Volkswagen Up GTI Review 2024

The Volkswagen Up GTI delivers a good deal of fun for not very much money and it offers useful - rather than searing - performance, so it is an ideal choice if you’re moving up from ‘ordinary’ cars into sportier offerings. It’s quick enough to be fun, but not so fast you’re likely to scare yourself, which is exactly what you want if you’re new to the idea.

It would also make a good second car if you were looking for something that didn’t cost the earth to buy and run, but was a fun alternative when you don’t want to drive the regular family wagon and you’re driving solo or with a friend.

Where the Up GTI is less successful is as a city car. It’s no bigger, so it’s just as adept at zapping through traffic - arguably more so with the extra power - and it's just as easy to park. However, the changes mean the ride quality isn't as plush as on other Up models, so it’s less comfortable on poor roads.

There’s not much to consider here. The Volkswagen Up GTI is in effect a trim level, too, so you just get to pick between three or five doors. We’d always suggest five as it makes life a little easier when you use the rear seats and is more appealing when you’re selling it on, but if you don’t care about that then the three-door does look cooler.

The main rivals for the regular Up, like its siblings from SEAT and Skoda, the Toyota Aygo, and Citroen C1, don’t come in heated-up form like the Volkswagen Up GTI does, so they aren’t really valid competition.

You need to look a but further afield to find rivals for the Up GTI, and there aren’t that many of them. The closest in size and cost is the Abarth 595, which actually has less interior space than the Up GTI but has a fizzy turbocharged engine and a little more power, but is a bit more compromised as a result and is less appealing in normal driving. Another rival is the Suzuki Swift Sport, which is a little larger and about the same price, but offers a good blend of fun, comfort and practicality.

This is a Volkswagen, and the brand has built itself a reputation of offering a fairly high degree of poshness: not quite what you would call premium, but not far behind. Sure enough, the Up feels posher than most other low-cost city cars, and the Volkswagen Up GTI version kicks that up a notch.

The sports seats are a big part of that, and they are finished in an attractive checked cloth upholstery that harks back to classic Volkswagen Golf GTIs of the past. The steering wheel is also far smarter than standard: it's a racy three-spoke item finished in leather and with a flat bottom section. It also has better control buttons for operating the infotainment hook-up.

The fundamentals of the Up GTI are still good. Yes, it’s a relatively stripped-back cabin, with no big centre console or swathes of buttons and display screens, but it feels well-constructed. The materials feel plusher than the city car average in some places, and even in those places where they're harder and scratchier, they do at least feel like they can stand up to years of abuse.

The Volkswagen Up GTI gets the same standard infotainment provision as (most) of the rest of the regular range, which might be something of a disappointment. You get a DAB radio (with FM and AM) plus an 3.5mm auxiliary input and Bluetooth, as well as a phone cradle mounted on top of the dashboard. Some buyers may struggle with this, as it only accepts phones up to 5.5 inches in size.

The system is designed to work with the Maps + More dedicated app, which includes TomTom navigation, an eco trainer, phone book functions and audio streaming. The system works well enough, but many buyers will probably choose to use the native apps on their phone: either way, you have a choice.

The Volkswagen Up GTI could also be specified with the upgraded Beats audio system, which adds a digital sound processor, six speakers and a subwoofer in the spare wheel well (so that means it’s a tyre inflation kit only) and a 300-watt output. If you love your music then it’s an option worth hunting out on the used market.

It might be wearing a sporty name tag but the Volkswagen Up GTI is still essentially the same car underneath the glitz, so you can expect the same impressive levels of practicality. At 3600mm long, 1910mm wide (including mirrors) and 1504mm tall, this is unquestionably a small car, but the boxy profile pays dividends when it comes to fitting in you and your stuff.

Comically-tall drivers can still get comfortable as the high roof and good seating position means there’s head- and legroom to suit pretty much all shapes, while the passenger can enjoy enough legroom to stretch out. Despite the large areas of dark-coloured trim, the windows are generously-proportioned so you get plenty of light coming into the cabin.

It’s less capacious in the back of course, but as long as the front seat occupants aren’t greedy, it is totally possible to get two adults in behind them, for short journeys at least. Kids of a reasonable size will be OK back there, too, although if they are in bulky car seats, you may find they run out of legroom rather quickly. Don’t forget that all Ups have only two seatbelts in the back, so carrying a fifth person isn’t an option.

The Volkswagen Up GTI has the same 251 litres of boot space as the regular car, so it compares favourably with the Abarth 595 that has a mere 185 litres and is just a little less than the bigger Suzuki Swift Sport. Fold the rear seats down and this goes up to 959 litres - almost twice as much as the Swift and Abarth - and you also get an adjustable boot floor so you can level off the load area and hide more valuable items.

There’s a useful amount of storage space in the cabin, too, including decently-sized door bins that can hold a 1.0-litre bottle, a dinky cubby ahead of the gearlever - with a removable insert designed to hold a smartphone if you wish - plus a larger-than-average glovebox.

The Volkswagen Up GTI comes with a single engine and transmission option, but in truth it’s all you could need. The 1.0-litre three-cylinder unit is essentially the same lump you’ll find in the rest of the Up range, but the Up GTI gets its own bigger turbocharger and some other exclusive detail tweaks, pushing the power up to 115PS and torque to 200Nm. 

That might not sound like much, and would usually put the car into warm hatch territory, but the Up GTI only weighs just over 1000kg, making it considerably lighter than most small hot hatches.

The result is a car that feels far more engaging than the 1.0-litre engine would suggest. Although it has only an additional 25PS compared to the other 1.0-litre turbo engine in the Up range, the strong torque at low- and medium revs transforms the way it behaves. Acceleration no longer needs to be planned, you can just squeeze the accelerator and make swift progress, and you don’t have to be in a low gear, either. You still get the engaging character of the three-cylinder engine, too, although it is better to change up a little early than rev the thing really hard.

The performance justifies the extra outlay: the Up GTI’s acceleration and top speed are competitive and more than enough to suit most drivers, but the crucial factor is that this performance doesn’t come at the expense of its flexibility or even economy. It’s still an easy car to drive in town - arguably more so because of the generous torque - and because of the added efficiency of the turbocharger, the official combined consumption figure under the official WLTP tests is actually better on the Up GTI than the rest of the Up range.

Trading up to a Volkswagen Up GTI doesn’t mean abandoning all semblance of a civilised life. In fact, one of the defining characteristics of the bigger Volkswagen GTIs is that they can be fun when you want them to be, but relaxing and comfortable the rest of the time. The Up GTI has a slightly tougher brief here, being based on a simple, low-cost city car, but it actually strikes a good balance between the two goals. The build quality of the Up GTI certainly helps here, and although the cabin is not luxurious, the standard of materials and the way it is put together means an absence of unwanted vibrations or tinniness. 

With the extra power and torque from the three-cylinder engine - the turbocharger plays a part here - the Up GTI is more refined than the regular car most of the time. There may be a more fruity sound from the exhaust, but unless you’re really making the most of the performance, you have to exercise the engine much less to stay up with the traffic flow, helping to keep noise levels down.

The flip side is that there is more tyre noise - generally speaking, the bigger the tyres, the more noise they generate - although this is less of an issue at lower speeds.

The Volkswagen Up has been tested twice by Euro NCAP. Once in 2011 when the car was initially launched, and then again in 2019 as the Volkswagen e-Up. In the first test it scored five stars, but in the most recent test it achieved three stars. There are two mitigating factors in respect of the change in score: firstly, Euro NCAP frequently raises the bar, so cars must keep getting safer to achieve the higher scores, and secondly the e-Up is substantially heavier than the petrol Up: almost 400kg.

In the 2011 test the Up achieved 89 per cent for adult protection and 80 per cent for child protection, and although pedestrian mitigation was quite low at 46 per cent - a result of being such a short car - it managed a high 86 per cent for safety assist. Standard equipment includes front- and side airbags, seat belt pretensioners and load limiters and ISOFIX child seat mounting points, ESC, hill hold assist and tyre pressure monitoring. 

In terms of options, there were no specific safety packages that can be added to the Up GTI. Automatic Emergency Braking is not an option on any model, while the Cruise and Park pack adds rear parking sensors and a reversing camera: potentially something that could reduce accidents but only in very specific circumstances.

In the latest HonestJohn.co.uk Satisfaction Index, Volkswagen was named by owners as the fourth worst manufacturer for reliability, and that's out of 29 carmakers considered. However, most of the problems reported were with older versions of high-volume models like the Golf and Polo, so hopefully the Up wasn't too much of a contributing factor to this poor result. In terms of overall customer satisfaction, the firm placed 21st out of 29 brands. Again, less than stellar.

The downside of the extra performance and the jacked-up sticker price is that the insurance grouping for the Volkswagen Up GTI is considerably higher than the rest of the Volkswagen Up range. It falls into group 17E, compared to 2E for some others and still far above the all-electric Volkswagen e-Up that falls into group 10E. Not only are you more likely to be in an accident because it’s faster, the Up GTI is more likely to be a target for thieves than the standard car, all of which hikes the premium.

That’s likely to put it out of reach for most new drivers, unless they have access to serious funds, but for more mature drivers it should still be relatively affordable to insure, even if it is a fair bit more expensive than other Ups.

Because all Volkswagen Up GTIs arrived after the most recent alteration to the VED rules in 2017, you’ll pay the same flat rate of tax as all other petrol and diesel cars. Currently, that rate stands at £190 per year. You won't have to worry about the 'luxury car' surcharge that applies to all cars that cost over £40,000 when new, though, because the Up GTI didn't cost anywhere near that much.

With a single trim level for the Volkswagen Up GTI, there’s not much to think about here. The standard specification is relatively high, with alloy wheels, sporty styling, sports seats, air-conditioning and the phone cradle infotainment thingy. 

When the car was new - Volkswagen no longer offers it as a new car - a few desirable items of kit were left consigned to the options list. These included climate control, automatic wipers and the upgraded Beats audio system. If you desperately want these items, you'll have to go hunting on the used market for a car with them fitted. We don't think these things will make a huge difference to your ownership experience, but if you can, we'd recommend hunting out a car with the optional Cruise and Park pack fitted, because it adds cruise control, rear parking sensors and a parking camera.