Crossing the Ts

Volkswagen’s smallest SUV offers impressive interior space and a big-car driving experience

- Chris Pickering

Once upon a time, the SUV market was all about big brawny vehicles built –ostensibly, at least – to conquer deserts and drive up mountains. Things, however, have moved on, as demonstrated by the new Volkswagen T-Cross.

This compact SUV shares its underpinnings with the Volkswagen Polo supermini and it sits just a few inches longer. It’s also exclusively front-wheel drive, which means it has about the same level of off-road ability. For most owners this won’t be a problem, but it does beg the question: why would you buy one? We headed to the urban jungle to find out.

UNDER THE BONNET

The T-Cross range begins with a 95PS 1-litre petrol engine coupled to a 5-speed manual gearbox. There’s also a 115PS derivative of the same engine and a 110PS 1.6-litre diesel, both of which are available in either manual or DSG automatic form.