Car Review: The VW T-Cross is the chihuahua of the car world

A surprisingly endearing addition to Volkswagen’s usual bland offerings, Sean O’Grady gets on well with a soft-roader that’s neatly styled and fun to drive

It goes very well, with light steering, ideal for urban use, and very good handling, considering the higher centre of gravity (Pictures by VW)

I approached the Volkswagen T-Cross with something approaching venom. Not because it was evil or something, or, despite the dieselgate scandal, because of the badge it happens to wear (and it could after all just as easily be any other VW group product, and thus a Seat, Skoda or Audi, all of which seem to have escaped the reputational damage).

No, I really wanted to despise the T-Cross because it is, first, yet another compact SUV and, second, because I thought it most likely to be the blandest of the lot, what with it being a VW, you see.

Well, I was wrong. The T-Cross doesn’t make me cross. It doesn’t induce anger management issues.

(VW)

In fact, much against my better judgment, and contrary to a naturally grumpy temperament, I ended up liking it very much indeed. Not so much that I’d actually spend my own money on it, obviously. It is not worth the, say, £4,000 premium over the equivalent Polo hatch). So I’m not that soft on this soft-roader, but it really is an endearing little thing. Like a sort of chihuahua dog – a ridiculous concept but you can’t help liking it if you ever meet one in person.

The spec

Volkswagen T-Cross SEL First Edition 1.0   

Price: £23,115 (as tested. Range starts at £18,805) 
Engine capacity: 1.0-litre petrol; 3-cylinder; 7-speed auto
Power output (PS@rpm): 115@5,000-5,500
Top speed (mph): 120​​
0-60mph (seconds): 10.2
Fuel economy (mpg, WLTP): 47.9
CO2 emissions (g/km, NEDC): 115

For a start, it’s quite clever. I liked the way that VW managed to integrate the stop/start mechanism, the automatic gearbox, the cruise control and the traffic jam assist so that they all worked together without any danger of stalling or any lag on take-off. This has been the usual problem when car manufacturers have tried to instal all these advanced technologies in earlier generations of models; each element works well enough on their own, but when they’ve tried to “bolt them together” (ie wrote the software) something goes missing. But not this time, not in a 2019 T-Cross. That’s really very encouraging indeed. Mind you there’s an app out there that can stop a cat flap from opening, remotely, if its “sees” that the cat is carrying in some gruesome bit of prey to dump on the kitchen floor. Imagine if cars were that clever (as the app, not the cat).

(VW)

It goes very well, too, with light steering, ideal for urban use, and very good handling, considering the higher centre of gravity. They’ve done something to the small, 1-litre three-cylinder engine that makes it run like a hybrid, smooth and quiet. That something is, forgive the jargon, “electric boost pressure regulation”, which means that the turbocharger (you must know how they work) has an added, independent electric source of power that can cut in when needed. So the engine, too, is an impressively smart piece of kit too. I can’t say whether it will be long term reliable on the basis of a few days’ acquaintance, though I remain suspicious on the grounds that the petrol-powered unit is still going to be more stressed, other things being equal, than the more traditional four-cylinder and “lazier” 1.6 litre diesel option they’ve just announced.

Given the bad press diesel gets, uncertainty about its future tax treatment and the sometimes exaggerated environmental concerns, it will be interesting to see how the diesel version is to proceed. In smaller cars diesel has been gradually disappearing in recent years, but it makes a much stronger case for use in big heavy SUVs that do high mileages, because fuel bills will be radically cut for such drivers.

The T-Cross is also very neatly styled, if a bit generic. If you took away the badging there’d be little to distinguish it from all the other small SUVs on the market, and of course there’s no proper off-road capability here, because there’s no four-wheel drive option. Just the higher ride height and ground clearance and it is, in truth, not much more than a Polo on stilts – which is to say a very capable small car.

(VW)

The boot I also found unexpectedly large, and it was well able to accommodate some fly-tipping (which was me taking the stuff to the council recycling centre, rather than dumping it in the road).

The infotainment, phone, satnav and other controls are run off the usual big touchscreen at the top of the dash, and it works well, with the integration of car and smartphone becoming ever simpler and faster. With the R-line trim, you get some tasteful chrome dotted around the exterior and better seats inside. Colour packs will add a bit more excitement to an otherwise conservative cabin in trad VW style.

(VW)

People usually buy Volkswagens in a sort of default way, because they cannot be bothered to research the alternatives, consider more unusual brands or, frankly, take much interest in how the thing stops, starts and goes. That is one reason I always find VWs, irrationally, irritating. People buy a Golf because they think it’s better than an Astra or a Focus (not necessarily) and they’re wary of taking on, say, a Dacia or a Kia or a Suzuki because they’re unfamiliar. The Mini and Fiat 500 are too contrived in style and content, the Citroen and Nissan and Toyota too wacky, the Honda too fuddy duddy and so on. And so it goes, a largely uninterested public buying VWs because they can’t be bothered to think of doing anything else. Usually they are missing out on some fun, but in the case of the T-Cross, this time, they’re about right.