With its ultra-boxy and ultra-compact profile, the latest version of Volkswagen’s low-buck up! city car has room for four passengers.
The five-door up! (which VW curiously plans to market as a four-door) builds on the three-door model unveiled last fall at the Frankfurt Motor Show. Adding two additional doors has changed the up!’s side profile. Instead of a rising belt-line seen on the initial model, this more family-friendly offering is a bit more conservative and a bit less stylish.
Front and rear fascias are shared between the two models, as is most of the interior. That means that up! will boast a similarly sized interior regardless of the number of doors included, although the five-door does provide some major rear seat access advantages. Once inside, driver and three passengers will find a fairly roomy cabin with nearly 9 cubic feet of luggage space behind the second row of seats. Fold the rear backrest and that space expands to 33.6 cubic feet.
Trim levels will mirror the three-door, which means that European buyers will be able to order take up!, move up!, high up!, black up!, white up! configurations. At the low end of the range, the take up! will include stability control at its 10,325 euro base price in Germany. That figure represents a 475 euro increase over the three-door model.
Want an up!? You’ll have to relocate to Europe, where the five-door model will hit the market in a few months. At the moment, VW has no plans to export the up! to the United States or Canada, although we wouldn’t be surprised to see other global markets begin to receive up!s soon – especially since the car has been a certifiable hit in Germany after just a few months on the market. VW has also not confirmed whether its Seat and Skoda divisions will receive five-door up! variants to complement their three-door models.
