VW and Audi were both pretty late to the small SUV market, but they made impactful debuts with the T-Roc and Q2. But which of these MQB-based high-riders is the best one to buy?
This next comparison video pits the two stablemates against each other. With the number of such reviews on YouTube blowing up at the moment, it's clear that this segment is worth big money.
With the T-Roc and Q2, you need to hold back all your preconceptions. Rather than competing with cars like the Nissan Juke and Renault Capture, they are more like jacked up versions of the Golf and A2, and they even have the ultra-rare AWD feature.
On the styling front, the T-Roc seems to be the more unconventional. It's the most over-designed Volkswagen in a long time, and many people enjoy that. The Audi Q2 is a little older. But if you look past the boxy appearance, you'll find a nice sharp crease at the top of the doors, a contrasting rear blade and Evoque-like rear end.
At first glance, the comparison heavily favors the interior of the Audi Q2, which is executed in a classier style. Once again, Mat Watson slams the T-Roc for having hard dashboard plastics while even the cheaper Polo takes a squishy approach.
However, while looking online, we realized that because of the higher volume VW practices, you could get a T-Roc far cheaper than the official prices would lead you to believe. By the way, the Q2 stars at €23,900 while the T-Roc list begins at €20,390 in Germany.
For us, the real highlight of this video is the practicality comparison. Both cars are similarly sized, so you can't tell which is better. But apparently, the T-Roc is slightly better at loading a child seat and carrying three people in the back, plus it has 40 liters of extra trunk space. However, the differences are relatively small, and most of that extra cargo capacity is in the pockets, so it's by no means a landslide victory.
Finally, there's the driving dynamics. In both cases, you can have a small 1-liter turbo which is adequate for the job. The range goes all the way up to 2-liter units with 190 HP, which is rare in this segment. Out on the road, Mat notes that the steering feels a little tighter in the Q2. While he wonders if it's a placebo from the sporty yellow paint, we remembered that Audi used the short, responsive rack from the S2 in this car.
Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida. Full profile
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