Pump up the Volume
VOLKSWAGEN T-ROC R
The SUV that satisfies R urges
THE CAR MARKET OVER THE LAST couple of decades has been, shall we say, “sector fluid”. With all the platform sharing and niche filling that’s been going on, the product range of every German manufacturer has become as bewildering as a giant chocolate selection box — one offering every conceivable flavour, fused and blended together. Like this car, the new Volkswagen T-Roc R: if it were a chocolate, it would be a strawberry crème bon-bon with a praline filling, coated with chilli chocolate and topped with a jellied banana. As a car, you might describe it as a “Junior 4x4 Suburban Crossover Sports Activity Coupé Hot Hatch”.
Or, to put it another way, it’s the new Golf R SUV.
The T-Roc R is just as well resolved as the Golf R, always ready to catapult you from bends
And this is seriously big news. The Golf R is one of our favourite cars: punchy 300-hp performance, all-wheel-drive security, and brilliant handling. Plus compact SUVs are the hottest ticket in the car universe right now — from the Nissan Qashqai through to the Audi Q3, they’re every manufacturer’s bread and butter. So the R version of Volkswagen’s junior crossover should be the most zeitgeisty car on sale today, right? Perhaps. But we also want to know if it’s any good.
First, let’s briefly recap. The T-Roc was launched back in 2017, based on the same MQB platform as its Golf sibling. It’s slightly shorter and wider than Volkswagen’s ubiquitous family hatch, but, importantly, it’s also 81 millimetres taller, with a more upright driving position to give drivers that much-sought-after jacked-up view over the bonnet. Even if we’re only talking about a few millimetres here, the sales charts tell us it’s what customers want.
And now, just as the Mk7.5 Golf is replaced and the current Golf R dies along with it, the T-Roc gets the “R” treatment. That means the same 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol engine, the same seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox, and, yes, the same 4Motion all-wheel-drive system as in the outgoing Golf R. The top-of-the-range T now puts out a frisky 300 hp and 400 Nm of torque; to signify that intent, it also gets mildly re-designed front and rear bumpers, new side sills, wheel-arch extensions, and a little roof spoiler. Plus there are 19-inch wheels as standard, and “R” sports suspension — which, rather ridiculously, lowers the car back down to round about Golf height, thus losing that much-sought-after jacked-up view over the bonnet I was talking about earlier. Yes, I know — compact SUV crossovers make no sense.
Even crazier is the price: while the Golf R cost just over £36k (Rs 33.12 lakh), the new T-Roc R costs £38,450 (Rs 35.37 lakh). This example, with
