Practicality Goes up! With Baby Volkswagen's Five-Door Option

MILTON KEYNES, UNITED KINGDOM – Jan 23, 2012: Getting into Volkswagen’s award-winning up! city car is now easier than ever, with the introduction of the new five-door model.

Pictured here for the first time, the five-door up! has many of the same virtues as its three-door sibling: a 2.42 m long wheelbase that makes for impressive interior space, a capacious 251-litre boot, an efficient three-cylinder engine, new-to-the-class safety features and an innovative infotainment system.

Rear passengers in the five-door up! benefit from exactly the same space as those in the three-door model, with 947 mm of headroom (versus 993 mm in the front) and 789 mm of legroom. The rear seat base is set slightly higher than that in the front, at 378 mm (versus 306 mm) giving passengers a clearer view of the road ahead.

As well as front and side airbags, ABS with Hydraulic Brake Assist, Isofix child seat preparation in the rear and standard ESP (on all but the entry level Take up! model), the up! can be ordered with an optional City Emergency Braking system. This uses sensors to scan the space ahead of the vehicle, applying the brakes automatically if it detects that the car is about to hit an object in front, and costs from just £225. The up! has received a five-star rating and the Advanced Award from Euro NCAP, the European New Car Assessment Programme. It is the first vehicle in this class to receive these awards.

The Maps & More infotainment system is a mobile Personal Infotainment Device that was developed to organise navigation, telephone, information and entertainment. It is removable, but unlike many other similar systems of this type, it melds with the car’s network of systems and can be used to view vehicle information, such as the display of the parking sensors (where fitted). The system is standard on the High up! model and above, and optional on the rest of the range.

The up! has already received top honours at the prestigious What Car? awards, where it was named Car of the Year for 2012, and has also been named TopGear magazine’s Small Car of the Year.

First UK deliveries of the five-door up! are expected to start in the second half of the year; prices are yet to be confirmed. The three-door up! is available to order now, with prices starting at £7,995 (RRP OTR) and the first models arriving in showrooms in March. For more details on this and Volkswagen’s award-winning range of cars, please visit www.volkswagen.co.uk.