Precursor to a properly-hot Roc?
While Volkswagen’s new T-Roc compact SUV is still fresh in our minds, the German carmaker has decided to expand the lineup of the crossover-newbie by adding a sharper-styled, road-focused variant to the mix. While there’s no doubt that the T-Roc is a road-biased crossover anyway, the new R-Line variant serves to underline its ability on the road, where it’ll spend most of its life.
Where the rest of the T-Roc range sees the employ of grey body cladding throughout the vehicle to make it look more off-road ready, the R-Line exterior revisions see most of it (sans the wheel-arch liners) finished in the same shade as the exterior, which marks this out as the style-focused variant in case you missed the R-Line badges on the front and rear. There’s also a variant-specific rear diffuser element on the rear bumper, while the whole car benefits from body-coloured trim and smoked taillights, with the car riding on either 18- or 19-inch alloy wheels.
Revisions to the interior are less obvious, with a leather-wrapped sports steering wheel and dual-tone cloth/microfibre upholstery with leather accents being the most obvious changes. A dark roofline trim, R-Line carpets, stainless-steel pedals and R-Line door sill plates round off the additions to the cabin, though we’d argue that they changes are plenty and more than enough to mark out the R-Line model against its lesser siblings.
In addition to introducing the T-Roc R-Line, Volkswagen also took the time to officially detail the engine range that will go into the new crossover, confirming earlier speculation from some publications. Petrol and diesel mills will be offered, with the former coming in 1.0-litre TSI (85kW/200Nm), 1.5-litre TSI (110kW/250Nm), and 2.0-litre TSI (140kW/320Nm) guises, while the latter will come in 1.6-litre TDI (85kW/250Nm), 2.0-litre TDI (110kW/340Nm), and uptuned 2.0-litre TDI (140kW/400Nm) guises.
Entry-level cars will get front-wheel drive only, with top-spec cars coming with 4Motion all-wheel drive as standard, leaving mid-range cars with FWD as standard and AWD as an option. It’s the same case with the transmissions, with entry-level and top-end cars coming standard with a six-speed manual and seven-speed DSG automatic respectively, with middling cars offered with either of the two.
Though it has been confirmed for Australia, the Volkswagen T-Roc isn’t expected to show up until 2019, with some pundits suggesting a 2018 debut could be possible (if they moved heaven and earth, given the strong demand they’re dealing with from left-hand drive markets). By then, it’s possible we may see a hotter T-Roc R on the range, though time will tell on that front.
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