For most of the last decade, the Volkswagen T-Roc, the Skoda Karoq and the Seat Ateca were the same shortlist. Three Volkswagen Group family SUVs, built on closely related underpinnings, sold to the same buyer at much the same money, separated mostly by badge and by taste.
That shortlist is now two cars long. The Ateca has been withdrawn from sale in the UK, and Seat says so on its own model page rather than quietly letting it disappear. The Cupra version has gone with it. If you came here to choose between three, the choice has already been narrowed for you.
What is left is a more interesting comparison than it used to be, because the two survivors have moved in opposite directions. One has gone down to a single engine family and one gearbox. The other still sells five engines, a manual, and four wheel drive. Here is the honest version, including three places where Volkswagen and Skoda contradict their own websites.
VW T-Roc
Newer, better screen
Skoda Karoq
Bigger boot, more choice
The Short Answer
The Seat Ateca is not an option any more. It cannot be ordered new. Skip to the last section if that was the car you wanted, because there are two sensible places to go instead.
The Volkswagen T-Roc if you want the newer car and the better cabin technology. It is on its second generation, it has the larger screen by a wide margin, and every version is a petrol mild hybrid with an automatic gearbox, which suits a lot of company drivers perfectly.
The Skoda Karoq if you want choice. It is the only one of the two that still offers a diesel, four wheel drive, a manual gearbox, or a 190PS engine, and it has the bigger boot. It is also the older design, and that shows up most clearly in its safety rating.
The Ateca Has Gone, And Seat Is Not Hiding It
Seat UK's own Ateca page now carries the title "SEAT Ateca 2020: The perfect SUV for the urban life, is no longer part of our range", with body copy reading "Our urban-ready SUV is no longer part of the current range" and a button pointing at Approved Used rather than at a configurator. The Cupra Ateca page says "Our first SUV has completed its journey."
Both were pulled in March 2026 after a ten year run. This is not a run-out car with sharp rates still to be had. It is a car you cannot specify, cannot order and cannot lease new, so there are no live rates behind it and we do not list one.
Seat UK's New Cars navigation still lists the Ateca, and one of those routes lands on a used car redirect rather than on the page that explains the car has gone. Cupra UK's Models menu still carries "CUPRA Ateca: A High-Performance Compact SUV", which leads to a discontinued page. If you have been clicking through a manufacturer menu and wondering why you could never reach a price, that is why. The menus are stale and the model pages are the truth.
What has not happened is Seat leaving the UK. The brand is still selling the Ibiza, the Leon, the Leon Estate and the Arona, and you can see the full range on our Seat leasing pages. The story that Seat will be replaced by Cupra by 2029 is press reporting that both Seat and Volkswagen have pushed back on, not an announcement. The accurate summary for anybody signing a four year agreement is narrower than the headlines: the brand is alive and selling, and it has just lost its only mid-size SUV.
What You Can Actually Order, Which Is Where These Two Split
| Volkswagen T-Roc | Skoda Karoq | |
|---|---|---|
| Petrol | Yes | Yes, three |
| Mild hybrid | Yes, and it is the only option | No |
| Diesel | No | Yes, 2.0 TDI 150PS |
| Plug-in hybrid or electric | No | No |
| Gearbox | 7 speed DSG only | Manual or DSG |
| Driven wheels | Front only | Front or four |
| Engines in the range | 2 | 5 |
This is the real difference between them and it is much bigger than any spec sheet detail. The T-Roc is now a single engine family, the 1.5 eTSI petrol mild hybrid, in 116PS and 150PS, with a seven speed DSG and front wheel drive, across all four trims. There is no diesel, no manual, no four wheel drive, no plug-in hybrid and no electric version.
The Karoq still sells a 1.0 TSI 116PS, a 1.5 TSI 150PS in manual and DSG form, a 2.0 TDI 150PS diesel with four wheel drive, and a 2.0 TSI 190PS petrol with four wheel drive. If you tow, cover long motorway miles, or want to drive a manual, the Karoq is the only one of the two that will even talk to you.
A 1.5 full hybrid with around 170PS exists in continental European data for the new T-Roc, and plenty of coverage has treated it as part of the range. It is not something you can order in the UK today. Volkswagen UK's own T-Roc page makes this worse by listing the fuel type as "Hybrid, Mild Hybrid" and the gearbox as "7-speed DSG, 1-speed Automatic", when the single speed box belongs to a car none of the four UK trims offers. The configurator is the truth and the configurator sells two mild hybrids.
The New T-Roc Lost Two Things Worth Knowing About
Only the second generation car is orderable now, and its configurator already runs model year 2027. The previous generation has gone from Volkswagen UK's pages entirely, which matters if you are comparing against a review written before the changeover.
There is no T-Roc R
The range is Life, Match, Style and R-Line. R-Line is a styling and trim package, not the 300PS R. A performance T-Roc successor has been reported for 2027, but that is reporting rather than an announcement, and it is not something you can put on an order today.
There is no T-Roc Cabriolet, and there will not be another one
The convertible T-Roc has no successor and Volkswagen is leaving the convertible market altogether. If you were waiting for the new one, it is not coming. The T-Roc Cabriolet was the last Volkswagen convertible.
The new car is about 12cm longer than the one it replaces, at 4,372mm on a 2,629mm wheelbase, 1,828mm wide and 1,573mm tall, with an 11.1 metre turning circle.
Boot And Space
| Volkswagen T-Roc | Skoda Karoq | |
|---|---|---|
| Seats up | 475 litres | 521 litres |
| Seats folded | Not published | 1,630 litres |
| Rear bench | 60/40 split fold | 60:40 split fold |
| Battery eating into the boot | No | No |
The Karoq is 46 litres bigger with the seats up, and both of those figures come from the manufacturers themselves on the same basis, so it is a fair comparison. Neither car carries a traction battery, so neither loses any boot floor to one, which is more than can be said for most of what sits alongside them.
With the seats down the comparison breaks. Skoda publishes 1,630 litres. Volkswagen publishes no litre figure at all for the folded T-Roc, only a load length of 1,534mm. We are not going to convert one into the other and present it as a measurement.
The Karoq used to be sold on VarioFlex, three individual rear seats that slide, fold and lift out, taking it from 479 litres to 1,810 litres with the seats removed. Skoda UK's current Karoq pages describe only a 60:40 split folding backrest and quote a single 521 and 1,630 litre pair. Third party sites still describe VarioFlex in detail. We could not establish from Skoda's own site whether it is still offered on the current Edition trims, so we are not claiming it either way. If sliding or removable rear seats are the reason you want a Karoq, ask us and we will confirm it against the current order guide before you commit.
Neither manufacturer publishes rear legroom in millimetres for a UK page, so every comparison you read on that is somebody's impression after sitting in both. Useful, but not a measurement.
Inside, And What The T-Roc Did Not Bring Back
There has been a lot of coverage about Volkswagen reversing out of touch controls. On the T-Roc that reversal is partial, and it is worth being precise about which bits came back.
Physical controls did return for the steering wheel and for the window switches, and there is a rotary knob between the seats for volume and drive modes. Climate control did not fully return: it is backlit touch sliders with permanently visible on-screen icons rather than a row of dials. If you were expecting the full set of buttons that the ID. Polo brought back, this is not that car.
On screens the T-Roc wins comfortably. It has a floating 12.9 inch touchscreen and an 8 inch digital cockpit on the entry Life trim. The Karoq's entry SE Edition gets an 8 inch Amundsen screen with navigation. That is a large gap on the car most people will actually lease.
Whether the Karoq still uses physical climate dials. It is widely described as doing so, and it would be a genuine point in its favour given where Volkswagen has landed, but we could not confirm it from a Skoda source and we are not going to tell you a car has buttons on the strength of a road test. The same goes for the screen size on the top Karoq trims, which Skoda does not state.
Safety, And Why We Will Not Line Up The Percentages
| Stars | Test protocol | What was actually tested | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Volkswagen T-Roc | 5 | 2025, published December 2025 | T-Roc 1.5 eTSI Life, the car you can order |
| Skoda Karoq | 5 | 2017, published November 2017 | Karoq 1.6 TDI Ambition, an engine Skoda no longer sells |
| Seat Ateca | 5 | 2016 | Long expired, and academic now |
Both hold five stars, and that is where the useful comparison ends. The T-Roc's rating was measured in December 2025 under the current protocol, on a 1.5 mild hybrid, which is the car in the showroom. It scored 91 percent for adult occupant protection, 87 for child occupants, 87 for vulnerable road users and 77 for safety assist.
Euro NCAP ratings are valid for six years. The Karoq's 2017 result no longer appears in Euro NCAP's searchable database, which means the Karoq currently holds no live rating at all. It was also measured on a 1.6 TDI that Skoda does not sell any more. On the 2017 protocol it scored 93 percent for adult occupants against the T-Roc's 91 under the 2025 protocol, and putting those two numbers next to each other would tell you the nine year old car with the lapsed rating is the safer one. It would not be true. The test gets materially harder every time it is revised, and Euro NCAP percentages are only comparable within the same protocol year.
So the honest line is this. One of these cars has a current five star rating against the hardest version of the test, measured on the exact engine you would lease. The other has a lapsed rating from a much easier test, measured on an engine it no longer offers. That is a real difference, and it is not the same as saying the Karoq is unsafe.
Warranty, Servicing And The Grant
| Volkswagen | Skoda | |
|---|---|---|
| Warranty | 2 years unlimited mileage plus a third year to 60,000 miles | 2 years unlimited mileage plus a third year to 60,000 miles |
| Total | 3 years or 60,000 miles | 3 years or 60,000 miles |
| Body protection | Not confirmed | 12 years |
| Service intervals | Not published | Not published |
The warranties are identical, which is not a surprise given both brands sit inside the same group, and it is why we have not made it one of the headline figures at the top. Skoda does publish a twelve year body protection warranty that we could not find a stated Volkswagen equivalent for. On a three or four year lease neither of these is likely to decide anything, because you will hand the car back inside the warranty either way unless you are covering very high mileage, in which case the 60,000 mile cap is the number to watch on both.
Neither brand publishes service intervals for these cars on its UK consumer site. If servicing is going into your budget, ask us and we will get the schedule for the exact derivative rather than quote you a rule of thumb.
The grant needs a car with no tailpipe emissions. The T-Roc is a petrol mild hybrid, the Karoq is petrol or diesel, and the Ateca was petrol or diesel. There is no version of either car that could ever qualify, so this is not a close call or something that might change with a trim choice. If the grant is what you are chasing, you are looking at the wrong pair of cars, and we can point you at the Skoda Elroq or the Cupra Born instead.
The Numbers We Are Deliberately Not Tabling
A comparison like this is expected to put every figure side by side. Four of them cannot be compared honestly, and saying so is more useful than filling the gaps.
Towing. Volkswagen publishes braked towing per variant, 1,300kg on the 116PS and 1,500kg on the 150PS. The Karoq figures we could find are from third party sources rather than Skoda. Putting a manufacturer number next to a third party number in the same column would make the comparison look firmer than it is. The T-Roc's entry 1,300kg is the weakest towing figure in this piece, and if towing matters, the Karoq's diesel with four wheel drive is the obvious place to start, but we will confirm its rated weight against the order guide rather than guess.
Top variant performance. The Karoq's range topper is a 190PS four wheel drive petrol that reaches 62mph in 6.8 seconds. The T-Roc's is a 150PS front wheel drive trim level at 8.9 seconds. Those are not comparable cars. On like for like 150PS versions the Karoq's 1.5 TSI does it in 8.6 seconds and the T-Roc's R-Line in 8.9, which is close enough to ignore.
Price. The entry cars are within about 800 pounds of each other, which is close enough to be interesting and not close enough to mean anything once funders and terms are applied. What a car costs to lease is not what it costs to buy, and the ranking frequently reverses. That is the part worth asking us about.
Volkswagen UK's T-Roc model page lists the performance as 136PS. There is no 136PS T-Roc in the UK range. The configurator sells 116PS and 150PS. That is the third contradiction we found between a manufacturer's own marketing page and its own configurator while writing this, which is a decent argument for asking somebody to check the order guide before you sign anything.
What To Look At Instead Of The Ateca
If the Ateca was your car, the honest replacements are not all obvious.
Inside the same group, the Cupra Formentor is the closest thing to an Ateca successor in spirit, sized and priced in the same territory, and it offers a plug-in hybrid that neither the T-Roc nor the Karoq does. The Cupra Terramar sits half a size up and costs more, with a plug-in hybrid option as well. Both are live and orderable.
If you want to stay with Seat, the Arona is one size down rather than a like for like swap, and it is the only SUV Seat now sells. Outside the group, the Nissan Qashqai and the Peugeot 3008 are the natural cross-shops at this size.
And if what you liked about the Ateca was that it was a sensibly sized, unfussy family SUV that did not cost premium money, the Karoq is the nearest thing left on sale.
Which of these two actually works out cheaper on your mileage?
We will price the T-Roc and the Karoq across several funders on your term and mileage, confirm the specification against the current order guide rather than a marketing page, and tell you honestly which one wins on your numbers.
Talk to LetsLeaseFrequently Asked Questions
No. The Seat Ateca and the Cupra Ateca were both withdrawn from sale in the UK in March 2026 after a ten year run, and Seat's own model page now says the car is no longer part of its range. Because it cannot be specified or ordered, there are no live lease rates behind it, which is why you will not find it on our site. Seat's own New Cars menu still lists it in places, and one of those links goes to a used car page, so it is easy to think it is still available when it is not.
Not as things stand. Seat is still selling the Ibiza, the Leon, the Leon Estate and the Arona in the UK. There has been press reporting that Volkswagen Group intends to replace Seat with Cupra by 2029, and both Seat and Volkswagen have pushed back on it, so it is reporting rather than an announcement. What is true today is narrower: the brand is still selling cars, and it has lost its only mid-size SUV.
No. The second generation T-Roc is sold in the UK as a 1.5 eTSI petrol mild hybrid only, in 116PS and 150PS, with a seven speed DSG gearbox and front wheel drive. There is no diesel, no manual, no four wheel drive, no plug-in hybrid and no electric version. If you want a diesel in this class from the same group, the Karoq's 2.0 TDI 150PS with four wheel drive is the one to look at.
Neither. The new range is Life, Match, Style and R-Line, and R-Line is a styling and trim package rather than the performance R. A performance version has been reported for 2027 but has not been confirmed as orderable. The Cabriolet has no successor at all, and Volkswagen is leaving the convertible market, so the previous T-Roc Cabriolet was the last Volkswagen convertible.
The Karoq, by 46 litres with the seats up. Skoda publishes 521 litres against Volkswagen's 475. With the seats folded the comparison cannot be made properly, because Skoda publishes 1,630 litres and Volkswagen publishes no litre figure for the folded T-Roc at all, only a load length of 1,534mm.
We cannot confirm it from Skoda's own material, so we will not tell you either way. Skoda UK's current Karoq pages describe a 60:40 split folding backrest and quote one pair of boot figures, while third party sites still describe VarioFlex and its three individual sliding seats. If removable or sliding rear seats are the reason you want a Karoq, ask us and we will check the current order guide for the exact trim before you commit to anything.
There is no announced replacement that we could find, and the evidence points the other way. Skoda added a Design Edition in May 2026 and a Black Edition in August 2026, and the configurator opens with five trims. A brand winding a car down does not usually add two trim levels to it in the same year.
Both hold five Euro NCAP stars, but they are not comparable. The T-Roc was tested in December 2025 under the current protocol, on the 1.5 mild hybrid you can actually order. The Karoq's rating is from November 2017, has passed the six year validity window and no longer appears in Euro NCAP's database, and it was measured on a 1.6 diesel that Skoda has stopped selling. The Karoq's adult occupant percentage is higher than the T-Roc's, but it was scored on a much easier test, so lining the two percentages up would be misleading. Only the T-Roc holds a current rating.
The T-Roc is rated at 1,300kg braked on the 116PS and 1,500kg on the 150PS, both from Volkswagen. The Karoq figures we could find come from third party sources rather than Skoda, so we are not publishing them next to Volkswagen's. If towing is the job, the Karoq's diesel with four wheel drive is the version to ask about, and we will confirm its rated weight from the order guide before you order.
No, and neither ever could. The grant requires a car with no tailpipe emissions, so a petrol mild hybrid and a diesel are both outside it regardless of trim or engine. If the grant is what you want, you need a fully electric car, and within the same group the Skoda Elroq and the Cupra Born are the obvious places to start.
Both are conventional combustion cars rather than plug-in hybrids or electric cars, so they sit well above the lowest tax positions and the exact figure depends on the published CO2 of the specific derivative you choose, your tax band and the list price with options. Rates change each tax year, so rather than quote you a percentage that may be out of date by the time you order, send us the exact specification you are considering and we will confirm the current position in writing.
LetsLease is a credit broker rather than the lender. We arrange the agreement and place it with a funder such as Lex Autolease, Novuna, Ayvens or Santander, and that funder owns the vehicle and holds the agreement with you. Because we work across several funders rather than one, we can compare how each prices the same car.