On…The Volkswagen Up!
Why the VW Up! Has More in Common With The Original Beetle Than You Thought
by Luke Preston
The story of the origins of Volkswagen Beetle is well told and well known. Founded by the Nazi trade union and sponsored by the long arm of the moustachioed law, the Beetle was the product of one of the many mass saving scheme — Kraft durch Freude (strength through joy) — programs of 1930s Germany. Hitler demanded it transport two adults and three children at 100km/h and that the people should pay no more 990 Reichsmark or roughly US$390.
Interestingly history tells us that no one — bar Hitler himself who was handed a Type 1 Cabriolet on his 49th birthday — actually took delivery of any so called people’s car, and as world war loomed large on Germany’s horizon, production at KdF-Stadt factory was changed to military vehicles.
Shortly after the war and with a marketable ‘Volkswagen’ in full scale production — the renamed Wolfsburg facility was manufacturing no less than 1000 vehicles a month — it is this part of the tale which is most interesting, to me at least. You see the factory was in a state of disrepair due to ravages of war and with an uncertain future, it was offered to motor industries from around the world, all of whom famously rejected it. Sir William Rootes, head of the British Rootes Group remarked the Beetle project would fail within two years, and claimed:
“The car is quite unattractive to the average motorcar buyer, is too ugly and too noisy…If you think you are going to build cars in this place, you’re a bloody fool.”
Rootes went bankrupt at the hands of Chrysler in 1978, the Beetle outlived his Hillman Avenger by 30 years.
Henry Ford II notably said:
“The car was not worth a damn!”
Hard to imagine then, that Volkswagen manufactured over 21 million Beetles from 1938 until 2003.
And in 2015 you can still buy a new Beetle, but would you actually want to? Thought not. You see, I think the Volkswagen Group are in a bit of pickle. Look at the conglomerate that is the VW Group and its sub brands, Audi, Lamborghini, Bentley, Bugatti, Ducati and Porsche to name few. You don’t need to be a genius to note that these are all luxury brands, which was fine a few years ago, when the world was riding a wave of success and unprecedented growth. Das Expensive Auto? But, weren’t all the biggest most powerful empires at their largest and most successful the moment before they collapsed. Das Cheap Auto?
At one point not so long ago, the rumour mill had it that Volkswagen were seriously considering launching a low cost initiative to rival the likes of Dacia and Datsun, two brands who have seen unprecedented growth in emerging markets.
This has obviously been shelved for time being but it does make me scratch my head, because I can remember when Volkswagen was a budget brand. Volkswagen. Das Auto. The people’s car.
However, somewhere along the line in their quest to make dashboards squidgier and rid the world of horrid panel gaps, Volkswagen as a product has become up-market. It’s quite simply the unfortunate outcome of an obsession with premium quality everythings.
But — and this is the crux — I am willing to bet that the when it comes down to the difference between having to walk, or take public transport versus owning your own transportation, be it cheap nasty and smelling of Bostik as in case with some cut-price brands…it’s a no brainer really, high on glue fumes wins every time.
Enter the new Volkswagen Up! which is cheap — on sticker price fortunately not in application — and doesn’t smell of glue either, which is huge bonus. Until now, the cheapest VW locally was the Polo Vivo, and the new Up! manages to better that by R10k making it the cheapest Volkswagen money can buy.
The best news is that the Up! is not a budgetised version of an existing model, as is the case with the Vivo — but is rather an all-new model and a pretty funky one at that, which is just what we needed from VW. It’s also the closest in application to the original Beetle — that VW has made in a very long while, probably since the Citi Golf — managing to be cheap, well stuck together and quite capable of turning heads. Particularly in Cornflower Blue livery.
The similarities don’t end there though, the Up! is made in Brazil, it has two doors and has a tiny little engine, only capable of producing 55kW. This then, is the car for masses, a true people’s car for the 21st Century, this is a small Volkswagen you actually want to own and will be pleased to be seen in.
You can’t help but think that Volkswagen has stumbled across a gem here, kind of like how they did way back when with the original Beetle. There is no denying that the new Up! has a certain charm about it, reminiscent of the way things used to be with brand. Unfortunately while most other cheap VWs fade into obscurity the Up! fully embraces Das Auto, and then some.
