Holiday Wheels: The Volkswagen T-Cross

In 2019, Volkswagen added the T-Cross to their line-up and it has since made its way up the ranks becoming their third best-selling model after the Vivo and Polo. The Autodealer team spent some time with the model earlier last year and during the recent holidays to find out what made it so popular.

Style

Considering that the T-Cross is built on the same MQB platform used by the new Polo, the exterior styling more resembles a Tiguan, a design direction I liked.  One of the main benefits the T-Cross has over the Polo is the increased ground clearance which allows for peace of mind gravel road driving. While you can opt for the Trendline base model, the Comfortline test vehicle features 16- inch ‘Belmont’ alloy wheels, fog lights up-front, body colour wing mirrors and black roof rails which adds to the modern package that is the T-Cross.

Comfort

The interior is where the value, even more, becomes evident, featuring a 300-watt, Beats sound system, inductive wireless mobile charging, Apple CarPlay and Android auto to name a few. Once you grab onto the leather multi-function steering wheel you can use buttons on the right to scroll through a variety of helpful information displayed on the digital instrument cluster or to skip tracks. On the left side of the steering wheel are the buttons controlling the cruise control and the audio volume. If the foldable mirrors are not enough to navigate out of a tight parking space the front and rear park distance control and reverse camera displayed on the screen atop the facia will certainly make it easier.

Although the dashboard and door panels mostly featured hard plastic surfaces, it is finished in textures that looks and feels stylish while durable. Considering that the T-Cross competes in the cross-over segment, the luggage volume is competitive although does not increase to the volumes seen in similarly priced competitors such as the Renault Captur and Suzuki Vitara when the rear seats are folded down.

Power

Initially, I feared that the 1.0-litre turbocharged petrol motor won’t be enough to power the T-Cross but found myself pleasantly surprised by the 85 kW and 200 N.m of torque sent through the 7-speed DSG transmission, even more so in the sport mode.  As the self-proclaimed captain consumption in the Autodealer team, the real party trick I enjoyed on the little Volkswagen was the “Think Blue. Trainer”. Taking into consideration every aspect of your driving style, the system calculates your efficiency and rewards you with a score.

This gave me, the VWSA public relations officer and a few other motoring journalists a challenge, whereby each time we set off with the T-Cross, we would share our score and more importantly our average fuel consumption. While I noticed a few submissions with much higher scores, I am glad to have achieved the lowest fuel consumption averaging a combined 3.5L/100km. I will admit that the driving style involved to achieve this figure is, well, not natural and that everyday use will more likely return a figure closer to 5.0L/100km.

Verdict

In the end, the T-Cross left me and my colleagues impressed with the value for money proposition from the German manufacturer. In a segment quickly becoming saturated the T-Cross offers style, gadgets and efficiency backed by a much-loved brand, in my opinion, a winning recipe.

Warranty

The T-Cross comes standard with a 3-year/120 000km warranty, a 3-year/45 000km service plan and a 12-year anti-corrosion warranty.

Price

Volkswagen T-Cross 1.0TSI 85kW Comfortline
R 343 300