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Take it or leave it: Why we love the VW Up GTI

Take it or leave it: Why we love the VW Up GTI

Take it or leave it: Why we love the VW Up GTI

The Volkswagen Up GTI presents a huge amount of money of smiles per mile

The Volkswagen Up GTI is the star of the exhibit this 7 days

Volkswagen’s GTI badge has defined the German car or truck maker’s overall performance range considering the fact that 1976.

The nameplate has arrive to represent outstanding all-round efficiency and dynamic skill and it continues to show up on the Volkwagen Golf and smaller sized Volkswagen Polo to this day.

The most modern design to get the GTI badge, while, was the Volkswagen Up: the firm’s smallest automobile, which excels in urban environments.

Beneath the bonnet sits a tiny 1.-litre 3-cylinder petrol motor, manufacturing 113bhp, with energy despatched to the front wheels by means of a 6-velocity guide transmission.

When individuals particulars are much from eyebrow-raising, the Volkswagen Up GTI benefits from a turbocharger to enable propel the automobile from -62mph in 8.8sec (we obtained -60mph in 8.5sec in our 2018 street check) and on to a top rated speed of 119mph.

It also attained some layout details normal of previous GTI designs. Within, there’s matt chrome trim, a established of Jacara fabric tartan seats and a leather-based, flat-bottomed, a few-spoke steering wheel. GTI branding characteristics on the gearknob and the doorway sills, and every vehicle gets a black roof.

There really aren’t lots of efficiency metropolis automobiles out there that can match the appeal of the Up GTI. In point, we explained in that primary highway take a look at that the model is “as genial and charming a motor vehicle as any pint-sized ‘pocket rocket’ there has at any time been”.

Its mixture of good quality inside, driving dynamics, superb structure and benefit for dollars tends to make the Up GTI a more powerful get than numerous of its rivals, which includes the Fiat 500-primarily based Abarth 595.

Prices for a new Up GTI started from £13,750 in 2018, but you’ll have to pay from £18,055 for a new just one now. Its standing as a opportunity upcoming typical is mirrored by the model’s healthy residuals on the utilized marketplace.

Our used locate is this 2018 motor vehicle priced at £11,995. Really don’t be too deterred by its greater-than-common 40,000 driven miles: it comes with a total company history and a 12-thirty day period MOT. It also has Deep Black Pearl exterior paint – originally a £630 option.

Verdict: Get it

Cadillac Escalade

£16,500: Crafted for the wide town streets of the US, the Cadillac Escalade SUV will constantly battle with the UK’s narrower strips of Tarmac. This illustration was imported to the Uk in 2020 and has 38,000 miles beneath its wheels – and whilst that all-American V8 engine could enchantment, the motor vehicle is inadequately packaged and outsized.

Verdict: Leave it

Peugeot RCZ

£6800: This distinctive Peugeot has a decision of two punchy powertrains in 154bhp and 267bhp guises. The previous is all you need and it can comprehensive -62mph in a brisk 8.4sec. Our obtain is a three-proprietor car priced at £6800, justified by its sub-30,000 mileage. It’s also received a new timing belt a short while ago, put in at a Peugeot dealership.

Verdict: Consider it

Proton Gen2

£2295: The Proton Gen 2 was provided 1 of the worst Autocar highway take a look at scores at any time, earning just a solitary star out of five. It was allow down by a poor inside and shoddy ride excellent, as very well as a assortment of strained engines, this kind of as the 110bhp 1.6-litre motor in this illustration, which will get you from -62mph in 12sec.

Verdict: Depart it