The VW Up! Thread

Volkswagen Up (2015-2020) Buyer’s Guide

Does the Volkswagen Up represent a compelling used car purchase? Let’s examine this classy little city car’s strengths and weaknesses, and find out what you can expect to pay for a good 2nd-hand example…

Though the Volkswagen Up went into production way back in 2011, the German firm’s diminutive city car touched down in South Africa only in early 2015. What was the reason for the delayed local introduction?

Well, the Wolfsburg-based firm’s division in Mzansi was understandably cautious of treading on the toes of its locally produced Polo Vivo. In fact, when the Volkswagen Up finally did make local landfall, the top-spec version was positioned a mere R3 300 below the base Vivo 5-door hatchback.

To make matters worse, the Up – which VW stylised as “up!”, dispensing with capitalisation of the initial letter and adding an entirely superfluous exclamation mark – jumped headfirst into what was an ailing A-segment, with many buyers instead turning to (larger but similarly priced) sub-B-segment options such as the Toyota Etios, Ford Figo, Renault Sandero and indeed Volkswagen’s very own Polo Vivo.

During its 5-year lifecycle in South Africa – and its 12-year global production run at the VW Group’s Bratislava factory in Slovakia, ending in 2023 – the boutique city car was available in both 3- and 5-door body styles. Interestingly, the Volkswagen Up won the World Car of the Year title in 2012, beating fellow top-3 finalists the F30-generation BMW 3 Series and the 991-series Porsche 911 to the award.

 
So my UP! with just over 105K on the clock started making a funny noise when I release the clutch. The mechanic thought it was quite amusing when I described it as a grinding/slipping noise (the sound I would imagine you hear when you kick a really bigass rat).

Long story short we are getting the release bearing / thrust bearing replaced and doing the clutch while we have the gearbox on the floor. Lets hope she's back to her normal self when I get her back.
 
karnuffel said:
So my UP! with just over 105K on the clock started making a funny noise when I release the clutch. The mechanic thought it was quite amusing when I described it as a grinding/slipping noise (the sound I would imagine you hear when you kick a really bigass rat).

Long story short we are getting the release bearing / thrust bearing replaced and doing the clutch while we have the gearbox on the floor. Lets hope she's back to her normal self when I get her back.
Click to expand...
Super common on these, the gearboxes also like to sh*t their pants and deny you the chance of ever driving backwards again. Every time I got reverse engaged I had a sigh of relief lol.
 
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