LIVING IN A SHADOW

The Volkswagen T-Cross has always been upstaged by its bigger T-Roc sibling, but can it turn the tables after its recent facelift?

The small SUV battlefield is incredibly crowded these days, and this is as true within Volkswagen's own model range as it is in the car market as a whole.

While the Touareg luxury SUV and Tiguan family SUV have plenty of space to breathe higher up in the brand's line-up, the T-Cross, T-Roc and Taigo rather tread on each other's toes at the more affordable end of the portfolio.

But why so many fish in such a small pond? Well, to attract as many buyers as possible, Volkswagen has tried to cover off every possible taste.

The Taigo-with a hint of coupé about its roofline - is for those who are willing to sacrifice a bit of practicality for sleeker looks.

Meanwhile, the T-Cross and T-Roc have more traditional SUV styling, but with the former about 100mm shorter and more budget-focused.

The T-Roc has been our pick of the two so far (indeed, it's one of our outright favourite small SUVs), but the T-Cross has just had a timely update. Plus, even if you buy it in a higher trim level, it's still cheaper to buy than the T-Roc. So, can the T-Cross finally outshine its slightly bigger sibling?

DRIVING

Performance, ride, handling, refinement

Our contenders are powered by the same turbocharged 1.0-litre petrol engine and, unsurprisingly, are closely matched in terms of acceleration (even though our test T-Roc was powered by the now discontinued 108bhp version of that engine, rather than the latest one's 113bhp). The lighter T-Cross sprinted from 0-60mph in 11.1sec in our tests (versus 11.2sec for the T-Roc) in very wet conditions. Volkswagen's official 0-62mph figures back this up (10.0sec for the T-Cross and 10.1sec for the T-Roc in 1.0 TSI 115 guise). Neither car struggles to get up to speed on a motorway slip road, and they have plenty of pep when a burst of acceleration is required for overtaking a slower car.