf R has set our expectations so high. The T-Roc R doesn’t disappoint. Push the start button, stir the (rather long) gear-wand into D, and we’re off. Straight away, this new high-rise R feels every bit as well resolved as the Golf that came before it, the taut but compliant suspension riding well over our winding B-roads. There’s a little rotary dial that allows you to configure the 4Motion system to snow or mountains and so on, and in the Road setting you can then press a button to choose between Eco, Comfort, Normal and Race. Of course, I immediately choose Race and discover, like its Golf sibling, that the T-Roc R is a very quick car cross-country. The 2.0-litre turbo revs rapidly and willingly up to the 6500rpm ⊲
redline, with an angry, hard-edged fizz, and the gutsy midrange is always ready to give you a satisfying catapult out of the slower bends. Like the Golf, the steering is accurate if a little lacking in feel, but it’s not the initial direction change that impresses most. It’s more about the way the rest of the T-Roc follows that steering input – there’s practically zero bodyroll, none of the movement you might expect from an SUV. You never feel like the front wheels are leading and the rear bumper is following along a couple of seconds later. Instead, the T-Roc moves as a piece, with a catlike composure and deftness.
The only control that takes a bit of getting used to is the brake pedal: all the action is at the very top, the first couple of millimetres of travel, which makes the brakes a bit grabby.
But overall (as you’d expect) the T-Roc R carries over much of the Golf R’s feeling of confidence, speed and self-control. It shares that ability to demolish a bumpy back road while at the same time offering everyday comfort and usability too. So, we have a winner?
Not quite. Because the whole time I’m driving the T-Roc R, I just keep asking myself ‘why?’ – why choose this instead of a Golf R? For starters, I don’t think the design is as neat or as polished as the Golf’s. The nose is strangely characterless; there’s that strange flared swoop in the bodywork just above the rear arches; and the very short rear overhang looks out of proportion with the rest of the design. That chopped rear also inevitably affects the T-Roc’s practicality as a family SUV. Because it’s wider and taller than the Golf, the T-Roc’s boot does offer 392 litres of luggage space, rear seats up, compared with the Golf R’s 340 litres. But it’s hardly cavernous for an SUV, and that sloping rear hatch reduces the boot down to a narrow-topped wedge shape, an awkward niche that looks like it would struggle to swallow a pram or a pushchair.
And then there’s the cost – driving along, I find it dicult to justify that extra couple of grand, when I’m just wondering what the T-Roc adds to the sublime Golf R. I guess if you jump straight out of one and into the other in the showroom, you may simply prefer the T-Roc’s driving position. Otherwise, why, why, why?
So the T-Roc R is good to drive but far from perfect – and it’s definitely not the hands-down winner yet. ⊲
The whole time I’m driving the T-Roc R, I just keep asking myself, ‘Why?’