Volkswagen T-Roc review

We’ll start with the good, first: Volkswagen has addressed the cheap feel of the outgoing T-Roc with a foam-backed, soft-touch dash and fabric or leather (spec dependent) door trim in place of hard, hollow mouldings. It’s much improved.

Oh, and where the pre-facelift T-Roc was available in various garish coloured trims along the dash and doors, it’s now only available in various different shades of grey/black. Makes sense – while choice is all well and good, when it comes down to it most buyers just plump for something safe. See the Mini for proof.

Spiffing. What’s the rest of the interior like?

Every model now gets digital dials as standard, measuring either right inches or 10.25 inches in upper spec trims. It looks smart enough and there’re plenty of different displays to choose from, but as ever, we always found ourselves reverting to round clocks for speedo and rev-counter.

The infotainment display comes as eight inches as standard, or 9.2 inches on upper specs. It’s a familiar VW item and suffers from the usual issues, being laggy and frustrating to use. Fortunately wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto come as standard, which minimises the extent you need to interact with the screen.

VW has also decided to lob the easy-to-use, buttoned climate control panel of old in the skip, replacing it instead with a touch-button panel – complete with sliders performing the functions of knobs and buttons – that will likely have you pulling your hair out. Why, just why?

Is it comfortable?

Up front is comfortable enough, but the short wheelbase does mean that rear passengers suffer. This isn’t one for families with teenage children, unless you want an earful about the limited legroom on every journey.

Front-wheel drive variants offer 445 litres with the seats up (bigger than the Golf's 380 litres), while folding the seats down offers 1,290 litres. However, opting for a 4WD variant reduces boot space to 392 litres (seats up) and 1,237 litres (seats down) due to the rear drive. The adjustable boot floor can be fixed pretty much parallel with the boot lip, though, which comes in handy for the weekly shop.

Other storage and versatility is fairly limited – there’s a drawer under the front seats (a VW staple) and large-sized pockets in the doors (big enough to fit a 1.5-litre bottle of water up top). But you won't find sliding seats, hidden bins or nets or clips. Not like a Honda CR-V or Citroen C3 Aircross. Active lifestyle eh?