VW Up 1.0 TSI review: turbo city car versus London

You liked the new VW Up in your last review?

Yes, VW’s smallest, cheapest car has always been a big of a TG favourite. It was facelifted recently, gaining more angular bumpers, tricksy LED rear lights and a refreshed interior we’ll heap praise upon in a moment.

Mostly, the headlines were devoted to the new Up turbo. As well as the keen and quiet 59bhp and 74bhp 1.0-litre engines, there’s now a turbocharged option. The Up 1.0 TSI, handing over 89bhp and 118lb ft in return for £11,400. Top-spec ‘High up’ trim is thrown in as standard.

Only thing was, we had our first drive on the winding roads that lasso Lake Como. A good workout for the Up’s supremely biddable chassis, but not its most relevant habitat. To London…

Is this just an Up for people too lazy to change gear?

No – adding boost doesn’t fundamentally change the character of the Up. Or the noise. But what is interesting is how early it will accept tall gears. In the naturally aspirated Up, second is the gear of choice for urban work, with forays up to third once you’re settled into a blissfully quiet 30mph zone. 

The turbo Up wants fourth from 24mph. That’s the indicated speed at which you can select fourth and the motor doesn’t labour. As a result, you can quickly move up the gearbox then keep the revs quite modest, which is why the test car averaged a stellar 45-47mpg even when confined within the rat runs inside the M25. 

I’d expected the Up TSI to feel a bit boosty, a bit fevered, but it’s just as relaxed and refined as its less powerful twins, but a bit more elastic when you want it to be. It asks a little less manhandling of its driver. Which fits with the whole premium city car image rather well, really.

Sophisticated thing then?

There’s a sophistication to the ride, which is supremely judged – Noughties Ford-like, in its control, damping and cheekiness – to the class-leading lack-thereof of wind noise, tyre hum and engine chunter, and yup, that cabin. 

For the facelift, VW’s plonked in an all-new, easier to read instrument cluster, completely revised switchgear that wouldn’t embarrass an Audi (and would embarrass a Jag) and a pin-sharp colour screen that makes navigating radio stations and Bluetooth menus less squint-worthy than the previous Up.

Does it come with a free smartphone?

No, you provide that bit yourself. Ups now get a cradle capable of holding just about any smartphone you care to provide, the idea being you plug that in, hook up your charging lead neatly into the USB socket in the back and instantly have a touchscreen media and infotainment set-up on hand. Want sat-nav? Open Google Maps, Waze, Citymapper or what-have-you.

On the car’s launch in Italy, the phones came pre-installed with an official Up app with all of the above wrapped up in a VW-designed interface. Perhaps it was a dodgy phone or bad signal, but it didn’t work at all well. 

However, ignore the VW app and just use our phone as you ordinary would, switching between music or nav apps as you require, and it’s close to perfect. A logical use of a piece of tech a great any of us carry around every day. The cradle itself is a nicer item than the similar version in the current Smart and Renault Twingo too. Less flimsy, though your phone will rattle a bit if it’s not in a case.

Speaking of rivals…

The Up is the best city car in the world, the turbo engine blessing it with flexibility that its also-ace cousins, the Skoda Citigo and Seat Mii, haven’t been treated to yet. 

The Hyundai i10 (a fine car, and some £1,000 cheaper than the Up in this sort of spec) is equally spacious and just as refined to run around it, but it hasn’t an ounce of the VW’s appeal as an 'item'. It’s also not as game for a laugh on anything from a mini-roundabout to an Italian lake ring-road. If you’re able, spend the extra, have the VW, and marvel at the most complete small car money can buy.