Move up in VW’s trendy 5-door up!

Colourful, funky and a true city slicker, the VW up! is the true modern day city car. And trust us, it’s just gotten better with a practical 5-door model range and various trim options to keep up with latest trends. The sharper lines, sporty design and extra standard features immediately sets it apart from the outgoing model. It’s a success story VW are no doubt enjoying.

Fun and easy to drive, the up! made the daily commute pleasurable and exciting. Despite its small stature, the VW still has big city dreams. Its nimble and nippy, making it a joy in traffic and parking a breeze. However, it isn’t shy to tackle to open roads either. Feeling at home on the open road, the VW up! can quite comfortably mingle with the best, demonstrating terrific stability at speed, crisp steering and excellent control over its damper and spring rates.

Small car feel with a big helping of space, the VW designers have done a good job of making the interior feel open and spacious. Whether it’s upfront in the driver’s seat or sitting in the rear, the Up! has more space than you would expect. The boot at 250-litres (up to 959 litres) is some packaging voodoo.

Gaining speed in terms of popularity, the new up! is loveable from the word go. Its confident appearance courtesy of the newly designed LED daytime running lights and redesigned front bumper ushers in a new design era for the up!, while the rear lights have also been given a makeover to set it apart from the outgoing Volkswagen up!. That sense of German build quality is probably why we loved it more than some alternatives, there’s no flimsy panels or stalks, zero rattles and no arbitrary colour or material finishes. The Polo Vivo appears old fashioned in the up!’s chic company – although Vivo still a top-seller for its own reasons.

Our test mule, dressed in black and featuring the Move up!  spec, means it enjoys 14-inch mags – adding to its already funky street style – 60/40 folding seat, USB connectivity and colour coded handles and door mirrors which you don’t get on the lower Take up!

At R178 300 this top-notch build quality certainly belies the price. VW has made the car practical and trendy with a host of entertainment features, means you can take your vibes with you, even when you are on the go, courtesy of a 5-inch centre display and a steering wheel with easy to use audio controls.

During our one-week date together, the VW up! was everything I have expected. It’s young, groovy and the little 1-litre, three-cylinder powertrain continues to do a fabulous job, even if at altitude one does need to give the 5-speed manuak gearbox some extra work. With 55kW and 95Nm of torque it can get shuffling from standstill to 100km/h in about 13.5 seconds and pushes on to 173km/h. But the up!’s biggest party trick is its fuel consumption. Sipping a mere 4.6 litres/100km, you’ll go on longer before making a visit to the pricey petrol stations. Again proving that a normally aspirated engine can match turbo counterparts for efficiency, often beating them.

Of course, safety is always a must in small cars, and while some manufacturers dance around safety, VW has taken it firmly by the hand. Fitting ABS, Electronic Stability Control and the all-important airbags – four to be precise.

The up! could very well lead the future of small cars for VW. Energetic in its design and young personality, I’ve got a feeling the new up! get soon going to be a strong favourite on our roads.  It’s certainly on the up and up.