Volkswagen up Review 2013

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Volkswagen (VW)

Thursday, February 21, 2013

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Volkswagen up Review 2013

Volkswagen's concept for the Up followed on from Toyota's bold attempt to push the compact city car reset button with its brilliant but flawed iQ. The bespoke cuboid was a brazen attempt to turn design convention on its head and provided evidence that the world’s biggest car manufacturer had not bankrupted its brain trust or ambition but remained capable of genuine blue-sky originality.

Soon after the Toyota revealed the iQ as a concept, Volkswagen, the European firm that aspires to its Japanese rival’s global rank, unveiled the original Up at the Frankfurt motor show. Imaginatively packaged with a rear-mounted engine and rear-wheel drive, the Up appeared to rival the iQ’s innovative approach and suggested that VW was just as capable of wielding its own economic and engineering clout in this niche.

The Up duly caught the industry’s imagination, and despite a prolonged development, the production version still arrives in the UK on a groundswell of opinion that continues to suggest that VW might have produced something worthy of the original concept’s inventiveness

 Although the Up has clearly been designed by Volkswagen and built with an urban environment in mind, prospective customers expect more than ever of a city car’s potential performance. The ability to negotiate a one-way system with reasonable vigour is no longer sufficient. Consequently, the Up must be economical, refined and responsive in equal measure – a tall order for a car with a 74bhp three-cylinder engine.

The paucity of power – and the characteristic rasp of the vocal three-pot – are most noticeable when pulling away. Considerable revs are required even with only a moderate getaway in mind. More aggressive starts are met with an incredulous response from the clutch and throttle, usually resulting in a humiliating crawl before the engine catches up with your intentions.

Fortunately, the experience improves from there. Three-cylinder petrol units are often characterised as lively or ‘happy’ motors, and VW’s latest generation by and large lives up to the billing regardless of which power output you choose. Its hoarse tone never totally disappears, and the engine’s natural cylinder imbalance means that there’s always a hint of shiver through the car’s short spine, but both are softened at a cruise, and progression often seems reasonable for the Up’s character – especially around town.

source : autocar
 dieselstation