Volkswagen T-Roc R: 2022 Australian review

The classic hot hatch might be dying out, but the hot SUV is only just getting started. 

In the last 12 months, we’ve bid a reluctant goodbye to cars like the Ford Fiesta ST, Ford Focus ST and Renault Megane RS (due to leave in 2023), many of us lamenting the rise of the over-inflated land yachts that drove them out. 

The good news is these beloved pocket rockets have been supplanted by a new breed of slightly taller siblings like the Hyundai Kona N, Audi SQ2 and, of course, the 2022 Volkswagen T-Roc R I’m reviewing here.

Sort of like the Golf R on stilts, the freshly arrived, hot T-Roc rounds out Volkswagen’s ‘R’ family, which already includes the Golf wagon, the Tiguan and the Touareg. 

In that line-up, the T-Roc exists as the younger, more playful little sister that – as was pointed out by my colleague Kez Casey – speaks a little more to the activewear enthusiasts and inner-city latte-lovers who tend to embrace light SUVs. 

It’s also the cheapest ticket into Volkswagen’s performance party – offering a gutsy 221kW/400Nm 2.0-litre, four-cylinder turbo engine in a city-friendly package for just under $60,000. 

The Volkswagen T-Roc R I’m testing here starts at $59,300 before on-road costs.

There’s an even more affordable special-edition Grid variant, which starts at $54,300 before on-road costs and features the same powertrain, but a reduced standard specification list.

While the regular T-Roc R’s price point undercuts its fellow Volkswagen R family members, it’s pricier than its closest competitor, the Hyundai Kona N, which starts at $49,200 before on-road costs.

Although the Kona N can outpace the T-Roc R in the pricing stakes, that’s where its dominance ends – the VW is 0.6 seconds faster to 100km/h, with more power and torque, and all-wheel-drive capabilities.  

Newcomer the Cupra Formentor VZx offers a similar amount of oomph as the T-Roc R, but is priced slightly higher at $61,990 before on-road costs.

The T-Roc R’s performance prowess also places it in the realm of more premium rivals like the Audi SQ2 ($67,200+) and the BMW X2 M35i ($75,500+). 

My test car was fitted with three of the four options available – the $2000 panoramic sunroof, the $750 Beats sound system, and the $250 Lapiz Blue matte interior highlights pack. 

Buyers can also opt for a black exterior styling package, which adds $1200.

With those options fitted, the car’s as-tested price rose to $62,300 before on-road costs – a sizable increase on the entry-level T-Roc’s $37,250 starting price, but otherwise a fairly palatable amount in the world of performance-focussed SUVs.

The first thing prospective T-Roc shoppers need to know is that although the term ‘SUV’ has come to denote larger cars, the T-Roc R is not, by any stretch of the imagination, a large car. Rather, it’s more like a hatchback on stilts, with an elevated ride height and a touch more interior space.

Still, the front seat feels like it has a serviceable amount of space, with no noticeable encroachments on elbow or headroom. A practical layout makes the most of the space available, with storage solutions perfectly suited to the city driver on the go. 

Narrow door bins will only just accommodate your average water bottle, plus the centre console houses two cupholders, a wireless phone charger, a 12-volt outlet, two USB-C ports and a storage compartment with lid. 

On first look, the nappa leather that adorned the seats of my test car resembled vinyl thanks to an overly shiny embossed pattern on the bolstering, but I was pleasantly surprised to find it felt smooth and buttery.

The seats themselves are also comfortable and accommodating for drivers of all sizes, plus they offer heating, and there’s a heated steering wheel as well. 

The driver’s seat features electric adjustment as standard, while the passenger side must settle for manual adjustment. 

I can’t say I was a huge fan of the blue stitching on the seats, nor the matte blue metallic inserts across the dash and doors – the latter a $250 optional extra that I felt only served to cheapen the overall look of the cabin. 

A more worthwhile extra, however, is the $2000 panoramic sunroof. Calling it ‘panoramic’ is perhaps a stretch, but it certainly allows for plenty of light to enter the cabin and adds to the car’s overall fun factor. The cover provided is also satisfyingly thick and, when closed, it blocks out so much light that you might even forget the sunroof is there. 

I only encountered problems with roominess in the front seat when I was forced to move the passenger seat forward to accommodate my son’s child seat in the back. As a result, my 188cm tall husband simultaneously hit his head and shin getting into the front passenger seat, and had less leg room and less knee room as a result. 

That should indicate how, despite being well laid out and surprisingly accommodating for its footprint, the T-Roc’s interior offers little in the way of versatility, and quickly becomes cramped when having to account for back seat passengers. 

Speaking of the back seat, it’s actually not terrible for a small SUV, but I’ve certainly heard feedback from a few of my taller male friends and colleagues that it feels a bit limiting.

Back seat bandits receive two USB-C ports, some small central air vents, map pockets, narrow door bins, and a drop-down armrest that houses two cupholders and hides a ski slot with access to the boot.

With the driver’s seat in my taller husband’s regular driving position, I had about 2.5cm of distance between my knees and the back of the seat, which was more than adequate.

However, the rear seats feature some slight bolstering that boosts seat comfort but feels like it encroaches on elbow room somewhat.

Headroom, however, is solid thanks to little indents in the roof. 

As for child seats, there’s room for two at most courtesy of ISOFIX points on the two outboard seats, plus three top tether attachments over the back of the seat. 

My son’s Britax Brava child seat was straightforward to install in forward-facing mode, but his little legs were able to reach and kick the seat in front no matter how far forward we moved it, which could prove annoying on longer drives.

The T-Roc R’s boot is nice and wide, but a little short in depth thanks to the shorter wheelbase, so longer items will have to be loaded on their side. There’s also a hard cargo cover that can be removed, plus a temporary spare under the floor and a power tailgate.

Storage space is rated at 392L, with up to 1237L available if you fold the rear seats down in a 60:40 split.

That’s pretty much in line with the rest of the T-Roc’s segment, and it beats the Kona’s boot, which only offers 361L. For reference, the Volkswagen Golf, upon which the T-Roc is based, is not far behind with 374L of boot space on offer.  

The T-Roc R receives a larger 9.2-inch central touchscreen than its non-R counterparts, which receive 8.0-inch units as standard.

Although not overly elaborate, the graphics look modern and fresh, and the layout is clean and simple.

The infotainment system allows for gesture and voice control, but you can stick to swiping through the various menu screens and hitting the predominantly touch-based controls, with some systems accessible via physical buttons on the steering wheel. 

I found I missed having the option of physical shortcut buttons around the screen when swiping through the different options, as I occasionally craved a simple way to go back to the home menu. 

There’s AM and FM radio, DAB digital radio, satellite navigation, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto and Bluetooth connectivity.

A second 10.25-inch colour display sits in front of the driver and provides a speedometer, tachometer, navigation view, audio and phone information, driver assistance systems and driving data. 

In my test car, the standard six-speaker sound system was replaced by the optional $750 Beats premium audio system, which also features six speakers but adds an eight-channel amplifier and subwoofer. Personally, it didn’t wow me enough to make it to my wishlist.

The regular Volkswagen T-Roc range received five stars for safety from ANCAP when it was tested in 2017, but all R variants are expressly excluded from this rating. That effectively means the 2022 Volkswagen T-Roc R is unrated by ANCAP.

Still, it’s worth noting the T-Roc R receives the same safety equipment as its less-potent siblings.

As standard, there are driver and front passenger airbags, driver and front passenger side airbags, and curtain airbags in the front and rear. 

The T-Roc R also receives Volkswagen’s full IQ.Drive suite of driver assistance and safety features, including adaptive cruise control with stop-and-go, side assist with rear traffic alert, driver fatigue detection, front assist with pedestrian monitoring, and lane assist with lane-departure warning. 

It also receives Volkswagen’s Travel Assist system, which offers partially automated driving by keeping the car within its lane and maintaining a safe distance from the vehicle in front (as a function of the the adaptive cruise control system) in highway conditions. 

As mentioned, the T-Roc R offers the same standard safety specification as the regular T-Roc.

Active safety and driver assistance features include adaptive cruise control with stop-and-go, a rear cross-traffic alert, driver fatigue detection, auto hold, lane assist with a lane-departure warning and side assist, AKA blind-spot monitoring. 

The only notable omissions are a head-up display, which isn’t available even as an option, and no speed-limit awareness, whether via GPS or traffic-sign recognition. 

However, the T-Roc R’s parking assist features are a particularly handy addition. There are front and rear parking sensors and a reverse camera,  plus the mirrors automatically swivel to offer a kerb view when parking.

Manoeuvre braking in the front and rear will also help mitigate the risk of a collision in tight parking spaces.

Volkswagen’s park assist will manage all the steering and manoeuvring to get you into a parallel or right-angle carpark, while you control the pedals.

While plenty of similar systems refuse to operate in my narrow one-way street, the T-Roc R happily complied with my request for a parallel park – although lightly bumped the rear wheel into the kerb in the process. 

The T-Roc R is covered by Volkswagen’s five-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty – which is more or less the industry standard. 

Every new Volkswagen also comes with a one-year roadside assist membership, which includes 24-hour roadside assistance, car rental, emergency accommodation and towing. 

Servicing the T-Roc R will cost you $1600 over three years or $2800 over five years if you purchase one of Volkswagen’s pre-paid care plans. That works out to an annual cost of between $530 and $560 depending on which care plan you choose. 

By comparison, Hyundai charges around $335 per annual visit to service its Kona N. 

The Volkswagen T-Roc R will cost from $1675.59 to insure per year based on a comparative quote for a 35-year-old male driver living in Chatswood, NSW. Insurance estimates may vary based on your location, driving history, and personal circumstances.

Although Volkswagen provides a claimed fuel consumption figure of 8.3L/100km on a combined cycle, I focussed more on the urban claim of 9.9L/100km, which felt more pertinent given my week of driving took place entirely in the CBD and surrounds.

It was pretty spot-on, with my real-world consumption clocking in at 10L/100km. 

I had expected the engine to be thirsty, but this was a little higher than I would have hoped for a small SUV, especially because I made a point of persisting with the car’s pesky idle-stop system in an effort to improve economy.

Adding salt to the wound is the fact the T-Roc R’s 55L tank requires 98RON petrol at a minimum; something that’s becoming increasingly harder to justify in a budget-conscious climate. 

As expected, the Volkswagen T-Roc R feels most at home at speed, with its impressive power-to-weight ratio and perfectly balanced handling best enjoyed on a jaunt out of town or along bending rural roads.

Unfortunately for me, my daily life doesn’t involve quite that much excitement and a quick freeway stint is about as exhilarating as it gets.

For those typically mediocre moments where you have to merge, overtake or sprint up to speed on the M1, power in the T-Roc feels like it will never tap out.

The seven-speed dual-clutch transmission kicks up through the gears quickly and enthusiastically, delivering a level of vigour that belies the car’s pint-sized footprint. In Normal or Comfort mode, the word ‘perky’ springs to mind. 

Meanwhile, Sport mode is suitably fun, and Race mode is a nod to hot hatch enthusiasts everywhere – making the most of the car’s punchy performance and agile body with sharp shifting and direct steering.

And although there’s a subtle exhaust note in Normal or Comfort mode, switching to Sport or Race also imbues it with a bit more bass.  

The all-wheel-drive system provides an ever-present sense of reassurance. 

On the flipside, the T-Roc R becomes a little more disgruntled when asked to behave itself around town, tackling crawling traffic, or at pedestrian crossings and red lights. For the majority of my week with the car, those monotonous scenarios were my reality. 

As a result, I stuck mostly to Comfort mode, because I found the ride around town was notably hard and felt springy and particularly jarring over bumps. 

Comfort mode counteracted this sensation to a degree, but I’d hazard a guess most regular SUV shoppers might be taken aback by just how sporty the T-Roc R’s suspension seems to skew. 

I also found the throttle a little touchy at low speeds, occasionally lurching forward with slight input, which meant I approached some manoeuvres in tight streets with trepidation.  

The idle-stop system isn’t an ideal companion for the seven-speed, dual-clutch automatic transmission, counteracting the T-Roc’s punchiness with some grumbling when getting going from a standstill, and the occasional delay in restarting the car. 

However, the car’s compact footprint, well-sized windows and ideal driving position – which sits somewhere between a hatchback and a full-sized SUV – make parking the T-Roc R particularly easy, especially for inner-city dwellers who don’t have the luxury of off-street parking.

It also feels light and nimble, without any of the body roll often associated with SUVs and a sense of agility that gives you confidence, and brings a little smirk to your face. 

On one of my last days with the T-Roc R, I think I discovered what it’s all about and identified the reason someone like me might buy this car over the regular T-Roc as a daily driver.  

I was running late for childcare pick-up, feeling fed up, frustrated and numbed by the monotony of my daily commute. I decided to make the most of my predicament, switching the T-Roc R into Sport mode and taking the back roads.

Swinging the T-Roc around roundabouts, zipping down side streets, punching the pedal after clearing some sedate speed limits, slipping through intersections ahead of the amber light and slinking down tight laneways – it all sparked serious joy.

I pulled up outside my son’s childcare centre and slotted the T-Roc R into a parallel park without hesitating, before effortlessly hopping out of the car and realising my bad mood had all but vanished.

That must be the ‘R thing’ Volkswagen keeps talking about. 

The 2022 Volkswagen T-Roc R is a party on wheels.

Those hunting for a more traditional SUV should probably look elsewhere, as the T-Roc R’s interior dimensions are serviceable, but a tad prohibitive for families or anyone craving more versatility.

The ride is also unabashedly sporty in nature, and could become bothersome on longer family road trips, while the thirsty engine and minimum 98RON requirement could make for some pricey trips to the petrol station. 

Initial pricing and ownership costs aren’t particularly affordable in the grand scheme of small SUVs, but the T-Roc R does make for an attainable entry point into the world of performance motoring. 

Otherwise, the dimensions of the car are perfectly suited to city living, the performance is punchy, enthusiastic and infectious, and the handling can imbue even the most mundane drive with a sense of excitement. 

While it certainly does its best work on more interesting roads with higher speed limits, the T-Roc R can demure itself around town and blend in with the rest of the SUV crowd. 

Just be sure to let it run free on some country roads every once in a while, because this little pocket rocket can’t be tamed (at least, not all the time).