Review Volkswagen up! hatchback

"The Volkswagen up! is a small city car with a high-quality feel designed to compete with the Fiat 500." The up! is Volkswagen's brand-new city car and the smallest model in the range. It's designed to take on rivals like the Fiat 500 and Toyota Aygo and offers excellent value for money while maintaining VW's high levels of quality. Its clean-cut design and efficient, fun to drive three-cylinder petrol engine should prove a hit with a crop of young customers. A starting price of £7,995 means this is a VW that's affordable, too. Available initially as a three-door model, a five-door model will arrives in September and will cost an additional £375 for a pair of extra doors. A faster, turbocharged up! GT is due in 2013 while an all-electric version is due in 2014. Drive4.5 /5 The up! is very light, weighing less a tonne When buying a car of this size, you wouldn’t normally expect it to cope so well with motorway driving. But even at speeds over 60mph, the up! remains a quiet and relaxing way to travel on long trips. Engine choices couldn’t be simpler, as there's only one, a 1.0-litre three-cylinder petrol engine with either 59bhp or 74bhp. It makes a classic three-cylinder thrum as the revs rise, which is fortunate as it needs to be revved hard to produce its best. The steering is light but accurate, while the brakes are strong – thanks to the fact that the up! only weighs 929kg in three-door form. The up! five-door gets the same engine range and is just as responsive, although our advice would be to not go for the five-speed automatic in either bodystyle: it's very jerky and slow to change. The up! GT hot hatch has a 108bhp turbocharged version of the same engine and can do 0-60mph in around 8.5 seconds (the 74bhp version does it in 13.2 seconds). It's fast, has slightly stiffer suspension and is lot of fun. Comfort4.4 /5 Very comfortable for such a small car The supple suspension does an excellent job of absorbing bumps in the road. The price to pay for straight-line comfort is body roll when you’re going around corners. Even in the back, head, shoulder and legroom are excellent for a car of this size, while the seats offer just the right amount of support. It's a shame there's no reach adjustment for the steering wheel, but thanks to a wide range of movement in the front seats, finding a comfortable driving position is easy. Reliability4.6 /5 Volkswagen's reputation is very strong While VW can’t match the five-year, unlimited-mileage warranty offered with the Hyundai i10, VW as a brand has an excellent record for reliability. The up!'s simple front-engine, front-wheel drive layout, and high-percentage of common components with other small VWs, should make it easy to fix when something goes wrong. Although the interior trim features fewer soft-touch materials than models higher up in the range, the superb build quality will stand up well to everyday use. Practicality5.0 /5 The up! is very well packaged inside At around 3.5 metres in length, the Volkswagen up! is almost identical in size to the Fiat 500, it has a far longer wheelbase, so it's much larger inside. An adult can sit comfortably behind the driver or passenger, which is more than can be said for the Fiat, while headroom and elbow room is excellent in the front and back. There's even a decent sized 251-litre boot, expanding to 951-litres with the 60/40 rear seats folded flat. The five-door model is exactly the same size – the only differences are an extra pair of rear doors, a slightly raised rear bench seat to give a better view out and pop-out rear windows. Value for money5.0 /5 The up! is a quality product Starting at just £7,995 is quite an achievement for a car of this quality. However, prices rise quite sharply when you start adding options and choose the more powerful engine, so it won’t be the cheapest car in its class. A removable sat-nav head unit, which integrates fully with the car's computer to display audio controls, directions and eco driving tips is standard on the flagship High up!, while hi-tech features like an automatic braking system that cuts in at speeds under 20mph costs £225. The five-door only costs an extra £375 which represents excellent value for money. The up! GT is likely to cost around £13,000, which is competitive with the Suzuki Swift Sport and RenaultSport Twingo. Running costs5.0 /5 BlueMotion version offers very small running costs A BlueMotion version of the lower-powered engine, fitted with stop-start, is capable of returning 67.3mpg and emissions of less than 100g/km – which qualifies it for road tax exemption. Fuel costs will be rock-bottom, too. The 74bhp model is not far behind with figures of 65.7mpg and 108g/km. Because it's a VW, residuals will be stronger than for rivals from Fiat and Hyundai, so you’ll get more of your money back when the time comes to sell. Despite being fast, the up! GT still does around 60mpg. The electric version can do 90 miles on a charge (which takes only five-and-a-half hours from a conventional plug) but it is likely to cost around £14,000.