Volkswagen T-Cross long-term review: report 5

The car Volkswagen T-Cross 1.0 TSI 115 SE

Run by Alan Taylor-Jones, new cars editor

Why it’s here To see if Volkswagen’s smallest SUV is worth the extra over the Polo on which it's based

Needs to Not feel out of its depth on the motorway, be comfortable on long trips and prove more practical than a hatchback

Mileage 3834 List price £19,995 Target Price £19,421 Price as tested £22,580 Test economy 45.0mpg Official economy 47.1mpg (combined) 

4 March 2020 – Orange Crush

As you might recall from a previous report, I'm not a fan of my Volkswagen T-Cross’s front seats. Due to my diminutive stature, I’ve always found that the edge of the chair digs into the underside of my knees, causing me to slouch. However, my car has the optional sports seats that come as part of the orange design pack, so would the standard seats be any better?

The opportunity arose to try another T-Cross with the same engine and trim as my car, but without a design pack. Comparing the two seats, you could see that my car had bigger bolsters to help hold you in place in bends, and they clearly looked different in the centres. So far, so promising.

But after jumping into the non-design pack T-Cross, it soon became apparent that the seat base was just as long as my car’s and that once again I had to slouch. With that in mind, I was soon looking for distractions.

My attention then turned to the rather dour standard interior. Shorn of the design pack, the colourful inserts on the face of the dashboard, around the gearlever and on the seats are nowhere to be seen, with boring black and a dubious carbonfibre-effect print replacing them. Now, I’m not saying you should listen to me when it comes to style, but there’s no doubt my car’s interior is a warmer and more welcoming place to be. 

In other news, fuel economy seems to have stabilised at around the 45mpg mark. Impressively, this includes lots of urban work when colleagues have borrowed it, plenty of time on the motorway and a fair bit of B-road blasting. It certainly begs the question as to why you’d bother with the far more expensive diesel version of the T-Cross, especially when that engine is considerably gruffer and no more urgent in the real world.

One variant I might have to try is an automatic petrol, though. My T-Cross doesn’t exactly have a terrible gearbox, but it’s notchier than what I’m used to from Volkswagen, and besides, an auto makes a gridlocked M25 far more bearable. 

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