Vw Keeps A Happy Face On New Line

Newcastle Herald

Wednesday October 31, 2007

VOLKSWAGEN has introduced the second in its latest small car line, which the manufacturer has called the New Small Family.

The premiere of the two-door city specialist concept car, the up!, in Frankfurt six weeks ago has been followed by the display of a van, the space up!, at the Tokyo Motor Show.

The company's head of technical development and chief engineer, Dr Ulrich Hackenberg, said Volkswagen was consistently exploiting every millimetre of space and creating an emotional design.

The group's chief designer, Walter de Silva, said the space up! was fun and at the same time offered maximum space on the smallest of platforms.

"Our New Small Family brings a smile back to the road," he said.

"An exceptionally amiable charisma unites the up! and the space up! now being presented in Tokyo.

"At the same time, it is apparent at first glance that despite all of the emotionality of this car we avoided superfluous gimmicks of any kind.

"This has created a very straight-lined and confident design."

The space up! is 3.68 metres long and 1.63 metres wide.

As in VW's well-known Beetle and Kombi, the engines of the new cars diesel and electric powertrains are at the rear of the vehicle.The space up! is 23 centimetres longer than the up!; accordingly, its wheelbase is also larger (2.56 metres). At 1.54 metres, the van is four centimetres higher.

The space up! has four conventional doors and a two-part rear door in place of a tailgate.

Hidden behind this door are 220 to 1005 litres of cargo space, four seat positions that are multivariable in design, and a cockpit in which numerous functions are controlled via a touch screen with 3D graphics and proximity sensors.

The front headlamps take an inward diagonal line, with the horizontally integrated air inlets (minimised aperture optimises aerodynamics) between them, the chrome VW logo on the front hood and the smooth-surfaced bumper forming the happy face that is typical of Volkswagen.

The 18-inch wheels with size 165/50 tyres have short front and rear overhangs (front, 53 centimetres; rear, 59 centimetres). Fully opened, the back door offers a cargo width of 101 centimetres. With the exception of the driver's seat, all seats can also be folded and removed.

If the seats are only folded, this creates a level cargo area with a capacity of up to 1005 litres.

With four people on board, cargo capacity up to window level height is still 220 litres.

Objects with a maximum length of 2.8 metres can be stowed in a pass-through to the front cargo space.

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