Hello fellow BHPians, I want to share my little experience with the Troc. Details are as follows:
So I was looking to buy a car between 20-30L bracket Give and take 5L. Here are the cars I checked out:
1)Troc
2)Creta/seltos 1.4 Turbo DCT
3)Harrier Auto
4)Civic Petrol AT
5)Karoq
6)Superb Sportline
7)Endevour Titanium+ 4x2
8)Compass 2.0 4x4 AT
9)Tucson GLS 4x4
10)Tiguan Allspace
My priorities were as follows:
1)Enough space for a family of 4
2)Quality interiors with premium feeling interiors (material quality, ambience, etc)
3)Fun to drive car with good driving dynamics, refinement & NVH levels (0-100 preferably under 10 seconds)
4)Enough Ground clearance to tackle bad Indian roads (especially Delhi roads in Monsoon)
5)Automatic gearbox (preferably dual clutch, as I’m used to seamless shifts in my Ameo 1.5 TDI DSG)
I test drove all the above mentioned cars and Here I’m going to share my Experience with the Troc
1)
Boy it’s a looker. I booked a test drive at home itself & when the car (in white) came in my gated society, many were attracted towards the car and instantly came to have a look at it (also no one new what it was or when it was launched). I also booked test drive for the new Creta (which also came at the same time as Troc), and Creta’s white colour was looking very dull compared to the Troc (see pics below).
2)It’s
not very tall in size, but it’s longer and wider than creta/seltos (looks low and wide from front, giving it a very sporty stance). You can call it a crossover at best.
3)When I sat inside, experience was completely opposite to what I felt from outside. The
cabin felt very small & compact (almost as big as my Ameo, just a bit wider). I immediately noticed
part sharing done by VW with my Ameo (even in Tiguan), like the steering was exactly the same, gear lever was same, light switches, indicator & wiper handles, window up down switches & even the key was identical. Also the plastics on top of the dash & door panels were very hard (same quality as my 2018 Ameo, which was ₹12L car compared to this ₹24L machine).
Surprising ommissions/features I didn’t like:
1) No cruise control (even my Ameo has it), electric driver’s seat & navigation in the Troc (so you mirror navigation on virtual cockpit display as it doesn’t work with google maps when connecting via Android Auto/Apple CarPlay).
2)
Pathetic sound system for a car at this price (6 VW speakers without a subwoofer, almost same quality as my Ameo). All the other cars at this price were offering such good quality speaker set (at least 8 speakers). Eg: 8 speaker Bose system in Creta/seltos and 9 speaker JBL system in harrier.
3)
Sunroof was barely panoramic & I wasn’t impressed (especially when looking it side by side with Creta’s massive panoramic roof). It didn’t extend till the back seats at all (which a panoramic sunroof should), to make room for headspace (as it’s not a very tall car).
4)
Very less rear seat space (I’m 5”10, & I barely had space left when my father was driving the car). It’s
definitely not a 3 seater at the back and it feels claustrophobic due to no “true panoramic sunroof”, all black interiors & very less space).
Things I loved about Troc:
1)
1.5 TSI + DSG combo (it’s a blast to drive):in my test, 0-100 came in 8.5 second seconds (fastest after superb sportline which was under 8 seconds). It was Even faster than my friends Punto Abarth (which is a dedicated hot hatch) & the heavier Tiguan Allspace (although it has 2.0 TSI)! Disclaimer: I didn’t use Vbox for all my testing, so take my numbers with a grain of salt. I’m telling you my actual drive experience with all the cars.
Also I want to mention here that although Troc does have the same DQ200 as my Ameo, it felt a bit smoother & faster in the Troc.
2)
Chasis, brakes & steering : ride is very planted & keeps the car stable even at higher speeds. You feel some bumps at lower speed (as suspension is typically European, so a bit stiff for our bad city roads). But Steering feel is superb & breaks are excellent (improvement over my Ameo). This combo inspired a lot of confidence to drive it at good speeds & the car drives very well.
3)
Build quality: It feels like a tank from inside. As soon as you open the doors, you can feel the heft in them & the car is solidly build (even the hard plastics feel they are build to last, typical VW quality).
4)
Exterior looks, Paint quality & exclusivity factor on road: it attracted a lot of attention when I was test driving as there is nothing like that on the road & it comes in flashy colours which look just fabulous. It was easily my favourite looking car (along with the civic) among the all cars I test drove. I prefer it’s looks even over GLA & Q3 (Both of which are there in my society & we compared them side by side with Troc when it came for test drive, sadly forgot to take picture of the same).
Here are some of the pics of my test drive with the Troc: My Final thoughts:
1) It’s a good car for the price & it’ll definitely
appeal to you if you are in your 20s & 30s. It’s a bit tight on space for the segment but it’s more than enough for a bachelor OR one who has just started a family OR who isn’t looking to use it as primary car if the family is big (more than 4 people). If size & space is the main concern, then please look into: XUV 500/Innova/Hexa or the upcoming Gravitas (Troc isn’t for you).
2) If you drive yourself & want the
best performing car (simply put, if you’re a petrol head like me), Troc is a no brainier (given that you can let go some extra features which especially the Koreans offer at this price point). It’s driving dynamics, ride, handling, steering feel, braking & engine + gearbox performance = top notch (even the engine sound way sweeter than Korean’s 1.4 Turbo Petrol which I also tested).
3) If you want good resale, cheap service cost & peace of mind experience, just buy creta (Hyundai’s service network, reliability, parts availability, resale value is all top notch in this segment). VAG car aren’t particularly known to offer good service experience & peace of mind! (Although I have had no problems personally with VW till date).
I really liked the Troc but Finally
ended up buying the Karoq after test driving all the other cars.
For detailed explanation/reasons for the same, you can have a look at my blogpost here:
https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-...-review-7.html (Skoda Karoq : Ownership Review)