Volkswagen T-Cross review - Practicality, comfort and boot space
Cubby-filled, spacious cabin made even more versatile thanks to a sliding rear bench seat
When it comes to practicality, the T-Cross is competitive within its class. Available in just the one five-door compact crossover bodystyle, the car’s boxy dimensions and high roof translate into plenty of cabin space.
It scores big points for versatility, too, thanks in no small part to the sliding rear seat bench that’s standard across the range. Up front it’s just as impressive, thanks to a comfortable driving position with enough adjustment to cater for drivers of all shapes and sizes.
In addition to the roomy boot, there’s plenty of space to keep items up front. A rubberised tray on top of the dash is ideal for small, lightweight items, while the huge cubby ahead of the gear lever has space for big smartphones and USB cables. The door bins are deep and wide enough to hold a large bottle of water, and there’s a further storage space beneath the centre armrest. Passengers in the back can make use of similarly generous door bins and a pair of USB ports.
Size
The Volkswagen T-Cross measures 4,235mm long, 1,799mm wide (including its door mirrors) and 1,584mm tall, so it’s a similar size to its VW Group siblings. The T-Cross is 54mm longer than the Polo supermini which sits on the same platform, but that’s still comfortably shorter than a Golf, so it’s an ideal size for city driving.
Legroom, headroom & passenger space
Up front, the T-Cross feels very spacious. Headroom is generous, and the seat offers a wide range of adjustment (the height, in particular, can be varied by a huge amount.)
Headroom is equally good for back-seat passengers, while there’s more than enough foot space beneath the front seats. Legroom depends entirely on the positions of the sliding rear bench: in its rearmost position, the T-Cross is among the most spacious in its class. However, slide the bench forward its full 150mm travel to maximise luggage capacity, and any driver of average height or more will leave no legroom whatsoever for people behind.
The T-Cross comes with Isofix mounting points both in the outer two rear seats and the front passenger seat.
Boot
The sliding rear bench allows you to prioritise either boot space and rear legroom. Even with that in its most rearward position, the 385-litre volume is more than you get from a Volkswagen Golf, and sliding the seat forward all the way opens up the volume to 455 litres. This does, however, leave a huge gap, which smaller items could fall into.
The T-Cross comes with an adjustable boot floor as standard. In its raised position, there’s no load lip to lift items over, and should you need to, and there's space to store the parcel shelf beneath it.
The rear seat bench splits 60:40, and leaves a completely flat load area. This expands the total storage area to 1,281 litres, which is six litres more than you get in a Renault Captur.
