A Drive to Tagaytay with the Volkswagen T-Cross

In the Volkswagen area of the multi-brand showroom AC Motors Centrale in Bonifacio Global City, there is a T-Cross with a camping tent set up on its roof. There’s a full bed where at least two grown adults can comfortably fit and spend the night inside it. 

Photo by Kenneth Del Rosario.

The messaging is clear: when you need a vehicle that can take you to out-of-the-way places in style and comfort, the T-Cross fits the bill.

Highlighting the features of the subcompact crossover was the idea behind a casual road trip organized by the folks behind Volkswagen Philippines. It’s one thing to launch the car and describe its features to car nuts and members of the media; it’s quite another to get some drive time and actually feel how it performs on the road.

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There was a quick briefing with the car after breakfast at the AC Motors Centrale showroom. Andre Lopez, Volkswagen’s training manager, walked participants through the car’s features, particularly its eye-catching exterior. The T-Cross is available in five colors here in the Philippines: Chinchilla Gray, Polar White, Romance Red, Tribu Yellow, and Syringa Violet. Salas highlighted how the exterior colors are mirrored in the interior through strategically placed trims. It’s a neat little detail if you’re the type who needs to have everything color-coordinated.

Photo by VW Philippines.

I was on driver duty first, which means it was my job to get everybody in my car up safely to Tagaytay. Two things made the job easy: one, we had the expert guidance of local motoring legend Georges Ramirez and his team; and two, the car itself was hassle-free and a joy to drive.

After escaping the mid-morning traffic rush of the city, we made our way to the South Luzon Expressway where we could really let the T-Cross stretch her legs (so to speak). The published specs—1.5-liter, four-cylinder normally aspirated engine pumping out 113 hp and 145 Nm of torque—means you’re probably not going to be seeing it being driven by Dominic Toretto and his crew on the next Fast and the Furious outing, but as a spacious and dependable people-carrier, it certainly does the job.

The infotainment system was a cinch to operate, the sound system was adequate, and features like Cruise Control and rear sensors and reverse camera for parking were all helpful in making the drive pleasant. During the drive I had no trouble keeping up with the convoy while chatting with my carmates. 

Our destination was a coffee shop hidden inside a sprawling compound in the town of Alfonso. The VW folks thought it would be nice to have participants do something artistics, and so they had an instructor teach us pottery. The obvious reference, of course, is Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze in Ghost, but there was no sexy time as we worked our clay and turned it into something resembling a vase or, in my case, something that will inevitably end up gathering dust inside my house.

After submitting my finished piece (which would need to be glazed and then fired inside a kiln before it made its way to me, I was told), we drove to a restaurant with a windmill about 30 minutes away. This time I rode shotgun, where I was able to tinker a bit with the switches and buttons on the dashboard. Even though I would always prefer being behind the wheel on long car rides, it’s easy enough to imagine getting comfy inside the T-Cross as a passenger.

I had work to do after lunch so I elected to sit in the back seat for the drive back. There was ample leg room as I tapped away on my laptop and appreciated the USB Type C charger to juice up my phone, which I was using as a hotspot. Anyone who has ever worked on a computer while in the back seat will know the headaches and dizziness will come pretty quickly, which happened to me, so I lay back and took a quick nap just as we entered SLEX. Maybe it was the the T-Cross that was just that comfortable, or maybe the driver was just that good, but I ended up dozing off for a good stretch of the drive back to our starting place.

Photo by PJ Caña.

If VW Philippines wanted to illustrate the capabilities of the T-Cross during a leisurely weekday drive, then it certainly succeeded It’s clearly made as an entry-level SUV for urbanites who want to escape somewhere else after they close their laptops or say goodbye to their bosses for the weekend. If those plans include a camping trip where they can set up a tent on the roof of their vehicle, then the T-Cross has got them covered.

The Volkswagen T-Cross is available in two variants: the MPI AT S at P1.098 million and the MPI AT SE at P1.34 million.