First Drive: 2012 Volkswagen Up!

By John LeBlanc BERLIN, GERMANY—Alexandra liked my little red Up!. First, for its chunky, iPod-like looks, then for its tidy dimensions. “It looks good; and it looks like it would be easy to park,” she gushed, as I took photos of Volkswagen’s latest city car on the busy streets of Germany’s capital city. As an architecture student attending the Berlin University of the Arts, Alexandra’s world is strictly the urban variety. In Europe, that means tight — if not nonexistent — parking spaces. So, in addition to excellent fuel economy and a low price, being the smallest car VW sells is one of the biggest reasons the German automaker is betting big on its minuscule Up!. Initially conceived as a rear-engine, rear-drive car four years ago, the first production Up! is being sold this fall in Europe as a front-wheel-drive, two-door, four-passenger hatch. But more are on the way. At this year’s Frankfurt auto show, VW rolled out six concepts based on the Up!’s platform. Some were pure fancy, like the Myers Manx-inspired Buggy Up!. Some, like the turbocharged Up! GT, were downright desirable. Unfortunately for small car fans, VW Canada is saying no Up!s are coming our way — at least for now. VW keeps saying, however, that if any Up! model were to make it to North America, it would be the Bulli iteration — sort of a mini-VW Microbus with 2+2+2 seating. Two sizes down from the smallest VW sold here — the compact Golf — the Up! is even smaller than the subcompact European Polo. But it doesn’t feel like a toy car when you sit inside. To create as much passenger room as possible, the Up’s wheels have been pushed to the far reaches of its extra-long wheelbase — a wheelbase longer than cars it would compete against here in Canada, like the Fiat 500, Smart ForTwo or Scion iQ. Overall, the two-door Up!’s measurements (and its estimated sub-$16,000 starting price) line up with the small Fiat, another popular car in Europe for its urban guerrilla parking capabilities. While diesel and electric powertrains are in the works, the first Up!s are introducing a new family of naturally aspirated and turbocharged VW four- and three-cylinder gas engines. For now, the two-door is available with two versions (one with 60 hp and one with 75 hp, both with 70 lb.-ft. of torque) of a non-turbocharged 1.0 L, three-cylinder, powering its front wheels. Five-speed manual and automatic transmissions are offered. The first drive in my “hi-po” 75 hp Up! with a manual gearbox was a short back-and-forth trip, from Berlin to Potsdam, during afternoon rush hour. While for cost reasons the Up! is built in Slovakia, alongside the Polo, Touareg, Audi Q7 and Porsche Cayenne, I spent the next day in my Up! blasting along a few unrestricted speed sections on the autobahn, hurtling toward its spiritual home at the epicentre of all things VW: the company town of Wolfsburg. Despite its Dinky Toy dimensions, whether in town or out, the Up! feels all grown up inside. Its cabin is airy and the driving position feels little different than the bigger Golf, with everything the driver touches (steering wheel, seats, gear shift knob) of similar high-quality fit and finish and silky operation as its bigger brother. As well, the Up!’s driver’s instrumentation and HVAC controls are textbook VW: Clear and easy to read — no gimmicks. My Up! had an optional nav system that sat atop the centre dash and could be removed for city walkabouts. With about the same amount of juice as a ForTwo, as you can imagine, fuel economy in the Up! is spectacular. The Up! scores a combined city/highway rating of only 4.7L/100 km on the European cycle. Although it takes a while to get to those autobahn speeds (a little over 13 seconds from rest to 100 km/h in the 75 hp Up!), I saw a real world, in-town figure of 5.6 L, and foot-to-the-floor (160 to 170 km/h) autobahn number of 7.0L. If VW ever decided to bring the two-door Up! to Canada, a turbocharged version of the three-banger with around 100 hp (as conceptualized with the Up! GT Frankfurt concept car) would make more sense in our market where gas is cheaper. However, even in these less-powerful models, the Up! is remarkably quiet and refined on the highway. It’s the car’s biggest surprise and asset. The VW’s stretched wheelbase creates a very smooth rode, with none of the “freeway hop” found in a Smart. And there’s very little wind or road noise intruding into its cabin — something the iQ suffers from. I had some opportunity to drive the Up! on the back roads in the countryside surrounding Wolfsburg. Admittedly, the small VW’s mission is to deliver a big car ride (i.e. soft). But the consequence is quite a lot of body roll, with, inevitably, the car’s stability control system coming into play. Like I said, bring on the Up! GT. As an everyday runabout, though, there’s not much not to like about VW’s smallest car. Plus its mature nature delivers few of the compromises its rivals impose. Its styling is modern without being too cute or too retro. It can seat four comfortably in an upscale cabin, offer the safety and reliability of a bigger car, and deliver a quiet, refined driving experience — even if you can’t beat your neighbour’s Prius from a stoplight. In the end, though, the Up!’s value isn’t about any of the above. No. It’s about offering a large car driving experience in a vehicle that can slip into tiny parking spots, like a vacant sidewalk or an alleyway. A quality that will be most appreciated in crowded metropolises like London, Paris or Rome. First Drive: 2012 VOLKSWAGEN UP! WHAT I LIKED: “Big car” driving experience; quality interior materials with excellent fit-and-finish; parsimonious fuel economy. WHAT I DIDN'T: Modest performance, comfort-first suspension, not coming to Canada. EST. BASE PRICE: $15,250 ENGINE: 1.0-litre I3 POWER/TORQUE: 75 hp; 70 lb.-ft. TRANSMISSION: Five-speed manual E.U. COMBINED CITY/HWY. FUEL ECONOMY: 4.7L/100km: 4.7L COMPETITION: Fiat 500, Scion iQ, Smart ForTwo

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