Volkswagen Up review: a serious city car contender

Volkswagen Up: a serious city car contender

It is remarkable that Volkswagen has taken this long to make a genuinely committed entry into the city car market. The firm did offer the Lupo around a decade ago, of course, but its Fox replacement felt very much like an afterthought. The Up is nothing of the sort. This is Volkswagen, a resolutely serious car maker, treating small cars with equal seriousness. When sales begin in December, VW expects the Up to become its best-selling model worldwide.

Nor will it be limited to a three-door model powered by a three-cylinder 1.0-litre engine. Here is the news: a five-door version is due to be revealed at the Frankfurt Show in ten days, while more engine options will follow later. According to Ulrich Hackenburg, Volkswagen's hugely influential head of R&D, "there will be an engine with more than three cylinders, and maybe one with less, too". This new platform will also underpin further body styles. Volkswagen is clearly preparing to promote the Up forcefully, which spells trouble for the Fiat Panda, Hyundai i10 and Toyota Aygo.

Volkswagen Up interior space and quality

Above all, it is an extremely persuasive car. Start with its dimensions: the Up is smaller than a Panda, yet offers a larger 250-litre boot and more rear-seat room. Its packaging is genuinely excellent. The cabin feels spacious in every respect, not merely for legroom and headroom, but also for elbow room and the fact that driver and passenger are not squeezed shoulder to shoulder.

Volkswagen is not especially renowned for clever packaging, yet it has achieved impressive results by placing the wheels at the extreme corners and making the most of the wheelbase. Quality is another strength. Some of the plastics are rather brittle, but the surfaces occupants actually touch have been carefully finished. Naturally, VW has managed this only by making savings elsewhere. The electric windows lack one-touch operation, for example, and the steering wheel has no reach adjustment. What matters, though, is that it feels like a Volkswagen in the areas that count: comfort, seating, ergonomics, design, layout, texture, ambience, practicality and everything else. Considerable effort has plainly gone into developing this car.

Volkswagen Up engine, ride and handling

Consider the engine. It is a completely new, all-alloy three-cylinder unit, an arrangement that ought to be susceptible to vibration, particularly as it has no balancer shafts. Volkswagen has put in substantial work, successfully removing as much harshness as possible while retaining the appealing thrum for which three-cylinder engines are known. It is not particularly powerful, naturally, but a city car does not need it to be. The same engine is available with either 59bhp or 74bhp, and the more powerful version we drove makes decent progress. It dislikes being worked hard, beginning to tie itself in knots as the 6,000rpm redline approaches, but it pulls along happily enough between 2,000 and 5,000rpm. The five-speed manual gearbox is good, too.

The unresponsive throttle and muted steering feedback are less welcome, although Volkswagen may be right that a degree of handling sharpness should be traded for a compliant ride. If that is the case, the job is done: the Up rides better than any other car in this class that comes to mind. Motorways present no challenge, it is quiet enough with ease, and the overall experience is polished and undemanding.

But is it enjoyable to drive? That is another matter. The Up certainly offers its own pleasures, yet it lacks the Panda's keenness and the Aygo's agility. In spite of its compact dimensions, it feels more mature and more earnest than either.

That word crops up again. Yet the overriding impression left by the Up is not simply of a car that is rather grown-up. Instead, it is a crisp, fresh design: a new interpretation of the city car that is unmistakably Volkswagen and appears to have been refined over a long period. It will represent excellent value if VW can hold the price at about £8,500, while the optional equipment is appealing too: a clever satellite-navigation system named Maps+More for less than £400, plus a radar braking system designed to avoid low-speed bumps for under £200.

The Up is good. Good enough that the facelifted Panda will need to raise its game by several levels to match it, and good enough to give the whole city car sector a genuine shake-up. You expected nothing less, surely?