ABM Q4 - Flipbook - Page 24
REV I E W
VW T-ROC R-LINE
Sensible
with a sting
VW T-Roc R-Line
review
BY ADRIAN SIMPSON
T
he T-Roc arrived in a
shade called Canary Yellow
Black, which is exactly
what it sounds like: a lurid,
highlighter-pen yellow with a
black roof – a £435 optional
extra that makes the car look
like a very keen wasp.
In a country lane, cutting
through a village where the boldest
colour choice is usually British Racing
Green on a Barbour, it went off like
a flare. My children, both away at
university and therefore experts in
everything, would have been mortified. I,
to my slight surprise, rather loved it.
Then I looked at the tax figures, and I
loved it slightly less. Finally, I understood
exactly what this car is for, and I loved
it again, though in a more complicated
way. Let me explain, because there are a
lot of numbers, and at least one of them
is a trap.
First, what is it?
This is the second-generation T-Roc,
now grown up in every sense. It sits on
the same modern underpinnings as the
Golf, it has stretched to 4,372mm long,
1,828mm wide and 1,573mm tall, and it
feels a class above the little crossover
it replaces. The boot has swelled to
475 litres, or 1,350 with the rear bench
24
AUTOMOTIVE BUSINESS
Q4 2026
dropped, the cabin is roomy front and
back, and the whole thing has that
reassuring bank-vault solidity that makes
a Volkswagen feel worth the premium,
even when the badges on rivals cost less.
There is no panoramic roof option, so
it is a touch gloomy in the back, but the
seats are comfortable, the materials are
genuinely good now, and the physical
buttons have made a welcome return
alongside a large 12.9in touchscreen and
an 8in digital driver display.
There is even a little whimsy:
swimmers drawn in the lanes of the
wireless charging pad, and a pretzel and
an ice cream doodled in the base of the
centre console. It is a very sensible car
being quietly silly, which is a combination
I find hard to dislike.
Now the powertrain, and the word
‘hybrid’, which is where you need to
concentrate. My car was the 1.5-litre
eTSI, a turbocharged four-cylinder petrol
producing 150 PS, which is 148bhp in old
money, and 250Nm of torque from just
1,500rpm.
It is a ‘mild hybrid’, meaning it has a
48-volt system and a little belt-driven
motor that gives it a gentle shove when
you pull away and lets it coast with
the engine off, and it can even shut
down two of its four cylinders when you
are ambling.
Grown up in
every sense:
The same Golf
underpinnings,
now a class above
