The Volkswagen Up has won this year’s World Car of the Year award, the baby hatchback beating off competition from the BMW 3 Series and Porsche 911 that also made the final three, and 34 models in total. The award was announced at the New York motor show.
The jurors praised the VW’s "responsive steering, sophisticated suspension set-up, efficient engines and the quality of materials and finish." They concluded that "the Up has altered what we have come to expect from the citycar segment," while expecting "every builder of citycars to up its game just to compete with the new VW."
The same jury also made Land Rover’s Range Rover Evoque the World Car Design of the Year, the Porsche 911 World Performance Car of the Year and the Mercedes-Benz 250 CDI Blueefficiency World Green Car of the Year.
The World Car of the Year awards, which are voted for by 64 journalists from 25 countries, have now been running for eight years. Past winners include the Nissan Leaf (2011), Volkswagen Polo (2010), Volkswagen Golf (2009) and Mazda 2 (2008).
Richard Bremner
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Re: VW Up wins World Car of the Year award
The Lupo GTI is a lot faster car, no doubt. I never drove it but I know well the Lupo 1.4 16V with 100ps because a past girlfriend had it and it is a lot faster than the 75ps Up! already.
The GTI had the 1.6 with 125ps and 152 Nm of torque, it is a quick car.
As I said the Up! with the 1.0 L3 75ps and just 95 Nm of torque can return good mpg but quick it isn't.
Re: VW Up wins World Car of the Year award
Well, the torsional performances of the NSF platform found in the Up! are far superior than the Lupo ones. The Up! is also cheaper to manufacture and the tooling is a lot more advanced. It's a clean sheet project that can give to the steel structure a level of quality difficult to achieve in this segment. From an industrial and technical point of view it's an ambitious project and I appreciated the VW approach in developing it, for what I was able to see.
Said so forgetting how the chassis is made and driving the car it didn't impress me. The engine is capable to return good economy but the performances and the way it delivers it are a bit disappointing. The agility is good but not excellent, hampered by the long wheelbase and not alert steering.The car is not inspiring as it should in frenetic city driving. On the other hand pushing hard on a country road is more composed than I hoped. The cohesion of the chassis over bumps is good but I expected more from the ride. I also think the interior could have been a little less crude but the quality of the assembly is remarkable.
Re: VW Up wins World Car of the Year award
That seems to be the norm for all models now, bigger is better, i personally disagree, especially for city cars, leaving the psa clones as my favourite new city cars, though as said before, a lupo gti used, still surprisingly expensive for their age, and not city car cheap to run, so back to the psa three, as they're still a load of fun to drive.