Volkswagen T - Roc

No, it’s not coming to India but what is VW’s very first compact SUV like to drive? And will it give us an idea of the upcoming T-Cross?

- Sirish Chandran

GUESS WHAT, UP UNTIL NOW Volkswagen hasn’t had a compact SUV in its line-up. It’s amazing that the VW Group have held on to the world’s largest auto maker tag (or second largest depending on which way the wind blows in China) despite their largest brand not having what has fast become the world’s most popular body style. And now that VW are finally rolling out dime-a-dozen compact SUVs from dime-a-dozen factories all around the world, it stands to reason that Toyota will have a hard time when the numbers are added up next year. Or will they?

To find out, I spent the morning of the T-Cross’ European launch, driving around Amsterdam in the new T-Roc. Confused? Let me explain. T stands for SUV in Volkswagen speak, linking it to its big brothers the Touareg and Tiguan. The T-Cross that had me jumping on to a plane for Amsterdam is coming to India in two years, albeit sitting on a heavily re-jigged version of the MQB-A0-IN platform, stretched out, blinged-up and cost-optimised to our Indian tastes. The T-Roc you see here sits above the T-Cross in price but below it in size — a compact SUV on the MQB platform that shares rather a lot with the Audi Q2 including its wheelbase. (The Q2 was supposed to come to India but a sensible enough price could not be arrived at for it, scrapping its business case). What we have here then is a stylish, premium, compact SUV that shows the way forward for what we can expect in the India-bound T-Cross, and if the T-Roc is anything to go by, the likes of the Creta et al will not have an easy task come 2020.