LIVING IN A SHADOW

The Volkswagen T-Cross has always been upstaged by its bigger T-Roc sibling, but can it turn the tables after its recent facelift?

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The small SUV battlefield is incredibly crowded these days, and this is as true within Volkswagen's own model range as it is in the car market as a whole.

While the Touareg luxury SUV and Tiguan family SUV have plenty of space to breathe higher up in the brand's line-up, the T-Cross, T-Roc and Taigo rather tread on each other's toes at the more affordable end of the portfolio.

But why so many fish in such a small pond? Well, to attract as many buyers as possible, Volkswagen has tried to cover off every possible taste.

The Taigo-with a hint of coupé about its roofline - is for those who are willing to sacrifice a bit of practicality for sleeker looks.

Meanwhile, the T-Cross and T-Roc have more traditional SUV styling, but with the former about 100mm shorter and more budget-focused.

The T-Roc has been our pick of the two so far (indeed, it's one of our outright favourite small SUVs), but the T-Cross has just had a timely update. Plus, even if you buy it in a higher trim level, it's still cheaper to buy than the T-Roc. So, can the T-Cross finally outshine its slightly bigger sibling?

DRIVING

Performance, ride, handling, refinement

Our contenders are powered by the same turbocharged 1.0-litre petrol engine and, unsurprisingly, are closely matched in terms of acceleration (even though our test T-Roc was powered by the now discontinued 108bhp version of that engine, rather than the latest one's 113bhp). The lighter T-Cross sprinted from 0-60mph in 11.1sec in our tests (versus 11.2sec for the T-Roc) in very wet conditions. Volkswagen's official 0-62mph figures back this up (10.0sec for the T-Cross and 10.1sec for the T-Roc in 1.0 TSI 115 guise). Neither car struggles to get up to speed on a motorway slip road, and they have plenty of pep when a burst of acceleration is required for overtaking a slower car.