Volkswagen Up GTI (2018-2023) Review

Volkswagen decided to have a serious crack at the city car market back in 2012 by creating the Volkswagen Up. The Up was the centrepiece in a trio that included the SEAT Mii and Skoda Citigo. It proved very popular and in 2017, Volkswagen released a sporty version in the shape of the Volkswagen up! GTI. Neither the up! nor the GTI version - as with most city cars these days - are on sale as new cars any longer, but find a GTI on the used market, and you'll have hours of fun.

The basics of the up! GTI are exactly what you’ll find on the regular version. You get the same choice of three- or five-door body shells, both of which are as boxy as they come to offer as much interior space as possible within the tiny footprint. It works, too, as the up! GTI provides a decent amount of interior space, particularly for front-seat occupants, while boot space is up there with its key rivals.

It’s a pretty simple layout inside, with a slim dashboard and all the main controls grouped together in the centre of the cabin, but it feels a bit more special in here than in the regular Up. You get smart sports seats for starters, with the check cloth that harks back to the Volkswagen Golf GTI, a red pixellated dashboard panel that looks smart, and a tasty three-spoke steering wheel pinched from the Golf. You still have to make do with the regular up!’s integrated smartphone system rather than a full-house infotainment setup, however.

The big news is under the bonnet, where the up! GTI gets an enhanced version of the turbocharged 1.0-litre 90PS unit seen in some regular Up models. By fiddling with the engine internals including the turbocharger, the up! GTI’s engine kicks out a useful 115PS and 200Nm of torque: that’s double the torque output of the non-turbocharged Up. 

The up! GTI also gets a six-speed manual gearbox as standard, the only Up that gets this feature, and there’s no automatic gearbox option, either. The Up GTI also rides on bigger 17-inch alloy wheels with fatter tyres, and also has mildly tweaked suspension to improve the handling.

The up! GTI is something of a curio. It’s too expensive to be just a city car, but it is a very cheap small hot hatchback, especially now you can only get it as a used car. If the money is right and you want something a bit more fun than just a regular small car, the up! GTI is a strong contender.

There is only one engine and one trim level, which keeps things refreshingly simple. Every Volkswagen up! GTI gets the 1.0-litre turbo petrol engine with 115PS and a six-speed manual gearbox.

That simplicity is part of the appeal. The key used-market question is not which version to choose, but which options are worth having. The Cruise and Park Pack is a useful one to look for, because it adds equipment that makes everyday life easier, while the Beats audio upgrade is worth having if you care about sound quality.

Three-door and five-door versions were both offered. The three-door is the purer-looking option, but the five-door is easier to live with if you will use the rear seats with any regularity.

Used Volkswagen up! GTI prices now start from around £12,000, with later, lower-mileage examples pushing well beyond that.

That means it's not exactly cheap by city-car standards, but then the up! GTI has never been just a city car. It trades on rarity, desirability and the fact that there is not really much else quite like it at this price point.

Values have held up well, which can be irritating if you are bargain hunting, but it also tells you how strong the GTI’s reputation is. Buyers still want them, and once you drive one, it's easy to understand why.

The most obvious alternative is actually a regular 90PS Volkswagen up!, because it gets surprisingly close in straight-line pace while costing less to buy and run. it's not as special or as complete a package, but it's worth considering.

Outside the Volkswagen fold, the Abarth 595 is the obvious used rival if you want something tiny and characterful, while a Suzuki Swift Sport gives you more space and more pace without losing the fun factor. Older warm or hot superminis can also come into the frame, depending on your budget.

The up! GTI’s strength is that it feels lighter, simpler and more playful than most of them. It's not about big numbers. It's about enjoying a little car that has been done properly.

It’s easy to get comfortable in the Volkswagen up! GTI, more so in fact, because you get a pair of tasty sports seats as standard, which are not only more comfortable than the standard chairs but have better lateral support, something that's a bit lacking in the standard car. The driving position is better as a result, too, although it’s always been surprisingly good even for taller drivers.

You still get the same Germanic approach to the cabin layout, with all the major controls grouped conveniently high up on the dashboard and exactly where you’d expect to find them. There’s not too many of them of course, and with no massive touchscreen to accommodate, the up! GTI’s cabin feels refreshingly clutter-free.

Like the regular Volkswagen up!, the GTI is available in both three- and five-door forms. Access to the rear on the three-door version is reasonable, but you wouldn’t want to be flipping the seats forward if you were planning to use the rear on a regular basis. Getting in the back of a five-door up! GTI is much easier of course, although if the front seats are pushed some way back, rear passengers don’t have a lot of space in the footwell when climbing in.

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 3,600mm long, 1,910mm 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 measures 3,600mm long, 1,641mm wide and 1,504mm high. That gives it a tiny footprint by modern standards.

The upside is obvious: it's brilliantly easy to place, easy to park, and never feels like too much car for the road beneath it. That is a big part of why the GTI is so enjoyable.

Technology is one of the areas where the up! GTI feels most dated now. The infotainment setup is simple and functional rather than especially slick or modern.

You get the same basic arrangement as the regular up!, built around DAB radio, Bluetooth, a phone cradle and Volkswagen’s Maps + More app-based approach. It works well enough, but it lacks the clean, integrated feel of more modern systems, and some buyers may find it old-fashioned.

That said, it suits the car’s stripped-back charm. The up! GTI is all about the driving experience, and the simple tech does at least mean there is very little to distract from that.

The up! GTI does a good job of feeling special without pretending to be plush. The sports seats, GTI trim details and steering wheel all make a difference, while the basic structure of the cabin feels solid and well put together.

There are hard plastics, of course, but they do not really undermine the experience. This is a city car with a hot-hatch twist, not a mini luxury car.

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.

The up! GTI’s charm lies in how approachable it is. It's just as easy to thread through town and park as a regular up!, but once the road opens up, it has a keenness that the standard car simply cannot match.

The steering is quick and accurate, and while it's not overflowing with feel, it's engaging enough to make the car feel alive in your hands. There is plenty of grip, body control is much tighter than in the regular up! and the whole thing feels eager to change direction.

The trade-off is ride comfort. The firmer suspension and larger wheels do make the GTI more restless over poor surfaces than the standard car, and if you spend all your time on broken urban roads, you will notice it. Even so, it never becomes so harsh that it spoils the car.

Refinement is respectable for a tiny hot hatch. The engine has a likeable thrum, motorway manners are better than you might expect, and the GTI feels more substantial than many small performance cars have any right to.

The up! originally earned a five-star Euro NCAP rating, although later assessment criteria became much stricter and newer reassessments were tougher on the broader up! family.

The key point is that the up! GTI comes from a city-car platform with sensible safety fundamentals, but it doesn't have the full spread of modern driver-assistance tech that you would now expect from a brand-new car.

Officially, the up! GTI can return 53.3mpg, which is impressive enough for something with genuine hot-hatch intent.

Of course, if you use the performance regularly, that number will fall away, but the key point is that the GTI can be run with a degree of restraint. That is a big part of what makes it so likeable.

Any remaining manufacturer warranty will now depend on the age of the car, but Volkswagen Approved Used examples remain the most reassuring place to start.

Volkswagen Approved Used currently includes one year of Unlimited Mileage Warranty, one year of Roadside Assistance, independent vehicle history and mileage checks, a comprehensive multi-point vehicle check and service history checks. That extra reassurance is useful on a small performance car, where condition and previous care can make a big difference.

Volkswagen servicing is straightforward enough, and the up! GTI’s relative mechanical simplicity helps. A careful check of tyres, brakes and clutch condition is worthwhile, because enthusiastic drivers will often have enjoyed these cars properly.

With the GTI sitting in group 17, insurance is notably higher than on the regular up!, which is the price you pay for the extra performance and desirability.

Even so, by hot-hatch standards it's not outrageous, and for more experienced drivers it should remain manageable. As always, quotes are worth checking before you buy.

For Volkswagen up! GTI examples, the current standard VED rate is £200 a year from the second licence onwards.

There’s no Expensive Car Supplement issue here, because the up! GTI never came close to the £40,000 threshold when new.