Volkswagen T-Cross 2019 first drive

It’s a strange truth at the moment that making a success of producing small cars actually seems to mean turning them into slightly bigger, taller ones. If a car maker wants profitability out of his global supermini line today, in other words, he’d better have a downsized crossover somewhere within it.

The European market for these high-rise five-doors has doubled in size over the past five years, and is set to double again in the same time frame; and even if you're the biggest car maker in the world, you simply can’t afford to continue to pass on a share of a growing segment like that. And so, having watched as its rivals made all the money, Volkswagen has, in its usual style, carefully considered what its product positioning should be; laser-targeted the juicy middle of the market on price, size and specific role; and then taken its shot.

So enters the new Volkswagen T-Cross. A couple of inches longer and just under six inches taller than a Volkswagen Polo, the T-Cross is still smaller at the kerb than its main crossover-class rivals. VW dubs it ‘an urban SUV’ rather than an off-roader; there’s certainly no four-wheel-drive version.

At launch, you can choose between a pair of 1.0-litre three-cylinder turbo petrol engines, which drive the front wheels through either manual or seven-speed twin-clutch gearboxes. Neither develops more than 113bhp. Our first taste of the car came in the more powerful 1.0 TSI 115 - in SEL trim.

A compact crossover doesn’t get out of the starting blocks, for this tester, if it doesn’t offer discernibly better space and convenience than a regular supermini – and plenty don’t. The T-Cross does.

Its cabin feels wider than many in the class, with good knee and elbow room up front and enough second-row space for six-foot adults to sit comfortably line astern. Boot space isn’t massive: 385 litres is only 10% bigger than in a Volkswagen Polo, but that’s with the standard-fit sliding back seats set aft (it rises to 455 litres otherwise).

The T-Cross’s cabin struggles just a little bit to exude the superior aura of perceived quality you expect from a Volkswagen. It’s one plainly built to a price, and made predominantly of mouldings that are hard to the touch - though they’re generally robust, securely fixed and pleasant enough.

So instead of with material plushness, it’s with the technological ritz of VW’s digital ‘Active Info’ instruments and some impressive infotainment features that the T-Cross seeks to raise itself up on ambient allure. In our SEL-spec test car, the effort was just about successful.