Volkswagen T-Roc long-term test
Is this former What Car? Small SUV of the Year the perfect companion for our senior videographer? That's what we'll find out as we put our long-term T-Roc to the test...
The car Volkswagen T-Roc 1.0 TSI 110 Life Run by Kiall Garrett, senior videographer
Why it’s here To prove whether this five-star small SUV can be big enough and comfortable enough to meet the demands of regular long-distance load-lugging journeys.
Needs to be spacious enough to carry around lots of camera equipment and chew through long motorway journeys with ease while delivering good fuel economy on a town-based commute.
Mileage 8193 List Price £28,330 Target Price £26,764 Price as tested £30,585 Official economy 47.1mpg Test economy 42.6mpg Dealer value now £20,255 Private value now £18,005 Running costs (excluding depreciation) £891.64 (petrol)
25 July 2024 – Gone but not forgotten
There’s an odd history of people becoming betrothed to physical objects around the world; take Linda Ducharme, for example, who in 2012 married a ferris wheel she’d been “dating” for 30 years.
Now, while I'm not planning on popping the question to my Volkswagen T-Roc any time soon, seeing it roll off my driveway for the final time gave me a better understanding of what Linda might have been feeling.
That's right. After eight months and more than 8000 miles spent with the T-Roc, I am in love with this brilliant small SUV, and it will definitely go into the Kiall Garrett history books as one of my favourite company cars.
So what made life with the T-Roc so good? Well, read any of my previous reports and you’ll be able to find many examples of gushing praise for what has proven to be an outstanding all-rounder.
I’ll start with the obvious. As a senior videographer for What Car?, space is the most crucial element to any car I drive. Needing to ferry around large cases and long items like tripods and cameras, as well as all the rucksacks and bags that come with it, means that a car’s boot cannot be too big.
The T-Roc nailed its load-lugging duties. With 445 litres of storage space it was big enough to (snuggly) fit the obscene amount of kit I need to carry around with me, either with its height-adjustable boot floor in its higher position for easier loading and unloading, or in its lowest for the times I needed that little bit of extra room for the final rucksack or two. Even chief photographer John Bradshaw commended my Tetris-like packing abilities.
The T-Roc didn't just help with my work kit, though, it also helped me to move house, where it was used as a vital support car to a larger van, carrying most of my smaller furniture like a chest of drawers and side tables.
Plus, during my first deep clean of the T-Roc’s interior it revealed another storage trick up its sleeve. Well, up its driver’s seat, to be more precise, because under the front seat there’s a hidden cubby in a tray which you can slide out.
It proved a helpful spot for stuff that might otherwise clog up the centre console, like a phone, receipts, coins and house keys. And it’s carpeted, so whatever you put in there won’t be rattling around against plastic.
It wasn’t just inside where the T-Roc excelled; it was a pleasure to drive, too. Most people would probably scoff at the idea of anything fun coming from a tiny 1.0-litre petrol engine, but I genuinely enjoyed driving the T-Roc. The engine had all the oomph you need in town, and keeping it in the sweet spot of its rev range with the snappy six-speed manual gearbox would help me easily get it to a comfortable cruise on the motorway.
I wasn’t able to get close to the T-Roc's official 47.1mpg fuel economy during my time with the car, but the 42.6mpg I did manage to achieve was pretty good considering a lot of miles had been travelled commuting through London to the What Car? office in Twickenham.
The best thing about the T-Roc to my mind, though, was its ride comfort. It floated over our terrible pothole-ridden roads, with a beautifully supple and controlled ride. When Life trim rides as well as this, I’ve no idea why you’d want an R-Line version with stiffer and less comfortable suspension.
Indeed, I followed What Car?’s review recommendation and chose entry-level Life trim when I specced the T-Roc last year. Along with the cheapest engine choice, this helped keep the cost of the T-Roc down – something my bank balance has been grateful for.
Life trim had most of the kit I needed, with adaptive cruise, a useful 8.0in touchscreen with shortcut buttons, and a 8.0in digital driver display which didn’t make me wish I’d gone for the 10.25in Digital Cockpit Pro.
This provides some sharper and more modern graphics with customisable menus, like being able to show a full view navigation map, but is an option at £495. I decided to keep my costs down instead by sticking with the standard driver display, which still showed all the information I needed.
If I were to have my time with the T-Roc again, though, I reckon I would have spent £375 on the Winter Pack, which brings heated front seats, helping the T-Roc to stay comfy even in the winter months.
Overall, I adored my T-Roc, then. It seems that a good portion of new car buyers are looking to small SUVs for their next car, and the Volkswagen T-Roc shows how fantastic they can be. I will certainly miss the it – but should the chance come to run a T-Roc again, I'm not sure I'd be able to let it go without popping a ring out.
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