2020 Audi Q2 vs Volkswagen T-ROC

What's the difference?

The Q2 is just fun. It's fun to look at, fun to drive, while it might also be a little harsh and not quite as fast as its BMW competition, it's also a relatively compelling premium car value offering. Just be aware that this is a pint-size SUV best enjoyed by singles or couples.

The T-Roc is a bit of a different take on the small SUV formula from Volkswagen. It’s youthful, well specified and smartly packaged, but its tall cost of entry will make it perhaps only for those seeking a truly superior small SUV drive experience.

Time will tell if the smaller, more affordable T-Cross covers all of VW's bases.

Yes! The Q2 is huge fun to look at from every angle. It was one of the first cars in Audi's refreshed range to reflect a new design language, standing apart from its stablemates.

This is evident in its stepped grille design, square light clusters, and neat two-tone roof which extends down the C-pillar at the back (an optional touch, mind you).

Other distinct features include its polygonal beltline which runs down the sides and a neatly squared off rear, which, complete with the little roof spoiler, makes for a dashing, sporty profile.

Controversially, our car also came with a gloss white five-spoke 19-inch wheel with grey inlays and sneaky little Audi Sport logos on them. Perhaps a nod to Audi's rally history.

This little car makes a big statement. It's a lot to take in, but so much more fun than Audi's usual business-first visage.

Inside is interesting. It looked good when it came out, but pre-dates the incredible new Audi interior which resides in the new A1 and Q3. To be fair, it still looks good, but doesn't quite have the wow-factor of its siblings. We suspect some sort of heavy facelift will be in the Q2's near future to address this issue.

While you won't get the new design, touchscreen or materials, the Q2's interior is still a nice place to be, with plenty of high-quality fittings, a sporty flat-bottomed steering wheel, and cool turbine air vents.

It's even packed with Audi's super neat 'Virtual Cockpit' digital dash suite, and all the sleek switchgear from more recent models, so it's not as though you'll be getting an 'old-feeling' car by any means.

Yes, there’s plenty to be stoked about when it comes to this little VW’s design. It’s just a fun little thing to look at. Despite having been on sale since 2017, the T-Roc has loads of styling touches at the forefront of VW design, like its honeycomb grille, LED light design, squared-off rear with little spoiler jutting out, and in the case of our car, massive wheels, which fill those arches.

Contrast black-and-chrome fittings do their best to accentuate this car’s sporty look, while my personal favourite touch was those integrated indicator/DRL fittings in the bumper.

Sure, it’s no Arteon, but I still think I managed to unintentionally sell three or four of them just having people ask me what it was on the street.

I was a little disappointed to find, however, that some of the more fun colour schemes, with contrast roof finishes available overseas, won't be making it to Australia for the time being.

Inside, things are predictably VW in the best possible way with fittings and design points, which blend the finer features of the Tiguan and Golf ranges. The screens, in particular, were bright and high-resolution and add a high-end feel to the whole cabin.

The seats are naturally comfortable in VW’s optional Vienna leather, and almost every surface you touch is soft in some way. Look too deep though, and you’ll notice the entire dash is hard plastics. Gloss finishes – while lovely to look at – will be a nightmare to keep clean for owners, too.

So long as you’re OK with VW design language then, this is among the best-looking and nicely put together small SUVs you can buy.

There's no getting around the fact that the Q2 is a small SUV. Very small. Great for two occupants, a young couple seems to be the ideal target demographic.

To that end, front passengers are treated quite well with the standard array of Volkswagen group sensibilities. These include decently sized bottle holders in the doors, a variable-height centre console box, and a neat cupholder cluster up front with a key-shaped slot in the divider. A pleasing touch.

Space is a bit compact. Definitely on par with a hatchback rather than an SUV, and the panoramic sunroof, which is part of this Edition #2, lowers the roofline.

One major drawback is the lack of a touchscreen. The 8.3-inch screen which is included with our car as part of a pack (see more in the price and spec section) is controlled via dial.

This includes Apple CarPlay, which is a bit of an awkward solution. You'll get used to it, but the brand's newer touchscreen designs are notably better.

The back seat is tight. My knees were almost pressed against the front seat, which was set to my own (182cm tall) driving position.

The roofline is low, too, and the descending C-pillar makes getting in and out harder than it needs to be. The middle seat, due to the presence of a tall transmission tunnel is too tight for a full size adult human.

Unlike its Q3 big brother, amenities for rear passengers are light-on, as well. There are no directional air-vents, just a single 12-volt outlet, pockets on the backs of the seats and small bottle holders in each door.

You get a 355-litre (VDA) boot – surprisingly large all things considered, although still smaller than the BMW X2 (470L) and incoming new-generation Mercedes-Benz GLA (435L).

Given the T-Roc’s tight dimensions, you might be surprised how big its interior is.

Front passengers get an airy space with loads of leg and headroom, and storage galore with large door bins (with integrated bottle-holders) dual bottle holders in the centre console, a variable height centre console box, a glovebox, and a large trench under the climate controls suitable for phones of any size or other tidbits.

There are dual USB outlets and a 12V power outlet for front passengers, but no USB-C.

In the second row I was genuinely taken aback by how much leg and headroom was available, despite a descending roofline and panoramic sunroof. Seat trim matches the front, but middle passengers might suffer with limited room and a large transmission tunnel eating into leg space.

Rear passengers get pockets on the backs of the front seats, a set of adjustable air vents (nice in something this size) and a single 12V power outlet. There is also a drop-down arm-rest with bottle holders, but no USB ports.

Despite a small looking boot, we were also surprised to find the T-Roc actually offers more space than a Golf at 392 litres. This fit our large case on its own or the two small cases, but not all three. There’s still quite a gap between the T-Roc's and the Tiguan's cargo capacity, although an alternative for the space-conscious could be the Polo-based T-Cross, which offers 445 litres in an even smaller form-factor.

Under the boot floor there’s a space-saver spare wheel and the base for the Beats sound system neatly tucked into it.

First things first, there’s some good and bad news for VW fans who have been waiting for the brand’s first small SUV.

The good news? The T-Roc is incredibly well specified despite its age, and, to make things easy, just one variant landing in Australia: the hero 140TSI.

The bad news? At a starting price of $40,490 (before on-roads) it’s the most expensive non-premium SUV in Australia.

But VW has a strategy here. It has brought in this bells-and-whistles small SUV as part of a dual-pronged assault with the Polo-based T-Cross, which is less powerful and less well equipped in base form, but perhaps better in terms of practical value for its small form factor. The brand admits it expects the T-Cross to outsell the T-Roc in the long term, due to this pricing strategy.

Also, the brand has repeatedly stated to CarsGuide that the door isn’t shut on a lesser specified (110TSI) variant of the T-Roc in the future. So, keep an eye out for it if you fall for the T-Roc’s charm.

Where were we? Oh, yes: $40,490. Ouch. Our demo car too was fully specced out with the $5500 worth of options which can be fitted, including the ‘Sound and Style’ pack, which includes 19-inch alloys, adaptive chassis control, and the 300W Beats audio system ($2000), and the Luxury package, which includes the panoramic sunroof, Vienna leather seats, and an electric tailgate ($3500).

Very swish but, honestly, the base car has everything you need. This includes 18-inch alloy wheels, an 8.0-inch multimedia touchscreen with Apple CarPlay, Android Auto and built-in nav, a digital dash cluster, leather seats, leather wheel trim, keyless entry with push-start ignition, an auto-dimming rear vision mirror, full LED front lighting with adaptive high-beams, auto folding wing mirrors, front and rear parking sensors with a reversing camera and park assist, and rain-sensing wipers.

A lot of stuff. The R-Line styling pack (standard on Australian cars), 'Progressive Steering' and the full safety offering (which we’ll get to later), partially justify the tall pricing.

Again, pricey, but that includes all the equipment you could reasonably expect in this segment and more.

Our 40 TFSI has a 2.0-litre turbo-petrol engine which produces 140kW/320Nm. Punchy, about on par with its most direct X2 rival (20i) which puts out 141kW/280Nm from the same sized engine.

The Q2 drives all four wheels via a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission.

The T-Roc’s single 140TSI engine choice has a namesake 140kW of peak power and 320Nm of torque which, as you might imagine, is plenty for a car this size and certainly among the most powerful options in the non-premium small SUV segment.

It’s a four-cylinder turbo engine, mated to a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission, driving all four wheels via VW’s 4MOTION all-wheel drive system. It also offers several off-road drive settings, as its Tiguan sibling does, but we can hardly recommend venturing on anything other than gravel, especially with the 19-inch wheels as fitted to our vehicle.

The 40 TFSI wears a claimed/combined fuel consumption number of 6.5L/100km. Over a week of testing we had a computer-shown 8.1L/100km but an at-the-pump measure of 7.9L/100km on a 104km comparison test loop.

Still, given the amount of fun I was having behind the wheel, under 9.0L/100km is not a bad result.

On the downside, the Q2 requires top shelf 98 RON unleaded petrol to fill its 55L tank.

The T-Roc’s claimed/combined fuel figure is 7.2L/100km against which we scored a weekly figure of 9.4L/100km once you exclude our fuel-intensive video shoot. That’s over by a small margin, but understandable given how much fun it is to drive.

The T-Roc has a 50-litre tank and needs to be filled with at least 95RON premium unleaded petrol.

The Q2 is exactly as fun to drive as it looks from the outside. It's light, springy, athletic, and compelling behind the wheel.

The 40 TFSI 2.0-litre engine is super willing compared to lesser engines in Audi's range, where turbo lag can be a real issue.

It can be a tad sluggish off the mark, where the moment of turbo lag conspires with the start-stop system and dual-clutch auto to make for a jerky start, but it's far better than the 1.4-litre engine in the 35 TFSI.

That said, once you're going, peak torque arrives from 1500 rpm, at which point the lively Q2 is primed to rip through its seven gears with avid enthusiasm. It even sounds good, with a satisfying rasp working its way into the cabin at higher revs.

Handling is stellar for an SUV, too. In fact, the Q2 drives more like a hatchback, even more so than the new Q3 which shares similar characteristics.

Quattro all-wheel drive helps it keep traction, in the corners and off the line, where an enthusiastic prod of the accelerator would otherwise have you spinning wheels.

At no point did this compact SUV feel out of its comfort zone, with little suggestion of understeer when pushed.

Handling is nice, too. Audi's steering calibration is sporty and dynamic, with its lightness at low speed firming up to increase confidence when you're travelling a bit faster.

We used the Q2 as a guest wildcard / camera car on a recent premium SUV comparison test, and all agreed it was the most fun to drive.

The suspension is firm, adding to its sporty allure, but this attribute also combines with the gigantic wheels to make for a harsh and noisy ride on chopped up suburban streets – where this car will spend most of its life.

It's a known cost for having such entertaining handling characteristics, but one which premium buyers should be aware of. This might be an Audi, but it's strongly in the sporty camp, rather than the luxurious one.

Put simply, the T-Roc is now the new standard against which I will measure other non-premium small SUVs.

It’s not just that it has plentiful power from the 2.0-litre turbo engine either, it’s everything: ride, handling, refinement. The T-Roc brings much of the magic from the Golf into a small SUV package.

Comparing quickly to competitors, the CX-30 might have a swish interior, but doesn’t quite have the same urgency or ride quality, while the turbo-charged engine in Hyundai’s Kona can’t quite make up for its lack of cabin ambiance.

Again, that 140TSI engine, with its abundance of power, makes the T-Roc light on its feet, and blisteringly quick in a straight line for an SUV, which is not pitched as a performance variant. Weight and confidence are added through the all-wheel drive system, which keeps the ride height in check through the corners.

Adding to its cornering confidence is the progressive steering. It’s heavier than the ‘regular’ VW steering common across most models. While it’s not as much of a cinch to flick around a U-turn, it has a nice character in the bends.

Noise-wise, the T-Roc is quiet. I found all sorts of built-in noise-reducing features, such as foam stoppers hidden all over the engine bay, and glass, which were so effective I couldn’t hear someone talking to me on the other side of a wound-up window during our video shoot. The main noise, which eventually makes its way into the cabin, is the gruff, satisfying rasp of the engine at higher revs.

Any downsides? My main complaint is the necessity of watching out for the 19-inch wheels on our test car. With so little rubber on the road, the wrong pothole will mean a chip or bulging tyre, and, while the suspension does a phenomenal job of keeping this car stable and planted, corrugated and potholed roads can upset it on these wheels.

One of the option packs listed on our car was adaptive chassis control, so it would be interesting to see what a ‘base’ car without this option fitted (and perhaps with the standard 18-inch wheel) drives like. Stay tuned for future variant reviews.

One of the most impressive parts of the T-Roc’s spec list is active safety, which comes standard and is not part of an option pack as it does on most variants of its larger Tiguan sibling.

VW is now calling its active suite of safety features IQ.DRIVE and this includes auto emergency braking (AEB – detects pedestrians and cyclists), adaptive cruise control, lane-keep assist with lane-departure warning, blind-spot monitoring, rear cross traffic alert, auto high beams, and park assist.

Front and rear parking sensors are standard, as are a high-res reversing camera, six airbags, two ISOFIX child seat mounting points, and three top-tethers across the back seats.

The T-Roc scored a maximum five-star ANCAP safety rating dated back to October 2018 – at the time of writing, this rating applied only to New Zealand T-Roc variants, but VW Australia assures us that the rating will apply to the cars which arrive here, too.

Audi persists with a three-year/unlimited kilometre warranty. This is consistent with its BMW rival, but now Mercedes has significantly upped the premium market game with a five-year/unlimited kilometre warranty, which will cover its incoming GLA.

Perhaps the worst part is VW will cover many of the same components with a five-year warranty on its T-Roc (closely related to the Q2). Worth thinking about.

Audi does thankfully cover the Q2 with an impressive capped price servicing program, provided you bundle it in at the time of purchase.

You can choose it as either a three-year package ($1580) or a five-year plan ($2140). You'll need to return the Q2 to a service location every 12 months or 15,000km.

Just like all its other passenger vehicles, VW covers the T-Roc with a five-year/unlimited kilometre warranty promise. This is now up to date with the industry standard.

Service pricing for the T-Roc was not available at the time of writing, however, we expect it will be offered with the option of pre-paid service bundles in three- or five-year packs. These offer services at a discounted rate and can be bundled in on finance at the time of purchase.

The T-Roc’s service interval is once every 12 months or 15,000km whichever occurs first.