Volkswagen has removed its Up GTI hot hatch from sale and has put no timeframe on its return.
Demand for the smallest GTI in the range has exceeded expectations and proved so strong that VW has halted orders entirely for the sporty three- and five-door model.
It's priced from £17,950 for the three-door model but UK customers are currently able to order cars from existing stock only. The standard, non-GTI iterations of the city car are still available for purchase from the factory.
A spokesman for Volkswagen told Autocar: “Our priority is to manage customer expectations and our order bank with this particular model.
“Volkswagen as a business is continually evaluating its product range and there are no announcements scheduled relating to the Volkswagen Up model.”
The firm did not put a specific timescale on the 113bhp GTI’s return to sale. However, as the car remains a popular choice for Volkswagen, the firm says it “looks forward to seeing that continue in 2023”.
Initially released in February 2018, the Volkswagen Up GTI was withdrawn from sale for the first time in mid-2019 when it received a minor facelift allowing it to comply with new emissions regulations. This included the addition of new engine software.
Currently produced at Volkswagen’s Bratislava plant, the Suzuki Swift Sport rival is not the only Volkswagen Group car to be taken off sale lately. Sibling brand Skoda temporarily pulled its plug-in hybrid Skoda Octavia last month, also due to an order backlog.
The Up’s bigger sibling, the Volkswagen Polo, faces a similar threat of being removed from sale, albeit permanently, as company boss Thomas Schäfer recently said Euro 7 emissions rules could add €5000 (£4401) to the cost of producing a car. This would make the profit margins for small cars ever tighter.
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Hmm, nobodys got any money if you listen to the media, nobody can afford their electric bill, car sales are in the doldrums, yet VW has to close the order books for this GTI due to overwhelming demand?
Maybe demand isn't so overwhelming given that it has "existing stock". And you don't see many around - or is it they go unnoticed since this GTi is so understated? It's a cracking little car though - especially since it costs no more than a base Polo or Fiesta.
I'm surprised that demand is apparently so strong for this model as I definitely haven't seen many on the roads. In my view VW really didn't make the most of this model: Just fitting it with sports seats, rather than the underwhelming standard model ones would have made a big difference to the character and appeal of the car, after all a Lupo GTi had them many years ago, and you even get them in 'warm' VW group models such as R-Line and Monte Carlo.
Could it be that VW has more important issues to worry about!