By Jonathan Crouch
Introduction
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.
History
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 Get
'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.
What to Look For
Most up! owners we surveyed were very happy with their cars, but inevitably, there were a few issues. A number of people complained about noisy transmissions. One owner was more specific, citing a transmission / clutch 'snatch' noise on every gear change that for him, ruined an otherwise good driving experience. Another owner complained of a sticking reverse gear; look out for that.
One owner found that water drainage under windscreen when blocked, emptied into the car interior via the heater! Another complained of a leaking windscreen seal, a paint mismatch with the fuel filler cap and rattles from the driver and passenger door lock area. We also came across reports of the rear brakes squealing during braking.
Replacement Parts
(approx based on a 2020 up! GTI) An air filter will be priced in the £6 bracket, an oil filter will sit in the £4 bracket and a starter motor will be in the £217-£244 bracket. The front brake discs we came across sat in the £126 bracket for a pair. Front brake pads are in the £29 to £44 bracket for a set. An alternator will cost you around £377. Wiper blades cost in the £4 to £21 bracket. A water pump is around £135. A rear shock absorbers sits in the £39 bracket.
On the Road
On the move, the first thing you might notice if you're familiar with other city cars in the class is that the up! rides with an accomplished demeanour. Decent refinement means that it's also a better bet than most rivals in the segment should the need arise to undertake a longer trip. But of course, as with any urban runabout, this Volkswagen's real comfort zone lies within the city limits. Helping here is a light steering set-up and a tight 9.8m tuning circle, plus there's the fact that the boxy dimensions make parking very simple.
Under the bonnet, the main news in this revised range lay with the addition of a 90PS turbo TSI 1.0-litre three cylinder petrol engine, a unit that provides far greater pulling power through the gears and can deliver 60.1mpg on the combined cycle and 108g/km of CO2. Rather more rapid was the GTI variant, which uses the turbo TSI petrol engine in 115PS form and sprints to 62mph in just 8.8s en route to 122mph. Because the TSI powerplant in both its forms was limited only to top-spec models though, the majority of up! customers continued to choose the normally aspirated 1.0-litre three cylinder petrol units that this car was original launched with. As before, these generate either 60 or 75PS and there's the option of a (rather jerky) ASG automatic robotised gearbox if you want it. Plus eco-minded folk could opt for an all-electric e-up! variant.
Overall
In this updated form, the up! remained the very essence of a small, affordable Volkswagen, a high quality class-less car very much in the mould of the original Beetle. One of the lightest small runabouts from its era you can buy, it still manages to feel solid, a triumph of packaging and design that's streets ahead of any city car the brand had previously brought us. The revisions made here weren't especially far-reaching - but then they didn't need to be. The addition of TSI turbo power was welcome but few buyers took this option up!, most of them wanting to spend any extra cash on the wider range of options.
If you like the look, don't mind the lack of proper rear side windows and can afford to go beyond entry-level poverty spec, then there aren't too many downsides here. A few rivals can better the running costs - but not by much. And the SEAT and Skoda versions of this car are a little cheaper - but you'd likely lose what you gained in the probable trade-in value when the time came to sell.
Overall then, this is the embodiment of friendly functionality, behind a badge you might have thought you couldn't afford. With potential cleverness you almost certainly won't be expecting from something city car-sized. A used car thumbs up! then? That's about the size of it.
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