How much space is there?

• Roofline doesn’t affect passenger space too much
• Similar legroom to T-Cross
• Boot capacity good, but not so useful for larger items

The Taigo feels very similar to the T-Cross inside, and despite the sloping roofline that feeling extends to the back seats. For a car this size, there’s plenty of leg- and head-room. A six-foot adult will find themselves comfortable behind a driver or front passenger of a similar size, though there’s not a great deal of space in reserve to stretch out on longer journeys.

It’s quite a narrow car, too, so you won’t comfortably seat three adults across the rear bench nor will an adult be able to sit in between two child seats in the outermost rear seats.

There is an Isofix mount in the front seat, however, which gives you more choice about where your kids sit. However the Taigo does miss out on the useful sliding rear bench that the T-Cross offers.

Boot space and storage

The VW Taigo has a rather impressive boot for a car this size. With 440-litres on offer, it’s just a few litres shy of the larger T-Roc. The space itself is flat and square, and the seats fold down easily to extend it further. What you miss out on is the squarer silhouette of the T-Cross, which means that if you want to load it right up to the roof – or maybe transport something big and square, like furniture or appliances, the sloping rear window will limit you.

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Storage space for smaller items is adequate but nothing more, with a cubby in front of the gear lever, two cupholders and a small armrest cubby in the centre and commodious door bins that’ll easily take a litre bottle of water.

Is it easy to park?

Every Taigo comes with Park Assist, which will automatically park the car in parallel or bay situations. All-round sensors are standard too, but even on the top-spec model a reversing camera is an optional extra which feels distinctly stingy.

Visibility isn’t particularly great, especially over the shoulder where that rear window doesn’t give you a good view low down. For this reason we’d say the reversing camera is almost an essential option.

Safety

• Five-star Euro NCAP for Taigo
• Rating based on T-Cross and Polo
• Lots of standard safety kit

The VW Taigo is a pretty safe small SUV, and when it was tested by Euro NCAP it scored the top five-star rating with a particularly impressive 94 per cent score in the adult occupant protection category.

It features lots of safety equipment as standard, including autonomous emergency braking that works at speeds of up to 130mph – and will detect pedestrians and cyclists as well as other cars. Adaptive cruise control with assisted driving features – bundled under the term ‘Travel Assist’ is also standard, while if you step up to the mid-spec Style model you get VW’s excellent adaptive LED ‘ID Light’ headlights that make night driving a breeze.