The Dinky New Volkswagen T-Roc Is Here To Give The Nissan Juke A Kicking

Compact on the outside but surprisingly spacious on the inside, the new Volkswagen T-Roc is a little brother to the Tiguan and Touareg SUVs, and it's gunning for the class leaders
The Dinky New Volkswagen T-Roc Is Here To Give The Nissan Juke A Kicking

This is Volkswagen’s trendy baby SUV, called the T-Roc and sold with a two-tone colour finish. It’s the sort of thing VW is hoping will appeal to people like us, if and when we’re looking for our next affordable daily driver fresh out of the showroom.

Built on the same chassis as the likes of the Golf, Polo and Audi A3, the dinky design somehow squeezes 445 litres of boot space behind five seats, potentially making it more practical than it has any right to be.

The Dinky New Volkswagen T-Roc Is Here To Give The Nissan Juke A Kicking

You get a choice of six turbocharged engines for the car, which is named ‘T’ to align with the Tiguan and Touareg, and ‘Roc’ - as in, ‘solid as a.’ There are 1.0-litre, 1.5-litre and 2.0-litre TSI petrols, which should all be good fun, plus an entry-level 1.6 TDI diesel and a whole bunch of 2.0-litre diesels with two- and four-wheel drive, manual and DSG gearboxes and a choice of 148bhp or 187bhp. The petrols match that selection right down to the power outputs.

It’s 4234mm long, making it 252mm shorter than the beefy Tiguan, but it’s wide enough to risk a few parking scrapes in careless hands, at 1819mm excluding mirrors. At launch it’s set to have two trim grades; Style and Sport. Bearing the very specific British consumer vanity in mind, we reckon most people will buy Sport.

The Dinky New Volkswagen T-Roc Is Here To Give The Nissan Juke A Kicking

Sport stretches the limits of marketing speak with ‘Sport Comfort seats’, an oxymoron to beat more or less any we’ve seen lately. It also gets a host of aesthetic goodies like red brake calipers and ambient lighting, while Style offers more choices for customisation and colour. It also has the connectivity package as standard.

All four-wheel drive T-Rocs will get special switchable driving modes; Street and Snow for on-road use, plus Offroad and Offroad individual, the latter of which allows some leeway in the settings for driver preference. It’s possible that the little trier might actually have some off-road talent. The likes of Comfort, Normal, Sport, Eco and Individual are the main modes – but they’re optional on front-driven T-Rocs.

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Comments

Joseph Le Corre

If you kick a Nissan Juke hard enough you can improve the styling.

08/23/2017 - 18:06 |
154 | 4

I think it’s an underrated car aesthetically, it’s different which sets it apart.

08/23/2017 - 19:07 |
20 | 12

Nissan Juke has a unique, dynamic style, this thing doesn’t. VW cars are emotionless.

08/24/2017 - 06:57 |
4 | 8
TurboToddler (Straight-five)

Honestly, I think the Juke looks better, but I love the T-Roc’s blue dashboard accents

08/23/2017 - 18:17 |
10 | 6

Juke had exterior-like accents 7 years ago as well. Nothing new.

08/24/2017 - 06:59 |
0 | 0
675LT_ftw

T(his)-Roc(s)

08/23/2017 - 18:18 |
22 | 6
Alec Winkelmann

So its heavier, equally ugly and has less hp than the juke.

08/23/2017 - 18:41 |
2 | 4
Roadster / Tail Red

Sorry, but I’d take the Juke over this. Because this car is going to be so popular over here in a few years you can see it in every street

08/23/2017 - 18:43 |
8 | 6

Pretty much the story with the Juke here, and I’m glad this happened, cuz Balkan people love VW, so Juke craze will finally stop

08/23/2017 - 19:55 |
4 | 2

Cuz VAG cars everywhere in NL?

08/24/2017 - 04:20 |
2 | 0
Anonymous

I’ve never liked small SUV’s, I find them pretty bland and boring but this one looks really good

08/23/2017 - 19:07 |
6 | 6
Klush

Anyone still remember when SUV’s were created to go offroad?

08/23/2017 - 19:23 |
34 | 2
Rekord 86

In reply to by Klush

A few hundred years ago

08/23/2017 - 19:55 |
8 | 2
Tomislav Celić

In reply to by Klush

Yes

08/23/2017 - 19:56 |
8 | 2
Anonymous

But will there be an r?

08/23/2017 - 19:40 |
2 | 2
Rekord 86

It won’t give the Juke a kicking because VW is too boring

08/23/2017 - 19:55 |
2 | 4

I agree with you. Seems like they just stuck a white roof on it to make it seem hip, but forgot about the rest of the car. I think it looks handsome, and way better looking than the juke (though that’s not hard to do imo), but it just looks like another small suv. They could have done way better.
The inside though is really nice.

08/23/2017 - 20:11 |
2 | 2
Splash

Yay! Another identikit SUV!

08/23/2017 - 20:41 |
0 | 0