SIX THINGS I DISLIKE ABOUT MY UP! GTI !!

PLEASE NOTE : I'd like to make clear that with regards to point 2, the reason it's included is simply because (as per the title of the video) I dislike it. I've been parking other cars in the same manner for decades and they do not exhibit this characteristic. I allow a certain amount of time for the engine to stop spinning, having tested this with a Mk6 Golf R manual, the Up! needs around 3 times longer to stop spinning. This is a characteristic specific to the Up! and hence why it's included as a dislike - I could change my procedure after 25 years of driving to accommodate it but I think that justifies its inclusion here. Apologies for not making this clear in the video

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Thanks to John at Locking Wheel Nut Removal Service, Birmingham for helping with the car-to-car filming

I've deliberately avoided using the word 'hate' even though it may have got more views but it''s a strong emotion and not one I can use in relation to one of the best cars I've ever owned.
It's not perfect though (who or what is?) hence this video.
I've also tried to avoid 'stating the bleeding obvious' by focusing on six things that aren't immediately apparent and have been noticed due to daily use over the last 7 months through summer, autumn and now winter.

And by DVSA (UK Government agency dealing with driver and vehicle standards)

Thanks for watching!

[nrpimme]

Wasn't the car lurching backwards simply because you let go of the clutch before the engine had the proper time to really stop going? I mean you seem to release the clutch half a second after you turn the key and I believe you even mention it in the video.

[soranrix]

i just use the handbrake and put it nutral

[manskinuk]

As a UP GTI owner out of the six complaints I agree with one, the tyres are substandard.

[MrZekToR]

I do enjoy your videos about the Up! GTI. I'm likely of similar age to you. I remember and enjoyed small lightweight hot hatches of the 80s and 90s. Most younger car enthusiasts are obsessed about the numbers. Certain manufacturers putting big HP in small cars aren't helping either. If a car is lightweight and tactile you simply don't need massive numbers under the bonnet. I find that most powerful, heavier hot hatches feel less agile, numb and hide their speed. Some are very fast, and you have to go fast to feel any excitement from behind the wheel. Smaller, lightweight more agile cars feel fast at saner speeds. They are great fun to chuck about at 30 MPH. After a decade of driving heavy powerful cars, 3x V8's, etc. I decided I wanted to rediscover the lightweight hot hatches of my youth. My last two fun cars have been the Suzuki Swift Sport. I've been driving the latest 1.4 turbo for 4 months now. I couldn't be happier. No monster HP here, but it does feel damn quick. It's only 975kg in weight - and you can feel that. It changes direction with an agility that nothing with a heavy engine in the nose can match. Even though it's modern with electric steering, the feel through the wheel is pretty damn good. It's great to drive all of the time. That's what makes cars like these such good fun. It's a real shame, because most youngsters just go looking for big HP and a 'badge'. When in reality they could save themselves a fortune and buy a car that is more fun, more tactile and more exciting for more of the time - at saner speeds. In most cases a lightweight car makes for a better drivers car, not a badge with big HP and a plush interiors. I like your Up! GTI. Do keep telling us more about it. Thanks.

[monstrous_raccoon]

Still love my Up Gti 💗😁
There maybe some things that could be better.
But i don't think for that price.
The engine realy likes to go and it drives like a much bigger car.
Don't have problems with the armrest because i don't use them.
But it would look better.
And for the speedbumps i always drive slow.
Because i'm used to lowered cars.
Can't wait for some KW coilovers in spring. 😁

[jasonpullar]

Great video, I agree with the tyre issue as I have had similar problems in the same conditions, and the ride is awful! But otherwise it is a properly fun car and you can't go wrong for the price, maybe the best sounding car in it's category.

[davidcross]

The armrest was the thing I hated most about my Up. Here’s my solution. Bought this memory foam mouse mat for £4 from Asda, cut the mat and wrist rest apart. Then just fix the memory foam rest to the armrest with some Velcro. Doesn’t look out of place and it’s a cheap and comfortable fix.

[scottquattro]

I had one of the first uk ups as a daily driver and it didn't even have a passenger window switch on the drivers door, which meant leaning over to the passenger door to open that window, at least they sorted that out. I can't believe you didn't mention how long it takes to defrost that massive windscreen.

[thecraigmachine]

I've had my up! GTI for about 6 months too.

Like others comments below, the only problem I have experienced are the tyres. The tyres, like you mentioned are not the best in the wet. I wouldn't say dangerous, you just wouldn't want to plant your foot to the floor at lower speed when it's wet. When I have done this, it has never veered widely to one side, it tracks straight so not much of a danger in my opinion.

I honestly never noticed the tailgate being a bit 'wonky' and I haven't had any shoulder pain (and I travel about 40 miles in it everyday).

Cold hands while driving I found is rectified by turning the driver's air vent towards your hands, but I find more the problem with this middle vent is your phone in the cradle gets really warm when the blower is on high!

I must say i never had that jerking problem in reverse (although I have a habit of taking the car out of gear when I turn off the ignition, so this is probably why I have never experienced this).

Sorry Volkswizard, sounds like I'm shitting all over your video. Been following your videos just before ordering mine back in February and I'm a fan! Just don't want others to be put off by this great little car!

[SantiagoZanoni]

Technically no car in any situation should be in 1 º 2 º or R ... for that is the hand brake. The engines all turn at different times. The motor does not turn off like a battery. It keeps spinning by its own inertia. Necessary to make the engine start with the same ease, roll more comfortable and consume less fuel, lower the temperature and most importantly, the internal metals do not get burned by friction.

[resnonverba]

Glad the points you raise are minor. I've not had the reverse issue you report. I can smugly report that my fit and finish are fine at the back of my Up!

[dnt]

I've been watching your videos and enjoying them as the owner of a High UP! Tsi 90 for the last 18 months. The temptation to "upgrade' is strong. The thing is I think I'll stick with what I have as there really isn't anything the Gti has over mine that I can't live without or fix with a remap.
I feel you are expecting too much from your tyres in the colder weather. I do understand your frustration as I'm on Bridgestone Ecopias in a 185/55/15 with not that much less power than yourself, but I expected them to perform at less than their best when the cold wet weather came along. I've since fitted winter tyres which as I'm sure you know are designed for 7 degrees and below. The grip is astounding but right away the mpg has suffered.
I've not noticed the tailgate but I probably will now so thanks for that haha.
The heater vents or lack of, yup also a slight irritation to me which I didn't think would bother me but it does.
The moving when "switched off" has never bothered me because I always leave the car in neutral.

The main thing that irritates me is the fact I can't see the top of the speedometer when I have the steering wheel in the optimum position. The seat could do with going a bit lower which would solve this for me, I'm not even tall at 5'10'. The fact the steering wheel doesn't adjust for reach shouldn't irritate me but it does a touch, however I was obviously aware of this when I test drove it. I can't actually rest my elbow on the door when I'm driving so haven't suffered the hard skin issue.
Actually that wasn't the main thing, it was as other people have mentioned the candle powered headlights that illuminated the 10 feet in front of the car! I've subsequently fixed this with upgraded bulbs (Nightbreaker Ultimate) and an allen key to adjust the beams. Now they are like real headlights.

Other than that I love it, even the non Gti feels like a hot hatch from the 80's/90's but without the crashing backwards into a hedge or breaking every 2 minutes. I thought that not being able to disengage esp/traction would bother me but it has very rarely intervened ( I mean on a spirited drive) and when it has it's been very subtle. As someone who is probably oder than you I've had also had my fair share of much faster and heavier cars but this continues to make me smile and within the legal limits.

I'm about to go on a 3000 mile roadtrip in it which will see it visit its birthplace in Bratislave amongst other destinations. Thank goodness for heated seats.

[bats]

A few gripes that I have are as follows:

I have the Beats Audio pack and my passenger door trim does not like bass one bit. Anything remotely bass-y (not necessarily dance music) and the door makes the most awful sound. Doesn’t happen on the driver’s side - only the passenger side.

A lack of one-touch window operation is really poor. I have a 14 year old Lupo TDi and that has one-touch windows, so for VW not to include it on the top of the range Up is pretty bad.

Speaking of windows, if you need to open them for any reason and the exterior of the car is wet, then the interior of the car (and you) is most likely going to get wet too.

Traction Control for me is a killer. If I want to have a bit of fun at the traffic lights then I can’t because the moment I start to accelerate in 1st the traction control kicks in. Once I’m in 2nd then the car simply refuses to accelerate which is both frustrating and embarrassing.

The stereo is absolutely dire. Yes it’s modern and has Bluetooth and all the rest of it, but trying to use it is extremely cumbersome and most of the functionality is not fit for purpose. I have an iPhone with an Apple Music subscription and a pretty expansive library of tracks on my home computer. If I want to select something that I’ve recently downloaded to my phone then I can’t because I don’t get a view of downloaded music - I just get my entire library that I have to manually go through. Then there’s the app functionality, which is supposed to be the whole integral solution to the lack of a decent screen, except in order to use it in any meaningful way is effectively illegal and to be honest it’s just not that good anyway. Then there’s the DAB radio, which forgets which radio station you listened to when you last drove the car - several times I’ve set off only to find Absolute 80’s playing rather than TalkSPORT that I was previously listening to, which means a load of faffing about getting it back on whilst I’m supposed to be focusing on the road.

The rear view camera has been positioned in such a way that it’s always getting caked with dirt or water, meaning that for the most part you can’t actually see much.

The blowers on the air vents, even on the highest setting, are rubbish at best.

There’s a speech button on the steering wheel that doesn’t do anything.

Other than that I love it 😂

A gripe about buying it was that I was in the show room at 8:15am on 6th Feb (release date) and it wasn’t delivered until November!

Why doesn’t the car have the option of heated mirrors and screen? I noticed that I could spec a heated screen on the e-Up but not this. Why?!

[Wilko]

That was good! You have to do a 6 things you love now please?! I’m seriously about to buy one of these and need that final persuasion lol!!

[watsonthinks]

The ups have rear drum brakes, which have at times caused the rear wheels to jam together thus stopping the car from moving on start up. The rear brakes also squeal when in wet weather.

[g__e__o]

About the glass tailgate: VW Brazil chose the cheapest option to equip the up with tailgate of the Citigo and Mii. But the TSI models they painted in black. I prefer this alternative because people said that the glass tailgate in a hot sunny day is really unpleasant and really gets the car hotter than necessary. Not that this is problem in most part of Europe anyway.
About VW getting terrible tires. Why does this happen? I used to have a Golf 1.4 Tsi and they came with some Pirelli P7. I had to replace all 5 of them to Michelin. The same happened with the up! Tsi that I have. They came with some Goodyear Duraplus, which is suppose to be a "green tire, ecological one" that is really efficient. But they are hideous. They scream at every chance and whenever the pavement is wet it feels like I'l driving on butter. Terrible. I ended up changing them for a Michelin as well.
About the lack of central air vents: nowadays it's pretty hot where I live, around 35 degree Celsius. I do miss them a little bit, but if I get on speedways the ambient air is usual pleasant in no time. If I'm in the city, it takes a really long time to get to a pleasant temperature.

I still think it is a really nice car and I cannot help but smile whenever I change to second gear and accelerate. And I don't even own a GTI! :P

[davebegbie]

Surely you take the car out of gear before you turn the engine off? What you are doing cannot exactly be described as normal behaviour.

Switch it off, then put it back in gear, if you are the kind of person that leaves a car in gear when switched off.

[alexisamtosta]

Mate get used to it. Its a vw so will have loads of issues.
But it is one of the few vw's I like

[Boz]

for air vent.. yeah i was thinking about that when i first saw that interior.. and elbow rest.. i know how is it when my elbow starts to hurt on much softer material about four hours or so... thanks for pointing out those little things

[swss]

Have owned my UP GTi for six months it now has 9k on the clock, some of the complaints are valid, tyres are pitiful and the arm rest is not good, however, complaining about the glass is a little odd as that's standard on all UPs. The reverse issue is downright daft, why would you leave it in gear? The vent issue has never bothered me, the last thing I want is hot air being blown directly into my face that I couldn't turn off, he didn't mention that the standard the heated seats are brilliant at warming you up when it's cold. Finally all city cars are narrow and all suffer from having to ride across the higher sections of those type of speed bumps, if you buy a small sporty car it will suffer from this, however, I would hate to have to take those speed bumps in an Abarth 500 which has a much harder suspension.