UP! - EVEN MORE YOURS? (some text hidden) SECTIONED_new_volkswagenup_2017

By Jonathan Crouch

Introductionword count: 92

In every respect, the up! is a very much a proper Volkswagen - just a smaller one. This model enabled the German brand to seize the initiative in the important city car sector and in the improved post-2016-era updated form we look at here continued to set a high standard for contenders in this class. Frugal, fun, clever and competitively priced, it's a key contender if you're looking for a city car from the 2016-2023 period. In fact it's a key contender if you're looking for any small hatch from this time.

Modelsword count: 18

3 & 5dr Hatch (1.0 petrol - 60PS, 75PS / 1.0 TSI PETROL - 90PS, 115PS) / e-up!

Historyword count: 512

Volkswagen. The very name means 'Peoples Car' - the kind of compact, inexpensive transport pioneered by the Beetle over fifty years ago. Almost all the really iconic models the company's remembered for - not only the Beetle but also the Bus and the original Golf - have harked back to that very first simple, affordable formula. Something that many of us think was replicated with this car, a more modern Volkswagen design icon, the up! Originally launched in 2012, it was substantially revised in 2016 to create the model we're going to look at here. If you're wondering about the name, it's apparently taken from the middle two letters of 'Lupo', the badge given to Volkswagen's most recent European-built city car offering previous to this one. More important was this design's objective - to set fresh standards for small car technology in Europe, at the same time as offering a new kind of basic transport for the emerging markets of China, India and South America. Quite a brief - and one that led initially to prototypes that were even cleverer than the finished product. Some of these were 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. From its very conception, Volkswagen was determined that the up! should be a car that almost anyone could afford. In any case, they reasoned, it could still be clever even if the basic design was conventionally front-driven. If the engine could be smaller, the wheelbase longer and the overhangs shorter, the ambitious cabin space goals that had prompted the designers to look at the possibility of rear wheel drive could still be achieved. Fast forward to this finished product - a design sold also until 2021 as a Skoda Citigo and a SEAT Mii - and you find the completed version of this innovative basic formula embellished with all manner of innovation. Depending on its purpose and the preference of its buyer, an up! can guide you with Google. It can brake itself to avoid an accident. It can be a hot hatch. Or, at the other extreme, an all-electric runabout. It can, in short, be all things to all people. A real Peoples Car. By 2016 though, time had moved on and by then, virtually every other maker in the city car segment had launched either completely new or substantially revised offerings. Big hitters like Ford, Vauxhall and Renault had also got more serious about cars in this class, plus the Korean contingent had inevitably upped its game. Hence the need for a package of revisions to this Volkswagen that dealers welcomed. These included smarter looks, extra equipment, improved connectivity and, most importantly, the option of a pokier turbocharged 1.0-litre TSI engine at the top of the range. The up! sold in this form until late-2023; here, we're focusing on the facelift 2016-2023 versions.

What You Getword count: 394

'The friendliness of a Beetle - the rational perfection of a Golf': that was the rationale behind the look and feel of the original version of this car and not much has changed with this revised model. The updates with this post-2016-era model, such as they were, mainly centred on minor changes to the front end, where the black trimming that surrounds the revised bumper was squared off at each corner to create a slightly more mature look. Both three and five-door models have an identical 3.6-metre length and feature a wheelbase able to take up nearly 2.5-metres of that. Which is why, though an up! is no longer than, say, a Fiat 500, it offers far more room inside, comfortable space in fact for the four fully-sized adults who could never comfortably fit in the apparently space-efficient Italian car. How was this done? By shortening the front and rear overhangs as much as the designers dared, something only possible at the front by mounting the radiator alongside rather than in front of the very compact engine. As we'll see, the result is a tardis-like interior just as big as that of Volkswagen's far pricier Polo supermini. Let's give you one example of how that plays out. Move to the rear with its subtly re-designed tail lamps and check out the luggage space on offer. You don't get quite as much as was offered in this car's pre-2012 predecessor, the Fox, but open the glass tailgate (apparently styled to look like a flat-screen TV) and as long as you can lump your stuff over the rather high sill, you'll find 251-litres of space. Take a seat up front and probably the key change to this revised model lies in its redesigned range of infotainment systems. All the updated variants got a DAB radio and most of the better-specced models featured a 'Composition Colour' set-up with a 5.0-inch touchscreen. In the back the up!'s boxy dimensions mean that the roof doesn't taper towards the rear, so there's as much headroom in the back as there is in the front. For short to medium-length trips, the space you get not only for your head but also for your knees and legs is fine and it further helps that this bench is positioned slightly higher than the front seats to give rearward folk a better view out.

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