Why have 120,000 people bought this car?!

why is the Volkswagen t-rock so popular it's a bit like a team building exercise at work you know it's trying to be all fun and cool but it's actually a little bit dull but despite that since this car first went on sale 6 years ago Volkswagen has sold 112,000 of them in the UK despite being quite old now last year alone 24,000 were sold by comparison Volkswagen only sold 28,000 golfs in the UK so let's find out why I'm Matt Watson and you're watching carwow to put the T-Rox popularity into context in 2023 Volkswagen sold more of these cars than Paul star Genesis benley Alfa Romeo Jeep and Subaru sold across entire model lineups combined it's crazy now part of the reason for the appeal is this the Volkswagen badge despite diesel gate it's still got plenty of appeal also also the t-rock is just the right size for Mass Appeal so it's a small family hatchback that's lifted slightly so it gives it an off-road SUV type look plus you have quite a solid sound to it oh yeah yeah even the back door back doors normally sound a bit tiny but this one still solid that matters also parts of the car look quite good you know the Bold creases spoiler the contrasting roof the roof bars I'm not so sure about these stickery bits here and this car has quad tail pipes which are completely fake as I'll reveal here with the car W sticker truth I mean that's just embarrassing the real exhaust is hidden there somewhere but forget about that I can see why some people might like the look at this car reason to this car actually handles really really nicely yes it's based on a golf and it's jacked up slightly so doesn't drive quite as well as a golf because it's got a higher center of gravity and to compensate for that Volkswagen has had to fit slightly stiffer suspension and this particular car has the rline sport suspension on it so it's stiffer than standard which I wouldn't recommend cuz it does affect the ride quality but what I would definitely recommend is the Adaptive chassis control which this car has so what I've done is actually set it up in individual mode where I have the Adaptive chassis in Comfort with everything else in sport and it handles well you know I've been used to driving lots of electric cars and they're just a bit heavy and unwieldy whereas this feels quite light I mean it weighs into 1 4 tons which is decent as a result it's just Nic and responsive it goes exactly where you think it should do it grips well it doesn't feel overwhelmed by weight the controls are just natural feeling the brakes seem strong enough they're not overly grabby there's no regen braking to confuse matters it is a nice little car to drive and you can drive it quite spiritedly without it getting out of shape and when you are in the mood having some fun put the gearbox into automatic mode because it's just a little bit more responsive then more on that in a bit but I have to say the way this car handles just makes me a little bit sorry that cars are getting heavier as they move from internal combustion engines to electric power it's all down to weight people need to figure out how to make battery powered cars just lighter anyhow back to the t- Rock handles pretty blooming well really considering what it is the third reason that the t-rock is so popular is because it sits about 10 cm higher from the ground than the golf this means it's easier to just drop down into it or clim out of it regardless of whether you're 8 or 80 and actually the taller body means that it just feels more spacious back in here than in a traditional hatchback like the golf head rooms good knee rooms decent there plenty of foot space and you can stretch out underneath the seat in front it's reasonbly practical too so the door bins are a decent size you have some pockets on the seat backs there's some cup holders there and through loading if you want to go shopping I ik here get some flat packed Furniture also look you got isix anchor points that are very easy to get to and there is enough space back here for even a bulky rear-facing charge seat overall this is quite a good compact sized car for families reason for the T-Rox compact dimensions and good visibility make it dead easy to drive in town it's just over 4 M long which is good you sit ever slightly higher than in a golf so you get bit better view forward and yeah the back's good side windows mirrors that's all good also the Turning circle is good so I'm going to illustrate that now but we seem to have a bit of chaos however look watch this this is going to annoy this person but I'll show you that we can all fit through this Gap see it's compact enough and you get good visibility so you can do that kind of thing now the Turning circle is 10.9 M which is only really bettered in this category by Ford puma and if you click on the pop out Banner in the top right hand corner of the screen or follow the QR code you can watch my inp video review of that car but let's see if we can get around here it's really difficult with these cars parked here I'm not convinced it's going to happen but there's hardly any cars that would do a U-turn in here I've kind of like destroyed my own point but I can see what's going on and having the little reversing camera does help me but I don't have to reverse that much to be able to get round and we through I mean that was quite a tight space so that's good you can see why they're so popular with people that just want to do the school run and so on and so forth thank you very much everyone's nice around here aren't they now I'm going to show you another thing you see I am rubbish at parking cars going to admit it not great but it's quite easy in the t-rock let's give it a go don't enough for me here we go that's quite narrow let's get it into this space it says it's quite narrow everyone watching is going mate you can park a bus in there and there we go simples you got the kit to help you you got the visibility you need you got the maneuverability and light steering and the compact Dimensions perfect for Town work finally then reason five why the t-rock is so popular is because you get lots of equipment as standard so even the entry level car gets digital climate control shouldn't moan about the fact that you get an 8in touchcreen as standard this is a slightly larger one because this is a higher spec vehicle but the entry level saav system is pretty decent and anyway you're going to use Apple carplay and Android auto which are standard speaking of which you've got two USBS here and there's two USB C's there in the back as well you also get a digital drivers display as standard and a multi-function steering wheel to control some of the views on there all t-x get front and rear parking sensors though if you want the reversing camera which is kind of C the way it pops out from underneath the VW badge so that it's kept clean that's an extra 375 which I would probably pay for what you don't have to pay extra for is some extended Storage Solutions so on top of the usual glove box which is actually a decent size on this car cup holders and cubby spaces and door bins you also get look a drawer underneath the driver's seat and it's actually a decent size I got they can of can't actually to the brand of drink there otherwise that would be product placement you also get an adjustable boot floor that comes a standard they don't charge you any extra for that however while that's well and good there are five reasons not to buy a t-rock going talk you through those now and at the end of the video show you two alternatives to this car which you may prefer buying a new or used car then you need to visit carwow and we'll help you find your perfect car at a price you love just answer a few simple questions about the car you want and our trusted dealers will come back to you with great offers then choose the offer that's right for you and contact the dealer directly through carwow no haggling no fees and on average car users save over £1,800 but what if you're not sure which car you actually want no problem just watch our insightful video reviews read our impartial expert advice or use our helpful car buying tools to discover your ideal car in no time at all no wonder 95% of customer surveyed said they wouldn't buy a car without car wow I've put a link in the description of this video and the pin comment to take you directly to carwa so you can see for yourself how it can help you or you can just click on the pop out Banner that should be appearing up there right now alternatively just Google help me carw and my team and I will help you choose your perfect car and get it for a price your love now on with the video the first reason not to buy a Volkswagen t- rock is the price so the entry level car starts at £28,000 which is all right but still quite expensive this one here which has the mids speec 1.5 L 4-cylinder turbo petrol mated to the automatic gearbox front wheeel drive in top specification rline 36,000 starting now if you want it with a 2 L engine for more power 200 horsepower then it's going to cost you £39,000 though that car does come with all-wheel drive and if you want the very top of the Range model the r that's $445,000 however you know I said this was £36,000 it's not actually because it's got some options fitted this one here is £41,000 and here's why wiress charging £300 keyless entry that's £400 o detachable toeb bar £ 765 and space sa spare wheel £300 King's red metallic paint with contrasting black roof £ 1,390 black trim instead of crown round here and black wheels £700 Dynamic chassis control with adaptive suspension with three modes Comfort normal and Sport £150 and the reversing camera is £375 though both of those options I would definitely tick that means the total cost of all the options on this car is £ 5,280 which takes the total cost of this very car here to 41,4 180 that's too much for a t- rock I'm sorry but it is that's why you need to go to car W look cuz you can save an average of 2,150 off one through carwow in fact you know what I'm going to do I'm going to go onto the car configurator configure my ideal Volkswagen t-rock my perfect engine trim combination and the options that I would fit and if you want to see what that car is and exactly how much you can save on it through carwow just click on the pop out Banner appearing in the top right hand corner of the screen or follow the QR code now using your phone let's move on reason two the performance now this 1.5 L turbocharged petrol engine has 150 horsepower which is fairly respectable and on paper the N 60 time with this 7speed dual clutch automatic gearbox is 8.3 seconds now there's no launch control but I got in sports mode and I've turned the traction off so so that it doesn't kill the power if I spin up my front wheels which it will probably do now I'm going to launch it to see how close I can get to that time use my specialist timing gear here an auto hold I'm just going to flor the throttle bit of wheel spin what we going to do 8.5 that is okay bit of wheel spin obviously we had the stop start off so it had to start the engine as I came to accelerate which isn't ideal but probably didn't make any difference but 8.5 with a bit of wheel spin on an ungr surface that's not bad thing is though that isn't the issue with this car the problem with the performance is when you're just driving around normally and it's because the gearbox and the engine I don't think are the best bed fellows now to illustrate this I'm going to come out of sports mode go into normal mode go to normal Auto the gearbox and if I can put the traction control on there we go so when you're just driving along it's all quite Cruiser you don't really notice the automatic gearbox changing gears much but if you need a sudden burst of acceleration there's a bit of a delay and then finally the engine the gearbox work it out and it starts pulling but you do get quite a bit of a racket from that engine as it's starting to rev out and there also seems to be a little bit of a dead spot when you first press your foot down so I'm in sixth gear now I'm actually just pushing my foot down I'm flexing it and there's no throttle respon once and it's really quite funny when you come from driving an electric car which is just on it straight away to this being a little bit dead at first and now I'm going to experience a real problem so sometimes you're coming out of a junction like you're looking like and all of a sudden you need a burst of acceleration cuz there's a truck coming you put your foot down nothing nothing nothing no it's scrabbling for grip bit of traction control and finally we're away and that can be a little bit disconcerting in a moment I'm going to do another Junction one that's even dodgier now with the manual version of this car you don't have that issue so much because you can just control it yourself in the auto version there just seems to be this dead spot when you have the engine out of like turbo boost you know it's in the laggy Zone and then the gearbox is trying to figure out what to do and you just end up in no man's land okay so I'm rolling up to the Junction now having a look look look tree in the blind spot need to get going floor it nothing happening oh finally oh bit a wheel spin and oh God just about got away can be a little bit fraud I think it'd be so much better if you just got a manual you can just hold the car in the power band and then take off here's another time when this happens so you're just cruising along and then you suddenly want to overtake maybe you're coming up to a faster bit of Road and you're in sixth gear so one from Top then you floor it so I'm going to floor it in three two one floor now we're taking off and the performance on that first bit in second gear it's not there it's all just noise but no acceleration and it seems to get quicker when you go into third gear and you can then ride the the engine's torque there's definitely this thing look I'm in sth gear Now 50 m now I'm going to floor it there we go pick it up now there's sort of a dead spot just around 2,000 RPM and I'm really laboring the point but this gearbox seems to labor the engine at times it's a bit like making a sprinter run in their slippers rather than their running shoes now before you go on at me saying Matt why don't you just have the car's automatic gearbox in sport mode the reason is you always end up holding too high a gear which isn't relaxing so I'm 50 and it's in fifth put to drive it probably pop into six which is just more fuel efficient and more relaxing that brings me on to another thing you see I think the 2 L diesel version of this car is slightly better you just have more pulling power more torque from that engine and it just works better both of the manual and the automatic gearbox plus you get better economy out of that apparently it'll do 60 mes to the gallon this one's supposed to do 46 m to the gallon though the reality getting 36 m to the gallon still can't complain that is a decent range of engines with this car what there isn't though is any hybrids or electric versions but that doesn't bother me too much anyway if you are getting this particular 1.5 get it with the manual not the auto they don't work well together reason three the interior quality isn't quite as good as in some of its competitors and isn't worthy of a car that costs as much as this very car does here at £41,000 for instance in the golf the door Toops here in the front are soft touch material which is handy because that's where you rest your elbow in this even it's more expensive the top of the door feels cheaper also in the golf you get some felt lining in the door Pockets to stop things rattling around but not here oh dear do you know what I think the interior quality of a Nissan cash kite feels better than this t-rock if you want to see my for in video review of that car just click on the pop out Banner opion in the top right hand corner of the screen or use the QR code appearing now and that brings me on to the boot because the maximum capacity of the Nissan cash Kai boot is 500 L whereas on this it's 450 L it's smaller still if you have a four-wheel drive model because the four-wheel drive system eats into the boot floor however there are some things I like about this boot look you got these little dampers on the strings for the Low cover so when they rattle about they don't make a noise there is this little catch system here which holds up the false floor so you can get underneath there and I do like the fact that when I fold the seats down you will see they do like rather flat however it's pretty blowing and annoying that Volkswagen didn't figure out how to make the load cover fit underneath this false floor it no it's not it's not going in pretty sure it's not it's not it's just it's it's going to go for a fly right don't come back and hit me thought it was going to get its revenge the fifth and final reason not to buy a Volkswagen t-rock is because of a couple of updates that VW have made to it to supposedly make it better but they've actually made it worse for instance rather than traditional twisty knobs for the climate control which are very easy to use you now have these sliders like you have in the ID3 and they're just a little bit more Awkward to operate when you're driving then there's a fact they slightly design the dash and giving you a sort of plunked on entertainment system before it was integrated which just looked better speaking of which you used to be able to get some colorful interior trims to brighten up the cabin but they seem to have gone from the speck list and finally top specification cars get this new multi-function steering wheel with touch sensitive buttons with haptic feedback but you're never sure whether you press things properly and you think you want to click them but they don't click in the same way as you expect and when you're driving you can accidentally just brush the functions and it changes your menus very frustrating and much preferred the old steering wheel or the steering wheel you get in the cars lower down the range so much for progress with all that in mind what's my final verdict on the Volkswagen t-rock should you avoid it consider it short list it or just go right ahead and buy it well I reckon you should short list the t-rock it really is a good all around family car and no wonder it's so popular however if you'd like to consider some other cars I've put a couple of videos there for you go check them out thanks for watching

Channel: carwow

Views: 1,073,072

Keywords: carwow, mat watson, car review, new car review, car review 2024, new car 2024, t-roc, vw t-roc, volkswagen, volkswagen t-roc, vw t-roc review, volkswagen t-roc review, volkswagen t-roc review 2024, vw t-roc review 2024, t-roc review, t-roc review 2024, best crossover suv, crossover suv, best small suv, small suv, small suv review, best small suv review, t-roc competitor, best volkswagen suv, volkswagen suv, vw suv

Id: VdO2jX94YtE

Length: 18min 31sec (1111 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 12 2024