The Volkswagen T-Cross has a refined looking and high quality interior and despite the lack of leather seats the fabric upholstery is tasteful in design. Most rivals in the class can't match the premium design of the T-Cross's cabin. The Style grade adds luxury elements such as a touch-sensitive climate control panels while the R-Line brings sporty features in the form of embossed seating and stylish materials.

There are three grades in the T-Cross line-up and as you step up through each more features come as standard.

Coming standard on the Life are LED headlights, black roof rails and power folding mirrors, there’s a leather steering wheel, a digital driver display (which is new too), there’s an 8.0-inch media screen, wireless phone charging, air con, digital radio, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

Stepping up into the Style grade adds 17-inch alloys wheels, matrix LED headlights, chrome-look roof rails, an LED grille strip, proximity unlocking, dual-zone climate control, sat nav, and a larger digital driver display.

The R-line is a new grade and it sits at the top of the line-up and it comes with sporty R-Line exterior styling, there are the 18-inch alloys wheels and dark tinted rear windows. Inside there’s R-line interior styling, drive modes and a Beats sound system.

The T-Cross has a 1.0-litre, three-cylinder turbo-petrol engine making 85kW and 200Nm. A seven-speed dual-clutch automatic changes gears quickly and sends drive to the front wheels.

The Volkswagen T-Cross is a five-seater SUV, with fabric upholstery on all grades in the range. There are sports buckets seats up front while a bench that seats three in the second row is on rails to increase the boot size if needed.

The 0-100km/h time of the T-Cross is about 11 seconds. Top speed is 180km/h.

In theory the T-Cross should have a maximum range of 714km on a full 40-litre tank of petrol.