[Closed] VW Up GTI

Ive heard it described as the spiritual successor to the Lupo GTI, however I don't know anyone who owns one to confirm this.

Well, I’ve driven the Up!, Mii and Citigo, and a Polo GTi, the little ones are very nippy, very willing to rev, and a lot of fun; I managed 105mph out of a Citigo on the M4, uphill towards junction 18, according to my satnav, and the Polo GTi was just plain nuts, so an Up! GTi is likely to be mad as a bag of owls!

I used to have an up! albeit not a GTi but it was a great car. It was really fun to drive, nippy and nicely balanced. I always thought that the chassis could easily take more power. The interior was good quality and the seats were comfortable. It was even reasonably quiet at motorway speeds.  It felt very sophisticated for a small car and overall it was a great ownership experience. I wouldn't think twice about getting the GTi version if I didn't need to tow a caravan.

All sounds good and seems to confirm my thoughts.

just need to find a demo GTi to test drive now

i've had fairly basic ones as hire cars abroad where, because i'm a foreigner, the rules don't apply to me. i was very impressed with it. everything they said ^, it would bowl along the motorway at quite high speeds, feeling stable, quiet, and comfortable.

Not sure about being the spiritual successor to the Lupo GTi , more lie the spiritual successor to the original Golf GTi. Closer to the size of the original Golf GTi than the humungous, bloated and overweight current GTi and a bit more simple and back to basics. Looks like it could be a cracker. But I think waiting  lists are quite long. My dad's mate was after one and was told had to wait about 9 months for one so hie ditched the idea and got a Mini Cooper S instead. Not sure if this is still the case.

I believe they are in exceedingly short supply / very long waiting list / order book might even be closed at the moment as so many people have wanted to buy them.

Didn't James May rave over one in the last Grand Tour series (or the first Grand Tour series - it's all a blur).

STW: a place for petrolheads to brag about breaking the law.

Closer to the size of the original Golf GTi than the humungous, bloated and overweight current GTi

When did that happen? It looked to be 'modest family hatchback' sized when I looked at it, and pretty well regarded by people who know about cars...

I think they look great, and well priced too. Comparing to a Mini Cooper S seems mad - they're almost double the price. Not surprised there's a huge waiting list.

an Up! GTi is likely to be mad as a bag of owls!

Or, with an equal power output and kerb weight, a 1992 Rover 216. 😆

Sorry.

Wifey has got one on order. It's a brilliant car to drive, just enough power to be entertaining, the ride isn't harsh or crashy and it copes with potholes as well as the standard one but it handles well. Just all round fun.

The downside is the potential wait. The car is so good we were prepared to wait for the quoted 42 weeks when we ordered it. However we've been lucky, ordered on April 9th, notified a couple of weeks ago that the build week would be June 11th but notified yesterday that the car was built and waiting to be shipped.

There's a 90 page thread on the VW Up forum where people haven't been so lucky. There seems to be no logic to VW's build allocation with plenty of people who ordered in Feb and haven't heard anything. People cancelling orders and just generally being messed about by VW.

I have recently bought an Up GTI and it is so much fun to drive. Faster than you think, handles like a little go kart, and makes a brilliant noise. It is true about the waiting list though. We wanted a new one to replace our 11 year old Toyota Aygo and all of the dealerships were quoting a 43 week build slot for the colour (red) that we wanted. You can get earlier delivery on the other colours though I think.

We ended up buying a demonstrator car from a dealership, and the sales guy said it was the last demonstrator left in the group (JCT600). James May did a great review in the last series of The Grand Tour, and most of the reviews say that it is more fun to drive than a Golf GTi.

The original Golf GTI weighed 810kgs, the current model is 1386kgs.

As for people who know about cars liking the Golf GTi. 🙂

A car a sporting image/pretentions with an electronic handbrake, seriously? Even a Dacia Sandero has an intuitive fully operational handbrake capable of prevently the rear wheels from turning whenever you want and doing nothing when you don't want.

https://www.golfmk7.com/forums/showthread.php?t=157

I like the UP!

Think it’s probably the best car in VW’s lineup at present.

Not that bothered about the GTi spec but the simple boggo version is a little beaut.

We’ve been looking for a replacement for an old Astra for the farm and the three door UP! is top of the list at present.

Should we buy a Black or White one, that’s the only question we should be asking.

The original Golf GTI weighed 810kgs, the current model is 1386kgs.

And the new one is far quicker, safer, more comfortable, and more economical. What's your point caller? I thought you'd be all over that last one.

The Up GTi is over 1 ton as well, so is it immediately inferior to the Mk1 Golf?

I've driven the Seat equivalent and was impressed (apart from it being fwd)

I would question why you want a large sunroof, all they do is heat the car up more.

What’s your point caller

http://www.lotuscars.com/about-us/lotus-philosophy

"Colin Chapman's obsession with light weight.
"Simplify, then add lightness", he said."

"Adding power makes you faster on the straights; subtracting weight makes you faster everywhere",

The Up GTi is over 1 ton as well, so is it immediately inferior to the Mk1 Golf?

To me it is yes.  I would rather have a brand new Mk1 Golf GTI (the 1.8) for the same price.  A light car is just better to drive, corner etc,.  I did have a Caterham as my daily driver for 3 years though so may be more obsessed about light cars than most....

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STW: a place for petrolheads to brag about breaking the law.

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Edukator
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A car a sporting image/pretentions with an electronic handbrake, seriously? Even a Dacia Sandero has an intuitive fully operational handbrake capable of prevently the rear wheels from turning whenever you want and doing nothing when you don’t want.

you heard it here first kids. speeding = bad, handbrake turns = good.

😉

As the owner of a small but nippy Panda 100hp, I am keen to see how the Up! GTi feels to drive as the power to weight is similar between the two. I'd fully imagine the Up! to be a nicer place to be, but is it as entertaining?

One I'm keeping an eye on for when the Panda gets retired for sure though.

To me it is yes.  I would rather have a brand new Mk1 Golf GTI (the 1.8) for the same price.  A light car is just better to drive, corner etc,.  I did have a Caterham as my daily driver for 3 years though so may be more obsessed about light cars than most….

Fair enough. You could just take the back seats and various bits of interior out of the Up!, and stick some Plexiglass in, then it would be better than the Golf.

Caterhams are great fun for all sorts of reasons, I'm not sure there's a linear relationship between weight and 'betterness' though...

Smith and Sniff like it

"And the new one is far quicker, safer, more comfortable, and more economical. What’s your point caller?"

The point is the original Golf GTi was a small, nimble, not particularly powerful or fast, but fun car. The new GTi isn't. It's too powerful, too fast, too complicated, too expensive, too fat, too heavy, not nimble enough, too hard etc. 'They've engineered' the fun out of it. It is a fact of life that small, nimble, slow go-kartish cars are far more fun to drive. you get far more fun out of them at much lower speeds. So hence why the VW UP GTi is the true spiritual successor to the original concept of the Golf GTi. Well I assume it is, I've not seen the spec sheets yet so they could have stuffed if full of fun sapping technology too.

"I think they look great, and well priced too. Comparing to a Mini Cooper S seems mad – they’re almost double the price"

He didn't get the Cooper S as a direct and comparable alternative, it was just another car he fancied. He just wanted a small, sporty hatch type car. The UP GTi was his preferred choice but there was no availability. The Cooper S was available immediately with good deals on offer.

Where is this 'fun' to be had though? Racing away from traffic lights for 100m before the next set? Undercutting the Transit van going around a roundabout? Doing 60 round twisty (blind) bends on A & B roads?

Maybe I'm just getting old but any modern car with a decent engine (e.g. a Golf GTi) can do all those things (if you really want to), maybe a bit more sluggishly but certainly more safely (for you at least) as well.

Fun seems to be something that's easy to get on the edge of control but outside of a race track is that really a big selling point when mostly we're just commuting or lugging bikes to a trail centre?

but certainly more safely (for you at least) as well.

Not really as above weight makes handling less agile. Also modern cars have stupid amounts of grip. This means idiots can drive them fast without danger of them sliding. Problem comes when an idiot gets to the point they do slide, they have got the reactions to control the slide (or know how) in a car of 20-30yrs ago all that would happen at 50mph, in a modern car it’s more like 80-100mp

And besides VW have made it impossible to left foot brake in their vehicles, where’s the fun in that!

they have got the reactions to control the slide (or know how) in a car of 20-30yrs ago all that would happen at 50mph, in a modern car it’s more like 80-100mp

So basically it would have happened at reasonable driving speeds 20-30 years ago but now you have to be doing an obviously unsafe speed? Also I wouldn't be so quick to assume crashing in a mk1 Golf at 50mph is less likely to leave you seriously injured than crashing at 80mph in a current model.

Crashes in old cars have you external injuries ie bone breaks/head injuries

modern cars kill you with internal injuries your still going from 80 - 0 in an instant.

The point I’m making though is that the modern Golf GTI is dull in comparison, bigger, heavier, less engaging, needs silly speed to make it fun

You could just take the back seats and various bits of interior out of the Up!, and stick some Plexiglass in, then it would be better than the Golf.

Wow, the back seats and glass weigh 200kg, I didn't realise that.  To put it in perspective that is 20% of the cars overall weight, are you sure about that?  And what if I wanted back sets and proper glass.  I will stick will preferring to have a brand new Mk 1 Golf GTI please.

I was being flippant to show that weight and 'fun' (as you define it) do not have a linear correlation. As you can't have a brand new mk1 Golf GTI that seems pretty moot. I'm not denying that the Up! GTi is the "spiritual successor" (that makes me want to stab someone) to the Mk1, and I totally agree that cars like the current GTI (and even more so the 4WD R) require silly speeds before they start sliding, but I'm ok with that. I'm on a public road, I don't want to go sliding around roundabouts, bags of grip is fine, even if a flatters a mediocre driver.

If you prefer then I suggest taking the heavy V10 out of a Lamborghini Huracan and replacing it with a lighter 3 cylinder 1.0 would make it far more fun, by your definition...

So, to summarise, have we decided whose willy is bigger?

So, to summarise, have we decided whose willy is bigger?

I know if you pull on Edukator's he locks up. Much better than this button pressing business.

Less weight is good in many ways, not just excitement.

a lighter car will feel nippier, brake better, corner better, use less fuel, emit less co2, be easier on tyres/brakes/suspension.

This is why manufacturers are now focusing on weight loss as a means improving their cars.

imho, colin chapman is somewhat underrated.