Filed under: Budget, Hatchback, Volkswagen, First Drives
VW Finally Rediscovers Its (Very) Small Car Roots
Big old Volkswagen is back to thinking small, and it's finally doing it right. After two frankly awful attempts at supplying the rest of the world with cheap tin boxes called Fox and Lupo, company bosses have done some soul searching and this is the result: a tiny road warrior that's absolutely worthy of the 6.3-inch wide emblem on its grill.
It might seem like only yesterday, but the Up! was first shown as a concept back in the pre-crisis days of 2007 at the Frankfurt Motor Show. Talk about fortuitous timing, because this 2+2 three-door minicar is exactly the sort of car that much of economically stunned Europe is craving nowadays. We all, Euro or Yank, want as much premium feel in our cars as cheaply as possible, and this is exactly why the little Up! is destined to clobber The Continent's vast field of city cars.
We've just spent 12 days in a top-trim Up! White Edition driving around in what certainly will be one of the car's major markets: the piratical, everyone-for-themselves streets of Milan, Italy. With our American brainset, at first we thought, "Yeah, it's really cute and useful, well built and all, but..." That qualifying "but" was just because the Up! is so small in every dimension save front seat room. As we would come to learn over our dozen days, with an all-new 1.0-liter, 74-horsepower three-cylinder and a serviceable five-speed manual, this little bugger can be a little roll-y in tight curves taken with any spirit, but she sure is fun.
Continue reading 2012 Volkswagen Up! [w/video]
2012 Volkswagen Up! [w/video] originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 22 Dec 2011 11:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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