Volkswagen T-Cross - Practicality, comfort and boot space

When it comes to practicality, the Volkswagen 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, with a comfortable driving position that has enough adjustment to accommodate drivers of all shapes and sizes.

In addition to plenty of room, there are lots of spaces 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 water bottle, and there is 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 140mm of travel to maximise luggage capacity, and there won’t be any legroom whatsoever for people sitting behind a driver of average height.

The T-Cross comes with ISOFIX mounting points both in the outer two rear seats and the front passenger seat.

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Boot Space

The T-Cross has between 385 and 455 litres of boot space depending on the seat positioning. The sliding rear bench allows you to prioritise either boot capacity or 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. However, this leaves a huge gap between the raised boot floor and the back seats, in which you could end up losing smaller items.

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, there's space to store the parcel shelf beneath it. The boot should be able to swallow a set of golf clubs, although they’ll go more easily in a Ford Puma, which has an innovative ‘Megabox’ system, which is a handy 68-litre tub moulded into the boot floor that you can stand a golf bag up in. It also has a plug at the bottom, making it an ideal place to store muddy boots that you can wash out later.

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.

Towing

The 94bhp 1.0-litre engine has a braked towing capacity of 1,000kg, while the more powerful 113bhp version increases this to 1,100kg, much like the Ford Puma. Opting for the 1.5-litre engine only increases capacity to 1,200kg, which is okay, but somewhat shy of the up to 1,700kg you can pull using a four-wheel drive ‘4Motion equipped VW T-Roc.

VW has increased the weight the tow ball can take from 55kg up to 75kg, allowing you to carry up to three e-bikes on a dedicated bike carrier.