Volkswagen T-Roc Cabriolet interior, tech and comfort
- The same interior as the standard T-Roc
- Fit and finish excellent, plenty of standard equipment
- A welcome dose of colour
How is the quality and layout?
The proximity of the windscreen to your forehead aside, there’s little to distinguish the front interior of the Cabriolet from the standard car. And that’s a good thing, because it’s a clean and uncluttered cabin with easy to use controls.
The VW T-Roc’s dashboard isn’t exactly exciting to look at. Helping matters along is an optional colour pack, which brings either gold or blue panels to the dashboard, door cards and centre console. It’s a nice touch but we definitely prefer the blue – gold is a little overwhelming.
Fit and finish is up to VW’s usual standards, but the number of cheap-feeling plastics littering the cabin is disappointing. We’re not so bothered about the rock-solid dash top, but the door cards feel particularly nasty.
However, the reassuring number of buttons – including a fully-featured climate control panel – is far superior to all-touchscreen interiors, especially in a convertible where the glare of the sun could easily render a screen useless.
Infotainment and tech
There are only two trim levels – Design, Active and R-Line – and all get an 8.0-inch touchscreen infotainment display as standard. This is up to Volkswagen’s usual high standards; high-resolution, responsive to the touch and impressively easy to navigate, it’s still one of the best factory-fit infotainment solutions out there among mainstream brand, and dare we say far better than the new system you get on 2021 Volkswagens like the Mk8 Golf.
Analogue dials are standard but optionally available is Volkswagen’s Active Info Display – a digital gauge pack which gives the cabin a little extra pizzazz.
Comfort
- Supportive seats
- Suspension deals well with most bumps
- Scuttle shake is present, though
Convertibles often struggle to live up to their boulevard cruiser reputation in terms of comfort, but in this regard the T-Roc Cabriolet is better than average with suspension that ably deals with most bumps.
It does suffer a little with what’s known as ‘scuttle shake’ – vibrations caused by the lack of a rigid roof – but gone are the days where this was bone-shakingly terrible. You’ll only really notice it on particularly pockmarked road surfaces.
Vibration is apparent, though, and it’s worse with the roof down.
The rest of the time it’s easy to relax in the T-Roc Cabriolet, with excellent front seats that keep the front two passengers very cossetted.
Wind buffeting can be kept at a minimum for front-seat passengers – by keeping the windows up and deploying the wind deflector over the rear seats this really can be an all-season cabriolet. Rear passengers will feel much more exposed to the wind, though, and without the deflector in place the breeze will definitely cause a bad hair day.
