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The 2021 Volkswagen T-Roc is smaller than a Tiguan, but slightly bigger than a Volkswagen Golf. It's more like an 'SUV Golf'. With an all-new Golf now launched, does the Volkswagen T-Roc still make sense as an alternative to the popular hatchback?

Paul Maric tests the Volkswagen T-Roc to see if it's any good and whether you should outlay your hard earned cash on one.

Hardness tester results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE

Read the full review: https://www.carexpert.com.au/car-reviews/2021-volkswagen-t-roc-140tsi-sport-review/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=review&utm_term=&utm_content=&utm_campaign=single-car-review

Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Exterior: 00:50
Interior: 03:20
Infotainment: 04:39
Safety Tech: 07:17
Practicality: 07:55
On the road: 11:31
Verdict: 15:32

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#volkswagen #review #troc @volkswagen @volkswagenaustralia
Transcript
00:00 G'day, I'm Paul.
00:01 So, you're in the market for a Golf,
00:02 but you need to be seen in an SUV.
00:05 Well, I reckon I might have the car for you.
00:07 It is the Volkswagen T-Roc.
00:09 Now, keep in mind, this has been out overseas in Europe
00:11 for a couple of years now,
00:13 but we finally have it here in Australia.
00:15 We only get two variants,
00:16 and this is the entry-level Sport variant.
00:18 It's priced at just over $40,000,
00:21 and it competes with cars like the Kia Seltos,
00:23 the Mazda CX-30, the Ford Puma.
00:25 There's actually heaps of competitors in this new segment.
00:28 They're all basically bigger hatchbacks
00:30 with more luxury features and a bit more price.
00:33 Now, today we're going to do a detailed review
00:35 of the T-Roc.
00:36 If you do wanna skip ahead to other parts of this review,
00:38 you can use the time codes up on the screen there,
00:40 or if you're on YouTube,
00:41 just scroll down and use the chapters below.
00:43 And if you haven't done so already,
00:44 make sure you subscribe, hit the bell icon.
00:46 It's gonna tell you every single time we drive a car
00:48 that's been out for a while.
00:50 Let's talk exterior.
00:52 You've got six colors to pick from,
00:53 and all but white and red are $600 extra.
00:56 I love this color here.
00:57 It's like an off-white.
00:59 There's a bit of pearl or something in that.
01:00 It's a really nice looking color,
01:02 and also a nice looking car.
01:04 You gotta remember that while this is sort of golf-sized,
01:07 they've gone a little more adventurous with the styling.
01:09 Where the Golf is traditionally a bit conservative
01:12 unless you go to a GTI or a Golf R,
01:14 this really takes it up a notch there.
01:16 They've added this nice looking 3D grille.
01:19 You've got those LED headlights off to the side.
01:21 A little bit of chrome there thrown at it as well,
01:23 so you feel like it is premium and value for money
01:27 when it comes to spending this kind of coin.
01:29 So in addition to those LED headlights,
01:31 you've got indicators in this daytime running light
01:33 down the bottom, and these are really cool
01:35 because that whole section lights up
01:37 when you flick the indicator on.
01:38 They're not something that we normally see in this segment.
01:41 Okay, let's talk wheels.
01:42 The standard wheel is an 18-inch alloy wheel,
01:44 but this has the Sound & Style package,
01:47 which brings with it 19-inch alloy wheels.
01:49 But in addition to those wheels,
01:50 you can see here it's got a slightly low-profile tire,
01:53 it brings with it adaptive suspension.
01:54 So that should, in theory, smooth out the ride
01:57 and make this a little more compliant over bumpy roads
01:59 and the type of roads that are really going to be affected
02:02 by a low-profile tire.
02:03 It is a good looking alloy wheel as well,
02:05 with that sort of brushed chrome on the side,
02:07 and then that shadow paint inside the wheel as well,
02:11 plus a red brake caliper too.
02:13 R-line badge here and on the front there,
02:15 so this signifies that this is the sportier version
02:17 of the T-Roc.
02:19 Now, as part of this package,
02:20 you can also option a panoramic glass roof.
02:23 You get these nice looking brushed aluminum roof rails,
02:26 privacy glass, you've got these wheel arch protectors
02:29 to make it look like it can go off-road,
02:31 even though you're not really going to be doing
02:33 any off-road driving.
02:34 Now, in terms of dimensions, how big is this?
02:36 Well, to put it into perspective,
02:37 it's around 250 millimeters shorter than a Tiguan,
02:40 and it is also slightly shorter than a Golf,
02:43 but it is wider and taller.
02:44 So you are getting a slightly bigger proportion
02:47 out on the road, but it's not monstrous.
02:49 It's not the size of a mid-size SUV.
02:51 It's quite a compact size,
02:52 but still looks big out on the road, if that makes sense.
02:54 Come around to the back.
02:55 In addition to the LED headlights at the front,
02:57 you get LED taillights, a four motion badge,
03:00 because this is all wheel drive,
03:02 T-Roc badge along the back there,
03:03 and like most Volkswagens these days,
03:05 a fold out Volkswagen badge that doubles as the boot opener,
03:08 and also the nook for the reverse camera.
03:11 Look, in terms of design,
03:12 I think they've really done well here.
03:13 And when you think about the target demographic
03:15 for this car, it's going to be probably a younger person,
03:17 someone that wants to look a little stylish.
03:19 I think this really nails the brief.
03:21 Okay, so we are inside the T-Roc.
03:23 Now, let's start with the key.
03:26 This is what it looks like.
03:26 So standard sort of looking Volkswagen key,
03:28 lock, unlock down the bottom,
03:30 and then you have the boot button.
03:33 It's a flip out key, but it's a proximity key,
03:35 so you're never really going to need to use that.
03:37 On the back, you've got the Volkswagen logo.
03:38 You just keep that in your pocket, grab the door handle,
03:40 and then there's a start button just there to turn it over.
03:43 Now, what about styling?
03:44 Okay, so it looks nice.
03:45 I think this is nicely presented.
03:47 It is a bit of a sea of black, but it's nicely separated.
03:50 The problem is the materials.
03:52 It's just nasty throughout.
03:56 It's really unimpressive in terms of the material
04:00 they've used here, and this is similar to the Polo
04:02 in the sense that they've just made it quite rugged,
04:04 and I don't think a car like this needs to be rugged.
04:06 A good example in this segment is the CX-30.
04:08 It's a really high-end premium feeling interior,
04:11 and I think this just misses the mark a little bit
04:14 in that regard.
04:15 So what about the touch points?
04:15 Well, that's all nice and firm, but over here,
04:17 center console is soft, the door rest is soft as well.
04:21 Now, how soft is all this stuff?
04:23 Well, we have a tool that will tell us.
04:24 It's called a durometer.
04:25 We've tested the surfaces around the car.
04:27 If you wanna see how this compares to other cars
04:29 that we've tested, just use the link
04:31 in the description below.
04:32 Now, what about build quality?
04:34 Actually feels really nice and solid.
04:36 Everything is really well put together here,
04:38 so big tick for build quality.
04:40 Okay, let's move on to infotainment.
04:41 You get an eight-inch Discover Media infotainment system.
04:44 That's what Volkswagen calls it.
04:45 Today, I'll give you a quick overview.
04:47 We've already done a detailed review
04:49 of this infotainment system.
04:50 If you wanna watch that, you can click up here,
04:52 but let's have a look at this.
04:53 So this is your main radio screen.
04:55 Now, you'll notice there, as my hand gets closer,
04:58 it has a sensor that's able to detect that,
05:01 and then it brings up extra menus down the bottom,
05:03 and it makes everything a little bit larger
05:04 'cause it knows that you're approaching.
05:06 So here, you'll be able to find AM, FM,
05:08 no DAB plus digital radio, which is disappointing.
05:11 Also, no voice recognition.
05:13 When you push that, it just tells you
05:14 that Volkswagen has to activate it.
05:16 So it's a little disappointing
05:17 that you don't get those features,
05:18 but I'll show you a workaround in just a second.
05:21 In the media menu, you have Bluetooth.
05:24 You also have the ability to stream over the USB ports
05:26 and SD card slot or CD player,
05:29 which is a little bit old school,
05:31 but it's good that it actually has that feature in itself.
05:33 You have inbuilt satellite navigation.
05:35 Let's have a quick look at that.
05:36 This system's actually not too bad.
05:37 It's nice and quick, and then entering destinations
05:40 is pretty straightforward.
05:41 Now, in terms of smartphone mirroring,
05:43 this is the way you get around the voice recognition issue
05:45 because with a long push of this,
05:47 you can actually use your smartphone's voice recognition.
05:50 So I'll push and hold.
05:52 Cancel.
05:54 So now I'm using- - There's nothing to cancel.
05:57 - Thank you.
05:57 So now I'm using Siri instead of the car's inbuilt system.
06:00 Now, on that Apple CarPlay,
06:02 I'll show you what that looks like.
06:03 Really nice looking integration, super high resolution,
06:06 and it takes up that entire screen.
06:08 Nice and smooth as well.
06:10 I'll show you what Android Auto looks like.
06:12 Good looking integration there.
06:14 All works fairly smoothly.
06:15 We'll have a look at maps.
06:17 It all moves around nice and easily as well.
06:19 Now let's jump over to the screen ahead of the driver.
06:21 This is Volkswagen's version of Virtual Cockpit.
06:24 Now you can tell that this is
06:25 the slightly cheaper version of it
06:27 because it's slightly pixelated.
06:29 It's not super high resolution.
06:31 And the other downside is that you can only have
06:33 your map displayed either on the infotainment system
06:36 or the Virtual Cockpit.
06:37 So right now it's on the infotainment system,
06:39 and I press this and it switches it over to here,
06:41 but you can supersize it by pressing the view button
06:44 and then you can switch between
06:45 different context menus as well.
06:47 So it is good to say that this is standard
06:49 because you don't really see any other cars in this segment
06:51 with a high-end looking screen like that.
06:53 But I think it is slightly behind the times
06:56 in terms of other Virtual Cockpit style systems.
06:58 Now, what about speakers?
06:59 You get a six speaker sound system as standard,
07:02 but the sound and style package
07:03 that this car has fitted to it
07:04 brings with it a 300 watt Beats audio system,
07:08 for those of you who like your Beats.
07:10 In terms of connectivity,
07:11 you've got two USB ports up the front here.
07:13 One is for your smartphone connectivity,
07:16 but you can use the other one for charging.
07:17 Let's talk safety technology.
07:19 So you get autonomous emergency braking as standard.
07:22 That also detects vulnerable road users,
07:25 just a bit of a mouthful.
07:26 Blind spot monitoring built into that wing mirror.
07:29 You get a lane departure warning,
07:31 radar cruise control that's operated on the steering wheel.
07:34 You also get semi-autonomous parking,
07:36 rear cross traffic alert.
07:37 And it's also worth noting
07:38 that the AEB system works in reverse as well.
07:41 Now, in terms of the reverse camera,
07:42 you get front and rear parking sensors.
07:44 Let's have a look at that, see what the quality is like.
07:46 Okay, here it is here.
07:47 So you can see your front and rear parking sensors
07:49 on display there.
07:50 You can see guidelines and a really decent quality as well.
07:53 So you're not gonna be running into anything accidentally.
07:55 Let's talk about practicality and we'll start with storage.
07:58 Where are you gonna put your phone?
08:00 Easily lives down there.
08:01 You can also slide it down the front there.
08:03 It's not a wireless phone charger,
08:04 but it sits neatly there.
08:06 Bottle storage, you've got three different sized holes there
08:11 and then one inside the door
08:12 with a little bit of room there either side.
08:15 Okay, center console, this slides forwards and backwards,
08:17 which is pretty cool.
08:18 That's a really weird shape.
08:20 So I can fit the bottle in there.
08:23 You can see there's not much room to close it
08:25 and it's so deep, but it's not huge.
08:27 Weird.
08:28 Okay, glove box.
08:29 Look, it's reasonably sized and fit the bottle in there.
08:31 That's where your CD player lives as well.
08:34 And that closes up fairly nicely.
08:35 In terms of comfort, you have automatic
08:37 dual zone climate control.
08:39 There are heated seats here,
08:40 but these are part of an optional package.
08:42 And then, seat comfort.
08:43 So this is the optional luxury package.
08:47 You get these nice looking seats.
08:49 They're pretty comfortable as well.
08:52 They're manually adjustable
08:53 for both the driver and passenger,
08:55 but the seating position is pretty good.
08:57 The steering wheel sits nicely in the hand.
08:59 All this stuff's easy to reach as well.
09:01 So big tick there for seating comfort as well.
09:04 Okay, back seat.
09:05 Look, it's not the world's most spacious second row.
09:09 And you can see here that my knees
09:11 are sort of firmly planted into that front seat.
09:13 Keep in mind though, that I don't know,
09:15 I'm 185 centimetres tall and this seat is fairly far back.
09:19 So this isn't terribly disastrous,
09:21 but I do have heaps of toe room.
09:24 And while headroom's good,
09:25 probably gonna be a little compromised
09:26 if you are taller than me
09:28 with that roof cutting in slightly.
09:30 What features do you get in this second row?
09:32 So that seat pattern continues here
09:34 with the multicolour.
09:35 You get a centre armrest with two cup holders.
09:38 Fits in there.
09:40 They actually look like they're adjustable.
09:41 Oh, that's clever.
09:42 So if you've got a smaller cup like this,
09:44 it won't actually go anywhere.
09:45 So I like that feature.
09:46 Then on top of that,
09:47 you have a ski port to give you access to the boot.
09:51 And then your bottle can also go in a door pocket down here
09:54 with a little bit of room off to the side.
09:56 You get air vents for the second row,
09:58 12 volt outlet down the bottom,
09:59 but no USB charging ports back here with matte pockets.
10:03 Now you have this panoramic roof,
10:05 but that's not standard.
10:05 That's part of an options package.
10:07 I think it is worth ticking
10:08 'cause it kind of just makes the cabin feel a little airier
10:11 and a bit bigger.
10:12 So it's worth having a think about that
10:15 when you are speccing your car.
10:16 But look, aside from it being tight,
10:18 it is a nice place to be seated.
10:19 Okay, let's move on to cargo space.
10:22 Now with the option pack,
10:23 you get the powered tailgate.
10:24 Otherwise it's manual.
10:25 You have just under 400 litres of cargo space here
10:29 with the second row intact.
10:31 And then it expands to a little over 1200
10:33 when you drop the second row.
10:34 I'll show you how that works in a second.
10:36 But before that, have a look under here.
10:37 We have a space saver spare tyre
10:40 and what looks like another giant subwoofer.
10:42 I love the way that they utilize that space
10:45 that you'd otherwise waste.
10:46 And then you have a few other bits and pieces
10:47 around the side, like a jack.
10:49 And I guess you could actually store
10:50 some of your valuables in there as well.
10:52 You've got hooks on the side here
10:53 in case you need to tie anything down.
10:56 But aside from that,
10:57 it's a fairly sort of straightforward boot.
10:59 Let me show you how this disappears
11:01 and then we will pop our luggage in.
11:03 That jumps out of the way.
11:04 Now let's have a look at what it looks like
11:07 with our luggage in here.
11:08 I'll be keen to see whether we can actually
11:09 fit our suitcase in.
11:11 No dramas at all, that fits nicely.
11:13 All right, let's drop that second row as well.
11:15 This is how you're going to access your 1200 litres
11:21 of cargo space.
11:22 It's a fairly flat floor as well.
11:24 And given it's an SUV, it has a high lip.
11:26 So loading things in is going to be pretty straightforward.
11:28 And then you can utilise all the space
11:30 up to the first row.
11:31 We've hit the road in the T-Roc
11:34 and it's powered by a two litre turbocharged
11:37 four cylinder petrol engine.
11:39 Makes 140 kilowatts of power and 320 newton metres of torque.
11:43 It's a pretty healthy amount for a small car like this.
11:46 That means it's got a little bit of poke,
11:48 a little bit of urgency.
11:49 That's all made it to a seven speed
11:50 dual clutch transmission.
11:52 And this uses a permanent all wheel drive system.
11:55 I think it's more an on-demand system,
11:57 but it's always shuffling torque between the front
11:59 and the rear axle to give you that optimum traction.
12:01 It means that you get a little bit more sure footedness
12:04 than you would if this was strictly front wheel drive only.
12:06 Okay, dual clutch transmission.
12:08 This one's not the best one in the world for low speed.
12:11 So it still feels quite elastic
12:13 and can be a tiny bit jerky
12:14 depending on the type of surface you're on.
12:16 So if you're on an incline or something like that,
12:17 it can be a little indecisive.
12:19 But for the most part, it's pretty good.
12:20 Right now, as we're cruising along, it's in seventh gear.
12:23 If I sort of lay into it,
12:25 it takes a little while to get up and moving,
12:27 but for the most part, it's responsive enough.
12:29 Once it does find that gear,
12:31 it's all good to go from there.
12:33 Okay, so Volkswagen claims a zero to 100 figure
12:36 of 7.2 seconds.
12:39 Let's see if we can match that.
12:41 That's pretty impressive.
12:51 Let's talk fuel economy.
12:52 Volkswagen claims a combined fuel economy
12:54 of 7.2 litres per 100 Ks.
12:57 Let's have a look at how we're doing.
12:59 9.2 litres per 100 Ks.
13:01 We've predominantly been doing city driving
13:03 with a little stint of highway driving to get out here.
13:05 So it is higher than claimed, but I'm okay with the number.
13:08 It's not too far gone from the official figure.
13:10 Let's talk about the drive mode.
13:11 So you select them using this selector here.
13:13 You can basically go from normal to off-road mode
13:16 and then an individual off-road setting as well,
13:18 plus an ice mode.
13:20 But if you push in,
13:21 you actually get presented with those on the screen.
13:23 And then if you go to sport mode,
13:26 immediately the gearbox goes into S.
13:28 The suspension becomes firmer
13:29 because remember this car has been optioned
13:31 with the adaptive suspension
13:33 and then everything's a whole lot more responsive.
13:35 When I get stuck into the throttle,
13:36 it's bouncing back through the gears a whole lot quicker.
13:38 And if we jump back into the normal setting here,
13:41 it is actually considerably firmer in sport mode.
13:44 In normal mode though, it's quite compliant.
13:47 It's really nice and comfortable
13:48 despite the fact it's riding on 19 inch alloy wheels.
13:50 So they've done a good job sorting the ride out.
13:53 Volkswagen does kind of market this as the lifestyle vehicle
13:57 but with 158 millimetres of ground clearance,
14:00 you're not really going to be doing much off-roading
14:02 and that's obviously despite the off-road mode here.
14:05 This is effectively just an adjustment
14:07 of the stability control settings,
14:09 allowing you to have a little bit more slip
14:10 from those wheels.
14:11 You can actually see how Volkswagen's off-road mode works
14:15 by clicking up here to have a look at our Amarok review.
14:18 We give you an example there of an ABS stop
14:20 with and without off-road mode enabled on a gravel surface.
14:23 Righto, let's talk handling.
14:24 Pop this into sport mode.
14:25 You've actually got paddle shifters as well.
14:27 So you can manually select gears.
14:30 Yeah, it's actually not too bad.
14:31 So it sits nice and flat through the corners.
14:33 There's plenty of traction there.
14:35 I did feel that front left wheel slipping a little bit
14:38 but immediately you can feel it sending torque to the rear.
14:41 It's quite responsive as well
14:42 when you've got it locked into a gear.
14:44 So look, this isn't a Golf GTI
14:47 but I reckon it's pretty close to being
14:48 kind of like a warm hatch SUV.
14:51 Let's talk road noise.
14:53 We're doing 80 kilometres an hour here
14:55 on a fairly coarse chip road
14:57 and it is a little bit noisy inside the cabin.
15:00 I think a lot of that has to do
15:01 with those lower profile tyres
15:04 and perhaps this platform
15:05 just allowing a little bit too much road noise in.
15:08 Look, it's not terrible
15:09 but it is noticeable as the speed picks up.
15:11 Let's talk visibility.
15:12 At the front, it's very easy to see.
15:15 You've got this big window here
15:16 and you can clearly see front corners of the car.
15:19 The wing mirror is good.
15:19 Visibility out the rear isn't fantastic.
15:22 It's a very narrow envelope.
15:23 So if you've got your mates sitting in that second row,
15:26 it's gonna be a little tricky to see past their heads
15:28 but for the most part,
15:29 there aren't any major or glaring blind spots in the car.
15:32 Okay, Volkswagen T-Roc.
15:33 It is a great little package.
15:35 If you're the target demographic for this car
15:38 which is probably going to be people younger than me
15:40 or even people older than me that still are very cool.
15:43 Again, very much unlike me.
15:45 I think this could fit the bill.
15:46 The only downsides to it
15:48 are the scratchy surfaces inside the cabin.
15:50 Our understanding is that there could be an update
15:52 to this car coming in a year or two
15:54 that will address some of those things.
15:55 But if you can look beyond that,
15:56 the interior is nicely presented
15:58 and it comes with plenty of features.
15:59 The only other downside though
16:01 is that the extra options that you get with the packages
16:04 can be expensive
16:04 'cause you can't just get individual things.
16:06 You have to get the whole package.
16:07 So keep that in mind when you're shopping
16:09 but with a low starting price
16:11 and a lot of standard equipment outside of the options,
16:14 I don't know, it doesn't really put a foot wrong.
16:16 It's nice and punchy to drive
16:17 and puts a smile on your face
16:18 which is what is important about a car.
16:20 So let me know in the comments below,
16:22 have you ordered one?
16:23 What do you think about it?
16:24 If you're from other parts of the world
16:25 and you've had it around for a little bit longer,
16:27 let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
16:30 If you did enjoy this video,
16:31 I'd love it if you could share it,
16:32 hit the subscribe button
16:33 and also press like and the bell icon
16:36 that's gonna tell you every single time
16:37 we drive something new.
16:39 But until next time, take it easy.

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