Volkswagen's new baby is perhaps the German firm's best yet!
up! is a brilliant pint-sized town car that will go on sale early next year for circa €11,000. The VW design brief was built using catchphrases like "Don't Compromise – Compress" and up! is a superb example of how a carmaker can get it right.
The exterior styling was overseen by VAG design guru Walter De Silva and is wonderfully simple and pure. The up! has a friendly face yet sits on the road with a strong stance thanks to relatively large wheels that are pushed out to the four corners of the chassis. At the rear the glass area and oversized VW badging is classy yet simple.
Inside the spacious cabin there is a clarity and simplicity that is genius. One big dial for the speedo and two smaller gauges either side are easy on the driver's eye line, while all other controls have a quality feel and a natural place. Rear seating is good, too, and there is ample headroom.
The steering wheel features a sporty flattened bottom and is direct and responsive. The manual gearbox is precise, too. Power comes from a 75bhp three-cylinder engine that is very keen to rev. I like three-cylinder units in city cars as they are nippy and make an honest effort to buzz about the place.
Knowing how three-cylinder engines like to move about a bit under the bonnet, up!'s engine engineers resisted balancer shafts and instead went the pure engineering route to deliver a brilliant, nippy engine. The engineers made an extra effort to make sure they secured the engine in its bay to a higher degree than rivals to date and this makes the car feel very refined. Suspension is also top of the class, with a ride that is very comfortable.
So, already with its brilliant handling and exterior looks - not to mention the cabin - VW's up! is the best car in its class. But it doesn't stop there.
up! is the first car in its class to have 'City Emergency Brake' - in other words, the car will come to a complete stop automatically and independent of the driver's input if it detects an imminent collision at speeds up to 30kph. During our test drive in Rome, we tried this out in a controlled area with an inflatable up! and it worked every time. We have seen similar systems in the Ford Focus and Volvo S60, but we must say well done to VW for making it available in a town car.
As for our Roman driving experience, the little 3.5-metre car handled everything the small car capital of the world could throw at it. Cutting across non-existent lanes to traffic light drag races, up! was up to the task (sorry!). VW wants to be the number one brand in Ireland by 2013, and with this car I am sure it will get there.
VW has a fantastic car on its hands and up! will be a runaway hit when it goes on sale in 2012. If I may quote 80s pop icon Yazz: "The only way is up!"
Michael Sheridan
