Top in Automotive: VW Up

Showing posts with label VW Up. Show all posts

VW Rocky 3-Door SUV Design Concept Based on the Up! Mini Car Platform

Friday, December 21, 2012

Here's another design concept for a small crossover model utilizing the platform hardware from the Volkswagen Up! family of mini cars.

We say another one because Volkswagen itself introduced a very-near production study at this year's edition of the São Paulo International Motor Show in Brazil in October.

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Volkswagen has just presented a new edition of its Up! mini called "Eco", which features a modified version of the regular model's 1.0-liter three-cylinder petrol engine that can run on Compressed Natural Gas, or CNG for short.

CNG is a promising alternative fuel to gasoline that has caught up with many European consumers.

Among the many benefits of this fuel is that it has a higher energy content than petrol or diesel as 1.0 kg of natural gas is equivalent to 1.3 litres of diesel or 1.5 litres of petrol. According to VW, the energy content of 1.0 kg natural gas amounts to 11.69 kW, while the associated quantity of diesel yields 9.86 kWh and of petrol, 8.77 kWh.

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

It's been a little over a year since Volkswagen stormed the 2011 Frankfurt Motor Show with a group of six concept models based on its new Up! city car, each sporting a different subject.

One of those studies showed how the Up! would look like with a tougher, SUV-like makeover, and was subsequently displayed in different colors at the Geneva Motor Show in March this year.

Monday, October 22, 2012

At this week's 2012 São Paulo International Motor Show in Brazil, Volkswagen introduced a new study for a small SUV that looks far more production ready than what the automaker would like us to believe.

The concept's name in Taigun, which as you have probably already guessed, is an anagram of "Tiguan", VW's SUV proposal in the compact segment.

The German company makes no effort to hide the fact that the Taigun not only resembles the styling but is also technically based on its New Small Family models represented by the Up! city cars, adding that if it were to be produced, it would round out the range "in an upward direction".

The Taigun is 3,859 mm (151.9in.) long, 1,728 mm (43.9 in.) wide and 1,570 mm (39.9 in) tall, which makes it significantly smaller not only from the Tiguan (4,432 mm or 174.5 in. long), but even the Nissan Juke (4,125mm or 162.4 in. long).

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Buyers in Britain now have the option of ordering the Volkswagen Up! city car with a new automated manual gearbox (ASG).

Priced at £595, the five-speed semi-automatic transmission is available on both three- and five-door (60PS) Move up! and (75PS) High up! models, excluding the BlueMotion Technology versions.

Monday, June 11, 2012

Prices for the five-door body style of the Volkswagen up! have been announced for the UK market. The new Up! 5d costs £365 more than the less practical but otherwise identical three-door model, with on-the-road prices starting from £8,360.

Volkswagen expects that the five-door models will make up just over half of all up! sales.

Monday, May 7, 2012

Two more crossover models could soon join the ranks of the compact Tiguan and the mid-size Touareg in Volkswagen's lineup, according to a report from German business publication, Handelsblatt.

Citing unnamed company sources, the newspaper wrote that a subcompact crossover built on the underpinnings of the Polo, which would potentially go up against the Nissan Juke and Opel Mokka, as well as an even smaller model based on the Up! city car, are "certain".

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

We've all had our share of accidents running into things because we were distracted by something or someone and didn't pay attention to what was going on in front of us, be that on foot or in the car.

Volkswagen claims to have solved this problem in the Up! mini with its City Emergency Brake, which monitors the traffic ahead, automatically applying the brakes in the case that a collision is imminent (we wonder if it would have worked in this incident..).

To display how the system works, the Germany company has aired a new commercial named "Head Turner", which you can watch after the break.

Thursday, March 15, 2012

After announcing preliminary prices for the Up! back in October of 2011, the most compact of Volkswagen models is now in UK showrooms. On the road prices for the three-door Up! start from £7,995 for the entry level model and rise to £11,180.

Buyers can choose from two 1.0-litre three-cylinder petrol engine options producing 59bhp (60PS) and 74bhp (75PS) as well as a more fuel efficient 59bhp BlueMotion Technology version.

Monday, March 5, 2012

The Chevrolet Volt and its sister model, the Ampera, which is sold as under both the Opel and Vauxhall nameplates, have won the 2012 European Car of the Year (COTY) Award with 330 points.

Coming into second place was the Volkswagen Up! city car with 281 points while the new generation of the Ford Focus finished third with 256 points.

The other cars that made it to the final round of the competition were the Range Rover Evoque (186 points), Fiat Panda (156 points), Citroen DS5 (144 points) and the Toyota Yaris (122 points).

The competition brought together votes from 59 automotive journalists in 23 European countries.

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Joining the new Golf GTI Cabrio and the Polo GT Blue at Volkswagen's Geneva Motor Show booth next week will be four specially themed concept versions of the Up! city car called the Swiss Up, Winter Up!, X Up! and Cargo Up!.

Though you may have a hard time figuring it out just by looking at it, the Swiss Up! pays tribute to the hosts of the motor show. It supposedly does so by adopting the basic red color of the Swiss flag in its ‘tornado red’ exterior paint together with white ‘porcelain paint’ accents on the door mirror housings and wheel caps.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

The Geneva Salon may not be the prime place for tuners, but it is one of the two most important motor shows in Europe together with the Frankfurt and Paris events that alternate each year, and as such, big players in the industry like ABT Sportsline always have something new to show.

At this year's event, ABT will debut several new tuned models including the Volkswagen Up! and Beetle, and the Audi AS6 Avant and QS3 crossover.

Monday, January 23, 2012

Volkswagen has made the new Up! city car a little more practical with the presentation of a five-door model that will go on sale across Europe early this summer.

The new addition to VW's New Small Family, which is the internal name for the model series, keeps the same 2.42 m (95.3-in.) long wheelbase and 251-liter boot as the three-door model.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

"The future belongs to the small," says Volkswagen and to prove its point, the German automaker came out with a new commercial for the recently launched Up! city car.

The advert takes us on a quick journey through history showing us numerous "big things" that eventually went extinct, from dinosaurs to 1940s swimsuits and from 1970s sideburns to 1990s lexicons.

The spot is smart, to the point and reaches the Up!'s youthful target audience. Hop over the jump to check it out.

Monday, October 24, 2011

There are many kinds of automotive-related records but one of the most common is trying to fit as many people as possible in a passenger car.

If a VW Camper sounds spacious to you, try to imagine what it must have felt like for the 86 students of the Institute of Technology in Carlow, Ireland, than were cramped inside on April 23, 2009, or the 27 Penn State students that set a new Guinness World Record by squeezing themselves in a New Beetle.

These records inspired the crew over at VW Communications to find out how many people could fit in the 3.5 m-long Up! city car.

More often than not, when a new Volkswagen model is presented to the public, the German automaker commissions a matching scale replica, and this week, we have not one, but four new miniature vehicles that go on sale through the company's official store.

These include the production versions of the new up! city car and the Beetle along with the two-seater XL1 diesel-electric hybrid study and the Race Touareg 3 competition vehicle.

Friday, October 7, 2011

Even though the new Up! city car won’t be arriving at dealerships before spring 2012, VW today released pricing details for the UK model and opened the ordering books. Pricing for the 3.5m-long three-door model with seating for four starts at £7,995 for the base version and rises to £11,180 for the top-of-the-line White and Black editions. Read more »

New Seat Mii: Volkswagen Up! City Car Spawns Third Derivative

Monday, October 3, 2011

The world premiere of the VW Up! at last month's 2011 Frankfurt Motor Show last month was only the beginning for the German group as after the recent presentation of the Skoda Citigo, Seat is next in line to gain its version of the small city car with the Mii.

The new Mii is the Spanish firm's first offering in the segment after the termination of the Arosa mini in 2004, which was also based on a VW model, the Lupo.

As is the case with the Skoda Citigo, the only visible differences between the Seat Mii and the VW Up! are their front end styling, alloy wheel designs, tail lamp graphics and the interior trim colors and options.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Only two days after this year's edition of the Frankfurt Motor Show closed its gates to the public, Skoda came out with official details on its own interpretation of the Volkswagen Up! city car that will wear the Citigo nameplate.

The Czech automaker's smallest vehicle will go on sale in its home market before the end of this year, with the UK and other European countries following at the beginning of summer 2012.

Unlike its Wolfsburg sibling that will launch in a three-door body style, the Citigo will be offered in both three-door and five-door versions.

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

To demonstrate how important size is when it comes to parking in modern day cities, Volkswagen launched a new guerilla campaign for its new Up! city car right outside the Frankfurt Motor Show hall.

In the early hours of the morning, the German company's marketing team covered a line of cars in textiles featuring a life-size print of the new Up!.

You can watch the video right after the break.