WITH demand for small SUVs showing no sign of waning Volkswagen is pitching in with the T-Roc.

It's a compact crossover that's about as good as you can get - big on style, performance and practicality.

Prices range from £18,950 to £31,485 and that puts the T-Roc at the upper end of the scale but it's a premium product and the most expensive versions are four-wheel-drive.

Four trim levels are available and to start off with all models have petrol engines - diesels will be coming on stream later in 2018.

The mainstay of the range is a 1.0-litre, three-cylinder turbo which can be had in all but the top range models and it's joined by VW's new 1.5-litre Evo engine with 150ps on tap.

The top specification T-Roc 4x4 makes use of a 2.0-litre TSI engine developing 190ps and that comes with a seven speed DSG semi-automatic transmission. The others are all six speed manuals.

There's not a duffer amongst them and with the front-wheel-drive T-Roc weighing in at around 1.3 tonnes even the 1.0-litre makes a fine fist of matters when it comes to performance.

In fact of the three engines on offer it is the most fun to drive - and the most economical.

We tried it in top but one Design specification priced from £21,125 and with the exception of an advanced sat nav system which was fitted as a £1,130 extra, it's as complete a car as anyone could want.

What sets the T-Roc apart is its design - inside and out - with purposeful lines, a wide stance and SUV necessities such as added body protection around the wheel arches and sills.

Factor in some bright paint jobs including red, yellow, orange and blue finishes, contrasting roof colours and alloy wheels which can be had in black, blue and orange and the T-Roc becomes one of the snazziest cars on the road.

The interior can also be decked out to suit with four different trim colours for the facia and door cappings while VW's high tech ‘active info' digitised instrument panel is a £405 option at this level and standard on top grade SEL models.

The cabin is roomy, can seat five and boot space is generous in this class of vehicle ranging from 445 to 1,290 litres. It's slightly less on the 4Motion T-Roc at 392 litres to make way for the Haldex 4x4 set up.

Driving aids include automatic emergency braking and lane departure warning on all models while Design trim has the likes of adaptive cruise control and driver fatigue monitors.

Out on the road the 1.0-litre T-Roc has plenty of get up and go. It feels nicely solid and with a distinctive three-pot note under acceleration it's good for 0 to 60 in 10.1 seconds with a top end of 116mph.

The lively drive is matched by an official fuel return of 55.4mpg with emissions of 117g/km.

We averaged 42.7mpg which made the 1.0-litre the pick of the bunch on the fuel front. Over similar routes the 1.5 Evo engine recorded 37 to the gallon and the 2.0-litre 4Motion automatic T-Roc showed 32mpg.

Officially they are rated at 52.3 and 41.5mpg with CO2 figures of 121 and 155g/km respectively and while obviously more powerful than the 1.0-litre neither felt as nimble when it came to handling.

The 4Motion model has the same automatic all-wheel-drive system as VW's larger Tiguan SUV which should make the T-Roc a more than capable soft-roader and its towing limit is up to 1.7 tonnes compared to 1.3 tonnes for the 1.0-litre front-wheel-drive version.

However, in this class of SUV off-road and pulling ability is not a necessity. It's being classy that counts and on that front the T-Roc has all that's required to put it at the top of the class.