Car is still on it's original equipment tyres (Good Year Efficient Grips) and they have 50 psi marked on them as the max. permissible pressure, so not far off the mark when fully loaded after all. Previous car had the exact same tyres, but in 19" and they too had a 50 psi max, presumably then size isn't a major influencer? Any of you more mature ones remember LJK Setright, I recall him mainly from the late 70's and onwards when he wrote in Car Magazine (before I was even old enough to have a licence)? Think too that's where the seed for taking an interest in the tyres on your car was probably sown for me... seem to recall he was greatly into the technical side of vehicles he tested, bit untrendy at the time.
I still have the steel rims and tyres that the car came new from the factory, they still look very useable- car only has 15-16k on the clock. The car had a very high Mpg rating when on the original tyres, easily reaching 90mpg on a run. Now it’s on 16” alloys with grippier tyres it dropped by a bit, still does 80 mpg on a run…
If you can believe the blurb, the GTI's supposed to be the most economical of all the Ups (save for the e-Up I suppose), something to do with having a turbo. Reset the previous owners MFA readings, they mustn't have realised there's a 1 and 2 memory, just like the MK1's and 2's... it was still showing the car's full lifetime figures from new. They'd averaged 73 mpg over 3x years and 28K, I'll be happy with that! Have to start looking around for winter wheels and tyres, been putting them on all our cars for over 10 years now. Rule of thumb is to go smaller diameter / taller and narrower tyre, so 16" is likely the way to go. VW do an official 15" winter wheel which looks a bit puny after the 17"s, but clears the bigger GTI front calipers... seems there's a very limited amount of after market wheels that do. Thankfully 16" has some more choice of wheel and tyre, but while you can get plenty of 17" wheels, there's next to no (just found one) winter tyre of the correct profile. Can you stick up a piccie of yours on 16"s?
That's pretty impressive figures, I used to get 70+ out of a 2010 clubman diesel with a remap, on a long run, sensible driving.
I'm already getting 54 mpg and rising on the long term reading over the last 300 odd miles and I'm not driving it to save fuel, so should go even higher with time. The engine noise at 2.5K definitely just eggs you on... I've read separately that it's either purely synthetic and piped through the speakers, but also read that it's the actual 3 x cylinder thrum directed into the cabin via conduits at the A pillars which is then harmonically amplified by the windscreen... don't know what to believe, don't care either.
Factory 17"s are 6.5" and the 16"s, 6"... most (but not all) aftermarket 16"s seem to start at 7" which if looks matter to you does compensate for dropping down an inch by filling the arch out more, to my eye I think your piccie reinforces that. Few random images I've harvested from the inter-web, of ones I like at any rate, can't recall the sizes now but some are definitely 16"s.
The top image in the previous post had me looking further and found this PDF catalogue advertising the car's spec. If you trust me not to post a dodgy link you can view it properly here - https://www.tourenwagenjuniorcup.de/wp-content/uploads/VW_up_GTI_Cup_2022_Brochure_EN_web.pdf ... otherwise here's it back to front and in reduced screen shot form.
Excluding factory options available at the time of ordering there aren't really that many genuine accessories listed by VW for the Up. Handy then that Skoda and Seat have some of their own that can cross over. There's a Skoda dealer local to me and anything you see on-line is quite often much cheaper (plus no postage costs) through them. Literally a 30 minute job to fit, comes with a metal frame that goes beneath the existing surround / bolts to the hand brake fixings, so rock steady. Cloth material is the exact same VW stuff as on the seat sides. You lose a rear cup holder but I think gain the rests more useful internal storage. Doesn't get in the way of gear changing, though you do have to reach around differently than before to access the handbrake, but after 10 mins driving you start to naturally adjust without thinking. If anyones interested I can stick up the installation instructions / part number etc.
Lovely Sunday evening last night, dinner made for the ungrateful brats and some time to myself so went out for a blast in the 205. Came back an hour later, then went straight out again for another one in the Up!, just for the hell of it. Haven't done that in one of my dailys for decades. Random piccie of the kissing cousins, there's not much that's different between them beneath it all.
Any MOT testers / experts amongst you? Daughters Citigo went through it's MOT today and passed with flying colours, no minor defects even. I'm in N. Ireland so it's done at a Govt. run center. I believe there are some very minor differences in the test than if it were to be done elsewhere in the UK but the main criteria are the same. Anyhow, her wee car was last tested in February of 2000 because of both Covid and a local issue with dodgy ramps stopping play just prior to that... so almost 2.5 years of a gap. The 2000 test shows 0.010 % CO at idle and 6 ppm for HC (fast idle isn't checked). Todays test shows 1.580 % CO at idle and 251 ppm for HC, again no fast idle check. Surely it'd fail on todays readings (for a 2016 car)? Todays readings almost match (in fact are slightly worse than) the '89 205 GTI's that was tested a few months back! I realise there's different standards applied that progressively get more lenient in stages as a car gets older. I was thinking do the testing devices have settings for whatever age of test criteria the car falls into and that they've maybe set it to the wrong (much older) one in this case, in other words they've tested it as if it were for example a 1989 car?
Had the Up! for a month now, though I've just put around 400 miles on it which goes to highlight one of the reasons for my down sizing, the drop off in my mileage this last few years. If anything I love it even more now than I originally did, genuinely thought I'd regret selling / miss the old car, but not a bit of it. It's not just the Up! design itself, it's getting back to using a small car in general. Pulled into a garage to fill it up (for the first time too, getting 58 mpg with absolutely no effort) and a Porsch 9** something or other came in after me. Snuck the Up! into the only slot while the Porsche circled waiting for two spaces between pumps to open up before they'd fit in at an angle... the queue of locals waiting behind not at all happy! Read somewhere recently that the Up! is called the Up! as it's a play on the Lupo name with the exclaimation mark representing the L and O, even it's not true, a nice thought.
As i said in a previuous post they are a cracking little car! I have mine from 2012 and i love driving it, its nice to not carry so much weight round! The type of driving i do is perfect for the little 1 litre engine although i drove trough europe a few years ago and found it adequate but lack of AC was a pain in the proverbial! As in current prices a full tank of fuel last me over 650 miles which is impressive in my eyes! I consider it one of the best shopping carts around and ideal for 1st drivers too...
Should rename it the VW Yup!... couldn't agree more with all of that. Becoming a bit of a small car disciple, though those of you with MK1's and MK2's won't need any explaination. Been scouring the inter-web for images of alternate wheels for winter tyres... have run winters on my cars for years now, difference is like night and day if you haven't looked into doing it. Trouble is I think a big part of the GTI's character is that it runs on standard 17"s, even the factory design is spot on for an OE wheel. Unfortunately they're mega expensive from VW, even they weren't, being diamond cut makes them a bad choice for salty roads. 17" winter tyres in the original (or as close as possible a spec. for insurance purposes) is proving tricky though. GTI's have 288mm calipers up front, others are 256mm which also makes wheel choice quite limited. Can any one spot the 'interesting' fact about the car in the image below?
It's the Brazillian version... took me a while to realise, but it's got a longer wheel base, longer rear doors with 1/4 lights and wind up/down glass instead of the European pop-outs, plus quite a few other differences too apparently. Wonder did they ever consider marketing it elsewhere, might've been a demand? Wheels are OZ Superturismo LM's, look like the same ones as on the Up! GTI Cup cars pictured in an earlier post to my eye, but recall reading something saying they were exclusive to them but maybe not. Growing on me but imagine they'll look different on a non-lowered car. Also taken with these... OZ Rally Racing's. Piccies at least show them on a standard specc'd car so shouldn't be any surprises seeing them on in real life.
Andyba mentioned previously about the lack of wheel arch liners on some models, including the daughters Citigo. Recently made an Autodoc order and to bump up the spending so as to get the free postage slipped in a pair of rear arch liners. Less than £10.00 a side on a 39% discount day. Cheapest they had, there were other brands with some being twice or thriple that. Don't know if they're the same ones but different name on or genuinely worth the extra. These ones aren't the highest quality items... soft flexible plastic type material, but could see it cracking if you were too rough with it. Unlike the Up! the Citigo doesn't have any pre made fixing points / screws and from what I can see you don't need them for these anyhow. Liner acts like a spring and pushes itself up into the space. There's not much of a lip on the inside of the arch but it manages press in behind securely enough without any help. Belts and braces sort of guy that I am put a self tapper in at both ends. No metal involved, goes through that plastic spray deflector thingy on the forward side and replaces the plastic screw in the existing peg that the bumper attaches to on the other. One side fitted like a glove, the other less so but probably just me being fussy, no one will ever realise. Overall I'd definitely recommend them... cheap and cheerful, but they fit and are easy to install plus if they stop even some build up of dirt (and I think they will do a good job, being such a snug fit) well worth less than 20 quid!
I know there's lots of stuff on the inter-web and most with piccies, but I'm wick at deciphering what I see / read when it comes to interpreting spark plug colours and other tell tales. Thinking about it again as I changed the plugs on the Up! today. Good chance these are the original (3 year old) ones, can't find a definitive answer, but I think VW schedules them for a change at 4. Anything leaping out at any of you or are they as to be expected? (Pics are reasonably close to real life)
Mine is a low mileage (18k) and i have replaced plugs once, they looked a bit cleaner than yours ! However it seems your car is burning well and the plugs were still good for a few years.
