VW’s freshened up! baby with new TSI turbo engine, new make-up and techie stuff

The successful city specialist – the Volkswagen up! – has been upgraded with a new engine and a new look.

The VW up! is VW’s baby, and have cleverly used its cuteness to great effect to creep up into the hearts of many people.

To hold out nearly 5 years before giving a car a facelift (more so in the compact car segment) calls for good product planning, and partly explains why most Volkswagens hold their resale value so well.  The Volkswagen up! was originally launched at Frankfurt motor show in September 2011, but showed up in South Africa only in February 2015 (where the Polo Vivo remains a consistent best seller).  This means the up! with its near-5-year facelift still has a lot of life in it.

TSI powers up!

The up! has thus far been available only with 1.0-litre 3-cylinder engine, quoted at 55kW and 95Nm for an adequate rather than ample driving experience as per this review when asked Is this the best new budget car?  With bigger-brother Polo having been transformed when it got the 1.2TSI turbo engine, the up! now becomes the turbo tiny-tot. 

The new smallest of Volkswagens get a 1.0TSI engine adding a much-needed turbo to the mix, taking power to 66kW, and torque up significantly to 160Nm from 1500 revs – this ups the up!’s performance markedly, and in city driving the TSI would make it as lively as the up! already looks.  VW reminds us that the VW up! TSI has a 10-second 0-100 time, which is a match for the original Golf GTI.

The 1.0 made up of 3 cylinders gives the best sound effects for a small car, and fewer cylinders also mean lower fuel use and emissions.

Freshened up!

The Volkswagen up! has been one of Europe’s most successful small cars, and in home-market Germany as well as neighbouring Netherlands it occupies 1st spot in its class.  The up! also enjoyed sales success in countries like Brazil, Japan and South Africa (the international media release mentions).  In another great VWSA target-market move, the Volkswagen up! is available in SA only as 3-door, with zero other 3-door competitors in its price class, as the Fiat 500 is priced much higher.

New make-up is applied, seeing the up! becoming more colourful and sharper, through items like newly-designed body panels, new paint colours, a redesigned interior, and more individualisation options.

Every version of the up! to be presented at the Geneva Motor Show 2016 will receive new headlights with LED daytime running lights as standard (replacing the halogen daytime running lights).  It will also be styled with a prominent rear diffuser, newly-designed taillights (with the new lights now more segmented, though still cleverly integrated into the black rear glass tailgate – think glass stove top with red hot plates, and you’ll get the idea).

up! specced

From the new colour spectrum of 13 paints, 7 are new, painted onto the exterior and colour-matched dashpad (interior dashboard panel), including Savanna Gold as pictured here.  3 new roof colours become available.  Buyers can also choose from a selection of 10 new dashpad designs, using an innovative labeling process for an even greater degree of customisation.  On the new high up! version, the dashpad can be specced in the new Pixels design in a choice of 3 versions (see interior images).

The up! will also get more equipment packages, and colour packs will see the up! “given a final eye-catching flourish” with contrasting Hot Orange or Gold Beige.

Pure Air Climatronic automatic air conditioning is also offered for the first time on up!

The up! beats is new, featuring a high-end BeatsAudio sound system, complete with 300 Watts output, tweeters and woofers.

“Maps + More dock” can be used to integrate smartphones, running either Apple or Android, into the car’s new Composition Phone media/phone system.