-Oh, if you're a Volkswagen, you won't just lay there like a dumb ass and let Fiat get all the headlines with the 500, you answer it with this, the Volkswagen Up.
Now, this is a car.
It's been roughly the same class size-wise.
It's below a golf by a significant margin in terms of overall footprint as well as in price.
We'll get to that in a minute.
Now, right now, it's only slotted for European introduction,
but you can just about bank on it coming to the US sooner than later.
Now, under the hood here, you've got a pretty scrawny 3-cylinder 1-liter engine.
I'm not sure that would come to the US, when and if this car ever does, they might operate that for the American market, get it close to 100 horsepower.
Right now, it's a 60 or a 75 horsepower mill, give or take, with really good efficiency, really clean, low emissions.
This car will come stuck with a City Collision technology, one that will look forward with ultrasonic or radar, whatever they use to keep the car from rear-ending
someone at low speeds.
That's usually the kind of technology that was only reserved for much more expensive cars wherever they came from, but now we're seeing a lot of the small cars offer that as a differentiator.
Okay, so here I am, 6, 2 plus and this little guy, and as it's always the paradox with little cars, they are some of the roomiest inside because they have very thin door panels, not a lot of filigree and built-up consoles that make your car seem tight.
This car is entirely spacious for everyday driving.
It's not something you're gonna take on a 3000-mile trip
and lay back in.
Very simple instrument panel.
You've got-- what do we got here?
A little tiny tach on the left.
That's interesting.
A fuel gauge on the right, big speedometer; finally, that makes some sense.
Too many cars were giving too much real estate to tachometers.
I love gauges as much as anybody, but you know what, the tach it's time for it to go.
It doesn't make a lot of sense anymore.
All thing you'll find color key dash panels here that go with the car body that's very Fiat 500, not necessarily copy them, but that's kind of the style right now.
Here is the most interesting thing.
Navigon
makes a snap-off portable infotainment unit.
I'm pretty sure it won't snap off here.
Oh, look it will with trusting people, our Volkswagen friends are, and here are your choices, information about the car, again, because it's connected to the car's data bus, when you dock it.
You can't do that with a stand-alone P and D. Here's your media player, pictures, CD player control because this, again, connects to your optical disc and car radio control.
Again, something your stand-alone
won't do.
Your Bluetooth phone controls and technology are in here and of course your navigation and map.
All that in a nice slim unit that is actually a portable electronic, sort of a band that you get when you buy this car.
We're starting to see a lot of car makers go this way.
Now, the pre-orders begin shortly in Europe for this car, in Germany in particular, and by top at 2012, these are gonna be out, but again, in the European market where they're pricing it at below 10,000 Euros.
I've been on this business too long to say, "Oh, just convert that to
dollars.
It never works that way.
Currency conversion aside, but it's a cheap little car.
It's bringing up the bottom of the VW line and it's going to answer one big question.
Why don't they bring the Polo to the US?
With slots down below the golf, I'm gonna do this one instead.
