Volkswagen “T-CROSS” with unexpectedly sharp acceleration and turning and the worst air conditioner control panel

The T-Cross is a compact SUV presented by Volkswagen with an easy-to-ride size of 1,785 mm in width and an affordable price of 3.2 million to 3.9 million yen.

It stands out for its high overall performance, including ease of riding that anyone can ride, practicality as an SUV, incredibly sharp acceleration and flat cornering performance.

However, the usability of some parts, such as air conditioner control panels and car navigation systems, is so poor that it cannot be maintained. Let me introduce you to the good and bad points.

About the exterior

It is stylishly put together as a compact SUV.

It’s moderately advanced, moderately cool, and has an appeal that makes you want to buy it for its styling.

about the interior

It has enough quality for a car with a new car price of 3 million to 4 million yen.

It’s a bit disappointing that the resin on the panel is noticeable the moment you open the door, and the seats aren’t electric.

It may not be particularly good, but from where I sat, I could feel that it had a high quality feel.

The leather on the steering wheel is smooth and feels nice to the touch.

However, it doesn’t feel stiff when you squeeze it.

The image above probably doesn’t give you a sense of luxury, but don’t make judgments without actually touching it.

In addition, you can choose such stylish coloring for some grade options.

Worst navigation that is jerky and extremely difficult to use

This car’s navigation is too bad. I wonder if they have any intention of selling it in Japan.

It must have been a long time since Volkswagen started building a sales network in Japan, but it cannot be said that localization has been sufficiently done.

In fact, it’s as inconvenient and unintuitive as Hyundai’s Ioniq 5.

First of all, it’s too crunchy. If you move your finger around, there will be an obvious delay.

No, it’s probably not actually a luxury car in this price range among German cars, but it does serve as a basis for determining that “this car probably isn’t a luxury car over there.”

It’s also inconvenient to set a destination. Normally, a aiming icon would be displayed in the center of the map, but with this car, you have to select either “Start” or “Route” from the menu below that appears when you press and hold an appropriate point. It’s confusing at first glance.

Please watch the video version for detailed operation.

By the way, the navigation system itself is very difficult to understand, and if you are distracted, you will end up passing the point where you want to turn.

It’s a car navigation system, but it doesn’t navigate you, it just draws lines on the roads you should take.

There is an element that displays the navigation in the center of the meter, but the usability of zooming etc. is generally poor.

The worst LCD air conditioner ever. A stain on a level that will remain in the history of automobiles.

This car’s air conditioner control panel is extremely difficult to use.
I’ve never seen anything so cruel.

This is the lowest class of the dozens of cars I’ve ridden.

First of all, it is completely liquid crystal, so it is impossible to operate it blindly.

The air volume and temperature sections are sliders that can be moved freely by simply swiping your finger left or right. This isn’t bad.

There are several points of dissatisfaction, firstly the response of the off button is slightly slow.

It reacts one tempo after you touch it, so you can’t tell if your finger made a mistake by aiming incorrectly or if you pressed it correctly.

I thought I made a mistake and hit it again and again.

In addition, there were frequent malfunctions, such as when the idling stop function was turned off and a finger touched it, automatically turning on the air conditioning.

The idling stop button in the back left is a physical button that doesn’t require a long press, but it’s clearly a left-hand drive layout. I will touch on this next.

It’s a shame that something so bad is placed in such a visible place because the driving feeling is so good.

Combine that with the ease of use of the navigation system, and you might end up hating foreign cars right away.

Although the design has a classy feel to it, it is easily outweighed by the hatred towards the development team due to its poor usability.

The interior-related development team and the drive feel-related development team are likely to be separated, but I would like the interior team to do more driving.

I would like the development driver to make better use of the air conditioning during test drives.

↑The control panel is so terrible that no one can say anything back even if you say something like this.

The car is easy to drive and has a great feel. The design is also good.

It’s a pity because everything else is good. If they could go back to the buttons with a minor change like other sedans, I would give them a big thumbs up.

Obvious use of left-hand drive

As for the stick at the turn signal, it is common to all models except Hyundai, and they use the left-hand drive type on the right side to reduce cost, so I will not stick it in.

The first left-hand drive element is the idling stop button.

It is placed in the back left corner, but it is clearly designed for left-hand drive.

Next is the engine start/stop button.

This is also definitely for left-hand drive.

It’s located on the other side of the shift knob, so it’s very difficult to press, and people who bought a right-hand drive model might feel disrespected every time they start the engine, which could lead to hatred towards Volkswagen.

However, it is important to remember that this is a foreign car that costs around 3 million yen after all, so it is nonsense to complain about cost reduction factors.

However, I must say that I didn’t feel any discomfort in the driving position.

The best shift knob with a variety of operations that will never cause mistakes.

This car’s shift knob is a straight type, but each gear is clearly separated from the other, and the position of the gear you’ve engaged is visible at your fingertips.

There is no risk of making a mistake.

Push down from position D to switch between sports mode and normal mode.

Push it to the right for manual mode. There are actually paddles hidden behind the steering wheel.

It’s not very noticeable, but it’s in a position where you can touch it accurately with your hands, so driving using the paddle shift is fun.

It’s fun and has a wider range of movement than a normal gate type.

Please watch the video version for more details on this.

By the way, it does not have an around view monitor. I also wanted to add this.

However, because of its compact size, it has the magic of being able to pinpoint exactly where you want it with one shot, even if you start parking at random.

I feel like it’s easier to park a smaller car than a physically larger car with plenty of assist equipment.

About hand-pull hand brakes

The hand-type handbrake is now even nostalgic.

It may not seem like a bad thing when you hear this, but it has a fatal weakness in that it is not equipped with a brake hold.

Once you know the convenience of brake hold, just not having it can be the reason why you don’t have it as an option when you are unsure.

It may be unavoidable due to the price range, but I would like to see the addition of electric parking with brake hold.

A wonderful light switch that combines innovation and ease of use.

Light-related switches are concentrated on the right side of the handle.

It has a specification that makes the selected part shine, making it very easy to see and use.

It is a control system that is the ultimate in splendor, a perfect combination of advanced technology and conventional usability.

This light switch and air conditioner control panel were probably made by another person or team.

It can’t be helped that one of them has already been fired, and I hope the other will eventually be promoted to a position in charge of overall interior design.

unique mirror switch

The adjustment knob on a normal mirror has a limited rotation of about 90 degrees, but the adjustment knob on this T-cross can rotate 360 degrees.

The upper half is a normal mirror adjustment, but if you move it diagonally downward and push it in, the mirror will close.

If you bring it to the top half, the mirror will open. It’s a bit quirky.

If you bring it to the bottom right and push it in, it will be the heating wire for the mirror.

Actual driving impression

I don’t think I’ve glossed over some of the features, but the driving feel of this car is amazing.

Let’s take a closer look.

About the engine

This engine has a displacement of only 1 liter. It does have a turbo though.

Due to its habit, it accelerates quickly and is full of torque.

It has impressive torque and acceleration performance.

It accelerates the 1270kg body with 116 horsepower and 200Nm of torque.

116 horsepower may not sound like a lot of speed, but it provides a level of acceleration that can instantly get you out of your current spot.

It’s not as fast as it would be described as “blowing away,” but it’s incredibly fast from its appearance. wonderful.

The engine sound is also relatively sensual among straight-3 engines, and it makes a pleasant sound.

It also has a considerable amount of torque, and the more you step on it, the more the vehicle speed will gradually increase.

Even though it has a turbo, it accelerates with a level of torque that is hard to believe for a 1 liter displacement.

There are almost no SUVs in this class that have this kind of acceleration performance and sufficient economy.

I thought it was great to be able to drive a gasoline car with such specs.

Throttle response that makes it difficult to reach delicate areas

As I wrote earlier, you can switch between “S” mode and normal mode by pushing down from the D range.

However, in the D range, he got off to a slow start and was left behind by those around him.

Once you start driving, the torque will pull you back.

When I put it in “S” mode around town to compensate for the slow start, the acceleration became jerky.

If that one stands up, this one won’t stand up. If this were to happen, I would have liked to have added an eco mode, transferred the current normal mode to eco mode, and set normal mode to a level that would not slow the car down too much.

Engine braking is almost ineffective

By repeatedly downshifting and increasing the rpm, you can apply engine braking when going downhill.

However, no matter how much the rotation speed is increased, the deceleration G does not rise at all.

In situations where there are long steep downhill slopes, the foot brake will likely be used frequently.

Weaknesses in control due to DCT

This T-Cross is equipped with a DCT with extremely fast shifting, allowing you to enjoy agile movement.

However, under certain circumstances, it may behave unnaturally.

Let me write about an example that I encountered.

First of all. The scene where I was slowly moving uphill at such a speed that it was hard to stop or not.

It didn’t move like a torque converter type AT, but it suddenly started moving forward on its own, the rotation speed increased irregularly, and the operation was not stable at times.

Next time you suddenly downshift, the gear change will be delayed by one tempo in response to the paddle input.

This phenomenon also occurs in the R35 GT-R, and is a structural weakness of the DCT.

Suppose you are currently in 4th gear and the odd-numbered gear is on standby in 5th gear, and you pull the paddle to downshift.

In this case, the DCT requires the internal gears to be rearranged from 5th to 3rd speed before shifting.

This causes a delay in shifting. It may not be a big problem, but it tends to happen when you’re running at a slow pace.

Well, unlike the R35, pressing the paddle shift repeatedly when decelerating is not ignored, and there is no unpleasant shift shock.

Brakes that tend to stutter

As usual with European cars, the brakes work hard from the moment you step on them.

There is some play at the beginning, but once the braking force starts to come out, it tends to build up instantly.

Even if you’re used to it, you’ll get stuck if you don’t ride carefully.

It has very good acceleration performance, so even if it has such sharp brakes in the original version, it is acceptable.

It’s easy to get nervous when driving around town though.

Very agile, flat and stable for an SUV with a sporty turning feel

It is difficult to turn at the beginning of a turn, but once you establish a turning position, the car turns flat.

The stabilizer is applied quite strongly, and it maintains an overwhelmingly stable behavior that makes you feel like it’s not rolling.

This flatness when turning is a trade-off with the difficulty of turning at the moment of turn-in, but this makes it difficult to overspeed into corners and gives a sense of security even in a straight line.

I think it’s a setting that kills two birds with one stone.

About ride comfort and damper operation

Although the stroke amount itself is not large, the shock sinks deep into the body.

Speaking of hard, it’s hard, but it’s not uncomfortable at all.

At the same time, it suppresses unstable movements.

In terms of direction, it is similar to the RAV4 and the new Civic, and although the height difference and distance over which the tires move is short, there is no unpleasant impact on the frame.

Even when I suddenly turn the steering wheel, the car follows me without any wobbling and settles into place with a snap. It has that much stability without sacrificing comfort.

It doesn’t mean that the slight sense of height has disappeared, but if it can be made this agile, I don’t think there will be any complaints even if you switch from a sports car.

finally

Although it is held back by some elements such as the air conditioning control panel, navigation, and obvious left-hand drive elements, it is a wonderful machine with maneuverability that is hard to believe for an SUV.

What’s more, it looks stylish. I think the performance for the price and product is on the high side.

(Getting in and out of Shinjuku Subnade is extremely inconvenient and takes a long time, but if you go up the Shuto Expressway from nearby, there is a parking area right there where you can enjoy ice cream.)