BUT VW’S ‘MARMITE’ CROSSOVER IS WEIGH TOO DULL FOR ME

The girls love it. My wife does, our next door neighbour does and so do several others up the road. They’ve all been drooling over this Volkswagen T-roc cabriolet. I’d hate to own one.

Yet, like Marmite, you just can’t account for taste. And much against my preconceptions this car does have a place in the world.

Perhaps someone at VW is a huge admirer of the Range Rover Evoque convertible which, unless I’m missing something, is the world’s only other convertible crossover. I’m no great fan of that car, either.

It’s claimed the T-roc is a fourseater, which it is as long as the adults in the back are below average height.

You do get two Isofix fittings too so child seats can be safely used. But with the roof in place you lose some rear headroom over the normal T-roc.

The boot holds 284 litres of luggage whether the convertible top is up or down.

If you ignore the more expensive Evoque, the T-roc cabriolet’s nearest direct rivals are the Audi A3 cabriolet and BMW 2-Series

Volkswagen T-roc cabriolet R-design three-door hatchback

Price: £33,135

Engine: 1.5-litre four-cylinder, 148bhp

0-62mph: 9.6sec

Fuel consumption: 40.5mpg

Co2: 159g/km

cabriolet. Against these two, the VW stacks up well because both the Audi and BMW are badly compromised on rear space, can’t accommodate lanky passengers in comfort and neither have particularly large boots.

Not surprisingly, and reassuringly for that matter, some serious strengthening has taken place.

Vauxhall has announced prices and specifications for its all-electric Vivaro-e van. I’m oddly excited by this for a couple of reasons: first it will eventually make my street quieter as the dozens of vans that go by each day are currently rattly diesels; and second I’d love to see camper vans go electric. For now, the Vivaro-e has a range of 144 miles with a 50kw battery or up to 205 miles with the 75kw unit. Prices start from £27,723 after the Plug-in Van Grant but before VAT. There are two trim levels, Dynamic and Elite.