• Clean, well laid-out cabin
• Lots of useful tech available
• Material quality boosted in 2022

How is the quality and layout?

In many ways, the T-Roc’s dashboard is typical of Volkswagen design. Everything is logically laid out and feels very solid. A few years on from the last update and it still looks modern, with its centre stack infotainment system display that sits proud at the top, and a block of haptic buttons for the climate control.

It’s not quite as user-friendly as the pre-facelift version’s physical buttons and knobs, but it’s an awful lot better than the set-up in some other current VW products. Volkswagen has also dropped the bold colour schemes that were available on older models, leaving only a strip of shiny dashboard trim to brighten the black and grey dominated interior.

Less typical of VW is a selection of rather cheap, hard plastics spread throughout the interior. The facelift added some welcome soft-touch plastics to upper surfaces, however large expanses of the cheap and hard stuff remain in noticeable places, such as the glovebox lid and doors. Still, everything feels extremely robust and like it’s put together with precision.

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Infotainment and tech

All T-Rocs come with a central touchscreen as standard that’s familiar from elsewhere in the VW range. How feature-rich the system is depends on which trim you go for, but they all come with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity, DAB radio and Bluetooth. The graphics look a bit last-gen now, but it’s relatively easy to learn your way around the menus and settings, and the screen responds promptly. 

In front of the driver, there’s an eight-inch digital instrument display. Again, its sophistication depends on trim level but it provides all sorts of useful information available, you can make audio and phone selections, and view full-screen satnav maps.

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Comfort

• Quiet cabin on the whole
• Supportive seats
• Avoid larger wheels for more comfort

All-in-all, the Volkswagen T-Roc is a perfectly comfortable car to spend time in. We covered nearly 800 miles in a week with it, mostly on motorways, and always got out feeling none the worse. The seats look and feel a bit flat, and could do with better side and lumbar support, but they don’t induce any aches or pains and you don’t feel like you’re going to fall out of them.   

The driver’s seat has a wide range of adjustment, as does the steering wheel, so finding a comfy driving position is easily done. You sit slightly higher than in a conventional hatchback, which gives a good view out. Top-spec models have heated seats, which are always pleasant on cold winter mornings.

In the back, the seats are no less comfortable than those in the front, and passengers have their own air vents plus 12-volt and USB charging sockets.