M OTO R I N G A
PROPER Volkswagen – just a smaller one. The up! has enabled the German brand to regain the initiative in the important city car sector and sets a high standard for contenders in this class. Frugal, fun, clever and competitively priced, it is a key option, not only for those in the market’s smallest segment but also for people buying a compact car of any kind. In concept, Volkswagen’s up! was smarter
even than the finished product. The original 2007 prototype was rear-engined, just like the early Beetle, as the German designers sought to find more space from an ever-smaller roadway footprint. But such complexity would have made the finished production version as expensive as “lifestyle” small cars like the Mini or the Audi A1. Which wasn’t the point at all. This, the company decided, must be something almost anyone could afford. In any case, it could still be clever even if it was conventional. If the engine could be smaller, the wheelbase longer and the overhangs shorter, the ambitious cabin space goals set by the rear-driven concept could still be achieved. Volkswagen values shrunk into compact form ought to bring a very appealing result. Yo u ’d imagine refinement. A comfortable ride. And a solid, well appointed cabin. A combination of virtues never quite delivered by the brand’s previous Fox and Lupo city cars – but much in evidence here. Despite, as it happens, the use of an engine hardly suited to Volkswagen virtues. Three cylinder 1.0-litre units like this one are, in my experience, busily revvy at best and downright noisy at worst, as is the case with Fi a t ’s twin-cylinder MultiAir unit. This one, though, is the most refined of its kind. Not refined enough to quite let you forget the cylindrical imbalance under the bonnet – but the characteristic offbeat rasp rather suits this car’s offbeat charisma. Yo u ’ll certainly be hearing plenty of it if
rapid progress is needed, for without a turbocharger to boost torque, this one needs to be revved quite a bit, peak power not arriving until 6,000rpm, only 600rpm shy of the red line. And if you’re wondering quite how much
The VW up!, whose short overhangs and side-aligned radiator mean more interior space.
Volkswagen can offer small car buyers a very competitive compact proposition, reports JONATHAN CROUCH
power we’re talking about, the answer is not a great deal in the mainstream 1.0-litre variants were focusing on here – cars offering a choice of either 60 or 70PS outputs, with an identical 95Nm of torque either way. Most will be content with the base version, capable as it is of 60mph in 14.4s on the way to 99mph, quite enough to keep up with the traffic. I’m not sure Id see the point of finding a lot more money for the 75PS variant, given that the performance
THUMBS UP!
gains are relatively slight (0-60mph in 13.2s on the way to 106mph). Two statistics sum up the real thinking behind this design. A length of around 3.5m yet a wheelbase that takes up nearly 2.5m of that. Which is why, though an up! is no longer than a Fiat 500, it offers far more room inside. How has this been done? By shortening the front and rear overhangs and mounting the radiator alongside rather than in
NOTTINGHAMSHIRE TODAY 139
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