There aren’t many better feelings in the world than being vindicated in your lonely allegations. After a solid decade of berating DSG / DCT gearboxes, this little VW T-Cross finally angered my entire team with its retarded box of cogs…
Before everyone (and VWSA) lynches me, I have to quickly jump to its defence by stating that the vast majority of dual-clutch automated manual transmissions have become fairly usable, with only minor irritations like stop-start clutch response and jerky reverse uphill parking antics.
Another saving grace for this little Volkswagen crossover was its replacement from the press fleet: a new 3L V6 TDi Touareg whose DSG was infinitely nimbler than the dumb unit we experienced in a 2018 Touareg V6 TDi. Conclusion: they all have a baseline hesitation, but some individual cars can be absolutely infuriating.
I’m afraid that this grey crossover was probably worse than the blue Touareg from a few years ago, most certainly because it had less than half the engine or power to play with. My first few kilometres behind the wheel of this press vehicle were peppered with my usual ranting monologue, but then things got much worse…
At one of our famously debated Somerset West circles, I saw a gap in fast-moving traffic and swiftly pushed down to about half the available throttle position. Nothing. Upon completely flooring the device, this car transitioned from its walking-pace crawl to a bout of front wheel spin and a botched short-shift to second gear.
In what I now hope and pray was a vehicle-specific error, I was appalled to see that this car with its dinky 85kW engine would always attempt to pull away in second gear, blip third for a second, jump to fourth and desperately wait to engage the fifth or sixth ratio of its wretched seven-speed power transfer device.
This means that it would engage fourth gear by the time I passed my neighbour’s regular-sized house (please read that again, as often as you have to) and while cruising in town at 50 to 60km/h, the poor 999cc motor would be bumbling along at just over idle. To add insult to my injury, its negligible 200Nm of torque only arrive at an alarmingly high 2,000rpm.
Translation: this Volkswagen T-Cross 1.0 TSi will doddle along at the lowest possible rpm’s it can survive on, and then respond to a boot of full throttle with a life-threatening three seconds of hesitation. Do you think I’m exaggerating? My fellow pilots both returned from their maiden voyages with snow white faces uttering a colourful mix of four-letter words.
That’s how terrible the gearbox in this car is; or hopefully, was. I sincerely hope that for VW’s part – and any future buyer – that our press vehicle was out of sync, in desperate need of a service or update, or perhaps somehow damaged? Typing of which, before you purchase any vehicle with a DSG, I implore you to mention those three letters to a workshop manager…
To give the poor car itself some airtime, the T-Cross is still one of the cheekiest and chunkiest compact crossovers in our midst. That oversized rear light bar took me a while to get used to but I’ve since realised that it’s a bold and stylish feature of this well-proportioned city SUV. It just looks good.
I even became extremely fond of its first-generation teal metallic colour, colloquially dubbed “Checkers Trolley Metallic”. Sadly, that colour has been discontinued, and between the obligatory white, silver, black and this grey, you’ll now find a cheerful sky blue metallic and solid bright yellow. I’ll eat my hat if they sell more than a handful of each though…
Inside you’ll be greeted by the standard sombre German design and materials, but everything is sensibly placed and feels durable or comfy. I especially enjoyed the family-friendly fabric seats, also because they offer more warmth in winter and less residual surface heat in summer. Because, most obviously, your only interior colour choice is black.
I really don’t want to get into the driving part of this vehicle because I genuinely think that there was something faulty on this unit, a finding which was confirmed by every single driver in our team. By day two, we had quickly figured out that the only cohesive way of piloting this craft was to use the manual override feature of the gearbox. At all times.
A few key features I want to mention are the fairly basic but intuitive infotainment screen with physical volume knob, detailed vehicle information and smartphone connectivity. Someone applauded the manual air conditioning system while another praised the spongy front seats, handsome steering wheel and great driving position.
I should also mention that – quite sadly – the entire T-Cross range is only available with this infuriating drive train: 1L turbo-petrol 3-cylinder and 7-speed DCT driving the front wheels. We don’t get larger engines or manual gearboxes anymore, but at least there are three spec levels to choose from.
All T-Crosses also have a 40L fuel tank, making the claimed average fuel consumption of 5.6L/100km extend your stops between fill-ups. The boot holds 385 to 1,280L of cargo, you get most of the basic safety and comfort features, the turning radius is just 10.6m and the 17-inch wheels (with premium 205/55 Pirelli rubber) added to this car’s pretty pliant ride comfort.
In summary, I strongly suspect that we tested a defective unit and hence advise anyone who’s interested in this great little Volkswagen to grab one for an extended test drive. Be sure to check the initial pull-away and post-cruise kickdown abilities which hopefully will be less frightening than the ones we experienced.