Okay, so this new T-Roc Cabriolet might fill a gap in the market, but is Volkswagen trying to fill a gap that simply doesn’t exist? Now, I might be wrong (and often am), but I have never heard anyone say, “if only there was a new smaller SUV/crossover with a convertible roof that I could buy”.
Volkswagen clearly believes that such a market exists, the Wolfsburg maker stating ‘the T-Roc Cabriolet offers just the right combination of strikingly extrovert design, raised seating characteristic of an SUV (like an exposed Edwardian-era ‘London-to-Brighton’ motor car; surely a questionable advantage), a high degree of flexibility and the unique driving experience of a convertible (agreed, though as a high-mounted SUV, not very sporty, as most soft-tops tend to be).’
VW also goes to great lengths to point-out that this new T-Roc Cabriolet follows the Brand’s long tradition of offering convertible models of its ‘regular’ compact mainstream offerings; the Beetle and Golf Cabriolets, for example. This is a fair point, as Volkswagen has always found a ready market for such four-seater rag-tops, but can a high-up, faux off-roader SUV really be considered in the same manner as a ‘regular’ VW Beetle or Golf? Perhaps, and maybe it’s just me, being too old, too much of a purist and too set in my ways to ever believe anyone would chose to buy a convertible SUV – particularly one that looks as aspirational, desirable and stylish as the average domestic appliance.
Although new car sector sales and demands are changing more radically now than they have done for many decades (EVs, posh-marque SUVs, etc.), to date history has not been kind to previous brave attempts at trying to shoehorn a new automobile into a sector that didn’t previously exist.