Volkswagen Up! 2011 Review - International

What we liked
>> Drives well for a small city car with a tiny engine
>> design, roomy interior, good cargo space
>> Fuel economy

Not so much
>> It’s another cheap car that insists on premium fuel
>> Only four airbags (no ‘curtain’ airbags for rear passengers)
>> ‘Auto’ is a robotised manual

OVERVIEW
?>> Volkswagen has big plans for its new small car?

Meet Volkswagen’s 21th century vision of the people’s car – for richer or poorer. It’s called the Up and it’s part of the German maker’s grand plan to conquer the city-car class in Europe, emerging markets internationally and help power the company to global sales leadership by 2018.

The company predicts two out of every three Up buyers will be new to the Volkswagen brand.

Australia is somewhere in the middle of all that; buoyed by a strong currency Volkswagen will use the Up as the entrée to its model range. It is due on sale in Australia late next year with a starting price below $15,000. Make no mistake, however, the price will quickly climb close to or in excess of $20,000 once a few options are ticked.

Unlike the original Beetle built between 1938 and 2003 that brought affordable motoring to the masses, the Up is designed to appeal to both first-time car buyers on a budget and the well-heeled who want to downsize without sacrificing life’s luxuries.

That’s why it has fuel economy to rival the most frugal hybrids and lacks such basics as a radio or air-conditioning in some countries – but is available with a laser-based crash avoidance system as an option in others.

To begin with the Up will be built in Bratislava, Slovakia, in a factory that also makes the Porsche Cayenne, Audi Q7 and Volkswagen Touareg. Talk about having an each-way bet. Volkswagen has the book-ends of its line-up – the smallest and the biggest passenger vehicles it makes – rolling off the same production line.

The Up will also go into production in Brazil next year, but Australia-bound cars will come from Bratislava.

Unlike the original Up concept unveiled in 2007, the tiny three-cylinder petrol engine (a diesel is not planned) has been moved from the back to the front. The idea of a rear-engined hatchback (ala Beetle) was toyed with for a while but then Volkswagen figured out it would be cheaper and more space efficient to go with a conventional front-engined hatchback design.

That said, there’s not much that’s conventional about the Up. The designers have positioned the wheels at the extremities of the car, to create as much cabin space as possible.

In size, the Up fits somewhere between a Suzuki Alto and a Toyota Yaris. And it’s a good 70cm longer than a Smart ForTwo. But it will still get into very tight spaces.

Perhaps that's why Volkswagen chose to launch the Up in the unofficial world capital for small cars, Rome. Indeed, the Italian capital is the single biggest market for the Smart car globally, though Fiat cars dominate the local market.

If Fiat didn’t know Volkswagen was serious about taking market share right under its nose, it does now. Four weeks worth of international media test drives through the heart of the city will have marked the arrival of the Up with the exclamation point the company has put on the car.

Ah yes, the exclamation point. We’ve elected to not follow Volkswagen’s badging convention – which is lower case ‘up!’ – because otherwise it looks like we’ve ended a sentence and haven’t given the car a proper name.

Depending on who you talk to, there are three possible reasons behind the name. One is that it is a shortened version of the car it replaces: ‘Lupo’ without the ‘L’ and the ‘O’. The other, more fanciful option is that it is the initials of Ursula Piech, the wife of Volkswagen chairman Ferdinand Piech.

The most likely reason is that this car is key to Volkswagen’s drive to push sales ‘up’ to become the biggest automotive company in the world by 2018.

Volkswagen is yet to announce which of the two petrol engines Australia will get (44kW or 55kW versions of the same 1.0-litre three-cylinder motor, or both) and what basic features the car will come with. Let’s hope they’re not as basic as they are in Europe.

Despite their attractive sticker price, cheap cars come at a cost. In Germany, where the Up starts at €9850, two of the three models don’t even get a radio, air-conditioning or power windows. They’re available in an €890 option pack.

The base model is called Take Up, the middle grade model is called Move Up (€10,650 buys remote entry and power windows), and the top-line model is called High Up (€12,450 – the same price as a basic Polo – buys a car with air-conditioning and a radio).

From the outside, the cars are distinguished by 14, 15, and 16-inch wheels respectively. There is no model-grade badging.

There are individual options beyond these models, but Volkswagen has resisted the urge to call it the ‘Up Yours’ range.

Buyers can choose interior trim colour combinations and option cruise control, navigation, Bluetooth, an extended windscreen-sunroof, and a city safety auto-brake system.

If you go for the works, you can easily eclipse €18,000 – in Australian dollars about the price of a Holden Commodore.

It’s part of Volkswagen’s plan to ensure the Up has broad appeal, from young first-car buyers on a budget who may only want the basics, to “the silver generation”, cashed-up buyers in their 50s who want a small car but don’t want to sacrifice life’s luxuries.

MECHANICAL?
>> There is one engine, which revs to two different tunes

?The Up is powered by an all-new, non-turbo 1.0-litre three-cylinder petrol engine which is available in two guises: 44kW and 55kW. As with all Volkswagens sold in Australia, both types will insist on at least 95 octane premium unleaded fuel.

The engine hardware is identical but the software has changed to either extract more grunt or favour frugal fuel economy, although the changes appear to be for marketing reasons than real-world impact. We tested both on the streets of Rome and, to be frank, couldn’t pick the difference.

Both engines are impressive, relatively refined and relatively responsive. They still have hints of the sewing machine sound that is a trait of three-cylinder engines, but they were as good if not better than the three-cylinder in the Nissan Micra. They are light years ahead of the Suzuki Alto which was good when it was released two years ago but is now agricultural by comparison.

The stats are as follows: the 44kW engine reaches peak power at 5500rpm, the 55kW engine at 6200rpm. Both redline at 6500rpm. Peak torque – 95Nm – is identical on both engine variations, between 3000-5000rpm. And 90 per cent of that torque is available between 2000 and 6000rpm.

The 55kW engine does 0 to 100km/h in 13.2 seconds. The 44kW engine in 14.4 seconds. But I still couldn't tell the difference.

For the record, although they feel the same as each other, they both feel quicker and more lively than the acceleration stats indicate. Even so, a turbo version of this engine may follow in about one year from now.

Fuel economy is also a close contest: 4.2 and 4.3L/100km respectively. For comparison a Toyota Prius is rated at 3.9L/100km. The Up’s 35 litre petrol tank gives it a theoretical driving range of 833km – that’s Sydney to Melbourne (just) for less than $50.

Part of the reason for the Up’s frugality is its weight: the body is just 929kg. The engine itself is light, too, because the block and cylinder head are made of alloy.

A stop-start system (which automatically shuts off and restarts the engine when the car is stopped in traffic or at the lights) is available in Europe but not confirmed for Australia.

A five-speed manual is standard, and a five-speed robotised manual (with auto function) will become available next year, in time for its release in Australia. Volkswagen favoured a robotised single-clutch transmission instead of the more advanced and smoother twin-clutch ‘DSG’ because the latter is bulkier, heavier and more expensive.

Volkswagen says the robotised manual weighs less than 30kg and is more compact.

We are yet to drive the robotised manual in the Up but this could prove to be a minor setback for the car in markets such as Australia that favour smooth automatic transmissions. Robotised manuals tend to jerk between gears and not provide a seamless transition through the ratios. Volkswagen says it has no plans to introduce a twin-clutch transmission in the Up.

PACKAGING
?>> Volkswagen aims to win the space race

?We’re yet to test this car back-to-back with its rivals but it’s unlikely there is car this small that can accommodate four adults – and luggage – in such comfort.

Volkswagen focused on increasing driver legroom after discovering that the average height of young adults (26 years old) has increased from 175cm to 181cm over the past 20 years.

There’s also sufficient room in the back. With the driver’s seat set, I sat my 187cm frame on the back bench to find my knees only just touching the front seat back. If I could negotiate with the driver to move the seat forward one click I could ride there for hours.

The boot has a decent amount of space (251 litres seats up, 951 seats down) and an optional second-tier floor to hide any valuables. There was no spare tyre, however, and Volkswagen Australia is yet to announce whether we will get a full size spare, a space saver tyre or an inflator kit.

The cabin itself is well presented, the seating position comfortable. There is height adjustment on the seat and steering wheel (although no reach adjustment). The sporty, flat bottom steering wheel creates a little extra knee room for the driver.

The rest of the cabin is punctuated by the usual Volkswagen switchgear. All good but for one blot: the passenger’s side power window on one car went haywire for about five minutes, got stuck halfway open, then began working again just as mysteriously as it stopped.

There is only one power window switch on each side – but the cabin is small enough that the driver need only lean over to use the switch. Neither were auto up or auto down.

The door pockets are massive for a small car – and there are six drink holders (for four occupants) if you include the recesses in the doors.

The plastics are hard to the touch and the elbow area of the doors is painted metal – the same colour as the outside of the car. It saves money but looks pretty good. Back seat passengers get a little elbow room, albeit on a hard plastic nook.

The headrests on the front seats are fixed but the back seat headrests are height adjustable.

Over-shoulder visibility is good thanks to the large rear side glass and convex mirrors on both sides of the car. A low window line on the hatch helps with parking in tight spots.

The turning circle is not yet quoted, but seemed comparable to the Nissan Micra.

There seems to be a barrier between super-small cars and five-star safety results. The recently released Nissan Micra, Suzuki Alto and current generation Smart ForTwo are all four-star cars despite being designed and engineered by some of the best brains in the business.

To date, there is one exception: the Toyota iQ, a tiny four-seater city-car released three years ago (not sold in Australia) which scored a five-star rating by Euro NCAP. So clearly, it’s not impossible to achieve a good result from a very small package.

However, Volkswagen was coy about the likely crash performance of its all-new Up. Carmakers know ahead of time how their cars will perform in independent tests because they crash cars to the same exacting standards.

motoring.com.au understands that the Up is on the cusp of a four- or five-star Euro NCAP result – and the variation depends on whether the car is tested to Euro NCAP’s old or new standards.

If it is measured against the old criteria it is likely to stack up as a five-star car; if it is measured against the new criteria it may be rated as a four-star car. An announcement is due by the end of October 2011.

For now, Volkswagen is content with the safety performance of the Up – even though there is no side impact airbag protection for back seat passengers.

While the Up’s airbag tally is four (the side airbags in the front seats protect the head and chest), cheaper cars such as the aforementioned Nissan Micra and Suzuki Alto come with six airbags (which also cover back seat passengers). The overseas-model Toyota iQ comes with nine airbags.

The technical personnel at the Up launch in Rome said there was room to add head-protecting curtain airbags in the Up on future models should it become a marketing requirement. It’s the one blot on an otherwise impressive report card for the Up, that for the sake of a few dollars the company doesn’t even have curtain airbags as an option.

Volkswagen will rightly say the Up competes in a price-sensitive area of the market. However, its rivals manage to provide this safety feature at a cheaper price.

Volkswagen has at least put a lot of effort into avoiding a crash in the first place. Stability control and antilock brakes are standard on all models, while an auto braking safety system (which slams the brakes to avoid a crash below 30km/h if you’re distracted in traffic) is available in an option pack that also includes cruise control and rear parking sensors for €1450.

Similar to Volvo’s City Safety, the Volkswagen system has a laser in the windscreen that scans the road 10 metres ahead of the car. At speeds below 30km/h it will brake (hard!) if the driver doesn’t react to a stopped or slowing car in time.

COMPETITORS?
>> Nissan, Suzuki, Smart and… Polo

?In size and philosophy the 3.54m-long Volkswagen Up fits somewhere between a 3.50m Suzuki Alto and a 3.78m Nissan Micra, both of which cost about $12,990 and have four doors and more equipment.

So while the Up may be a cheap Volkswagen, it’s still going to be priced at a premium among its peers.

The only car it will really undercut is the $20,000 Smart ForTwo two-seater (2.69m).

The other rival comes from within: the Polo. Indeed, Volkswagen will clear Australian showrooms of its three-door base model Polo early next year to ensure there is limited overlap with its new price-busting Up.

The current Polo three door starts at about $17,990 but the switch to a five-door-only base model will likely push the price closer to $20,000.

?Rome might not have been built in a day but a torrentional downpour certainly paralysed it for 24 hours.

A rainstorm battered the Italian capital during the morning rush hour, causing flash floods, falling trees and blocking thousands of commuters from reaching their workplaces. Hours after the rain stopped, cars remained trapped in massive traffic jams on the outskirts of the city… Or beached on the side of the road, their engines full of water.

Into this mix launched two dozen shiny new Volkswagen Up city cars. If the object of the exercise was to experience the Up in traffic mayhem, Volkswagen achieved its goal. Fortunately, we headed out of the city and away from the traffic at first, and got to experience the car on a mix of severely cobbled city streets and smooth but winding dual-lane roads.

First impressions are good. The car felt spritely, the gearshift and steering very grown up. The suspension felt like Peugeots used to feel – supple over bumps yet taut when changing direction. Indeed, the whole car felt bigger, better and more refined than expected. It felt cheerful, not cheap.

The engine was relatively quiet, too. To be frank, there wasn’t much not to like (which is saying something having come from driving a Ferrari 458 Spider a few days before).

The only question is: will cash-conscious buyers be prepared to pay a premium for a practical small car in Australia? We had plenty of time to ponder this.

The navigation eventually sent us back into town, towards the mayhem. It was all going well along the motorway section – until the traffic came to a sudden stop. With 10km remaining, it took us an hour to cover the next 5km.

We got very acquainted with the clutch and its take-up point (the engine actually likes a subtle rev, if you leave it on idle it’ll want to stall) in the stop-start grind. Ironically, the closer we got to the city and its madness, the more the traffic freed up.

Despite these trying conditions, we quickly developed a soft spot for the Up. It made us wonder just how much room is left for carmakers to find new levels of frugality and space efficiency.

On the verge of the modern electric car era, the Up may not single-handedly save the future of the petrol-powered car, but it – and cars like it – may end up extending its life.