VW Up! spotted testing in Pune, totally undisguised, 2 and 4 door versions spotted.

[MandarMax]

Spotted two VW Up! cars in Pune this afternoon, on Karve road Pune. The cars were totally undisguised. There were two versions:

• 2-door version with automatic gear box
• 4-door version with manual gearbox

The 2 door version had auto gear box and had a combination of black and shiny grey metallic plastic. The seats were black with white lining (or stitching probably), the steering had a sporty look, the car looks absolutely gorgeous. I think the dash is called black pearl / anthracite dashboard in UK. I wish they launch this car in India, but seems unlikely.




The 4 door version had a manual gearbox. The interiors were a combination of black and light beige colors. The dash looked nice enough but not as nice as the 2 door's dash. Luckily I was able to get a picture of the interiors while the VW guys were busy.

You will notice that there are no power windows at front. There is traditional handle mechanism for rolling the windows up and down, it is clearly evident that VW is planning to price the car very aggressively and the starting price probably will be in the range of cars like Alto, Spark etc.




The headlights look nice too.




The backside is a black glass and to some extent resembles the Honda Brio.




Look at the rear window line on the 2 door version. A bit like Eon and A-star isn't it?






Both cars had Racelogic kit. I chatted a bit with the VW staff, they didn't really have much info but they were saying that they have recently started testing these cars and it is India bound next year (which I think we already know). I couldn't get pictures of the back seats because the VW guys weren't too happy with I taking so many pictures. The rear leg room didn't seem much, it's probably in the Alto or A star territory. The front seats seemed ok however.

[Ahmed]

Great MandarMax ! Superb scoop you got here! I really hope we get it in India sooner - Maybe by Diwali this year ... VW can cash on the festive season here !

[mohandasnikhil]

Great Catch! I'm loving the simplistic design of the UP and I really hope they launch the 3 door as a slightly premium car with features (like the Evoque). I'd happily buy the 3door version. The dash design is so refreshing, and the tyres look quite big for a car of its size.

[tushky]

it seems that the rear window of a 4 door car doesn't roll down. not accepted in india

[esteem_lover]

Nice photos MandarMax, yes, to a certain extent the back resembles the Brio, but the rest is really nice. I am glad that VW has brought back some good looking cars to India. Would be very brave of VW to bring the 2 door version to India.

[texmonster]

Looks very nice for a basic car!

Power windows are a necessity in today's age and VW must provide it. I hope Up will have good response if priced well. For most people the snob value of VW badge will be enough to buy it!

BTW, if the rear glass hatch door is of body colored instead of black, it will appear even pleasing and bigger.

[S2!!!]

Wow a two door petrol automatic will be a great proposition for a perfect city car with the correct ingredients - small, automatic and good visibility and a VW badging. This car will give buyers a different choice from the I10 and A-Star auto. Price it right VW and you have a winner here.

Am I seeing right?? Power windows missing in one of the 4-door variants. Oh common!!!

[selfdrive]

Good catch Mandarmax! I am surprised they even let you take as many pics as you did.
I hope the 3 door AT makes it to India with that dash, though it does seem a bit doubtful.

I spotted a Chevy mule this morning on Karve road, it looks to be the new hotspot to test cars out. The one I saw was a proper mule with those badging marks, resembling a cross between a leopard and a zebra. Its good to see VW going about their business in a nonchalant manner.

[dZired]

Great scoop MandarMax. It will be great if the 3-door makes it to India. I will definately buy one if we get those interiors. The overall design is neat and looks quite balanced. The 'all glass' rear indeed resembles that of the brio but I find it more pleasing than its Honda counterpart.
BTW, the four door version is having black door handles and ORVM. So the car under testing looks like the base model and hence maybe the higher varients will be equipped with power windows etc (just my guess).
Well after all polo is about to get a sibling from the VW stable.
Hope VW prices it well. Am now eagerly waiting for this.

[samarjitdhar]

Thanks a lot for the pictures. I am not sure if this has been covered earlier but does the Up come in both petrol and diesel versions? As per the information or misinformation I had gotten from my dealer the Up will come in both versions. How true is that? IMO a petrol only version is not really worth that much for VW. A diesel Up can change the game drastically.

[ironshark]

That's a superscoop Mandar. Although, I don't really see the logic of a 2 door version in the "Indian Famliy Car" space. Hope they launch the 4 door one soon. Looks good!

[sunny29584]

did anyone noticed a black plastic (dot like stuff) on the rear window..it seems that people might not be able to roll down the windows in the rear...

[MandarMax]

Originally Posted by selfdrive

Good catch Mandarmax! I am surprised they even let you take as many pics as you did.

They weren't happy at all but also they couldn't do anything. They had just taken a break and were enjoying smoking, so they couldn't decide whether to stop me or stop smoking. Finally smoking won, and I got the photographs. Funny, how a bad thing can have good side effects!

Originally Posted by selfdrive

I spotted a Chevy mule this morning on Karve road, it looks to be the new hotspot to test cars out. The one I saw was a proper mule with those badging marks, resembling a cross between a leopard and a zebra. Its good to see VW going about their business in a nonchalant manner.

I think probably they were taking the cars to ARAI hence they were not disguised. I took the photos near McDonald's which is hardly 2 kms from ARAI.

Originally Posted by samarjitdhar

Thanks a lot for the pictures. I am not sure if this has been covered earlier but does the Up come in both petrol and diesel versions?

Since the cars were not switched on I couldn't check if they were petrol or diesel. There was no badging whatsoever.

Originally Posted by dZired

Great scoop MandarMax. It will be great if the 3-door makes it to India. I will definately buy one if we get those interiors. The overall design is neat and looks quite balanced. The 'all glass' rear indeed resembles that of the brio but I find it more pleasing than its Honda counterpart.
BTW, the four door version is having black door handles and ORVM. So the car under testing looks like the base model and hence maybe the higher variants will be equipped with power windows etc (just my guess).

+1 to that. The 2 door version had really cool looking interiors. The front seats were all black with white lining and seemed to have really nice quality and size. The superior quality of material was evident everywhere - the steering wheel, dashboard, gear-knob everything looked high quality. To me, the car was begging to get behind the wheel.

Regarding the 4 door version I noticed few more things and forgot to mention in my original post (Mods, please update if possible.):

• The paint quality was average on the 4 door car as compared to the 2 door car. Not sure if you notice the different shade of white in the photos. It seemed that one final coat of paint was missing.
• The interiors on the 4 door car were of average quality and definitely few notches below the two door car. Not sure if they have already started localizing the components. (Do they sell manual hand turned crank windows outside of India? If not, then probably it was made for India.)
• The seats were all black and had cheap looking covers.
• The beige didn't look very good. I would anyday prefer the black one over the beige if I got the same quality.

[Y@SH]

Great scoop! I just saw these two cars pass by me in Khandala near fariyas and I thought that I should've taken a u-turn and got some pics, but surprisingly when I logged onto Facebook saw a link to this post! The VW up's were heading towards the exp way.

[novice29]

The door handles and ORVM of 4-door version indicates that it could be the base variant. Also the interiors are not pleasing as that of the 2-door version. So all these points to an aggressive pricing?

Though I personally do not like the resemblance to Brio (back side), I find it better than Brio. Also the 4-door interiors are too bright which seems to be difficult to maintain.

I must admit that they are brave enough if they bring that 2-door version for sale here. However if price it right, there could be a potential market for that (courtesy to the need of a small city car).

And finally, thanks @MandarMax for a great scoop