Hello mr-cholmondley-warner,
I would 100% without any hesitation recommend the UP gti, it’s an amazing little sporty car, it makes every journey enjoyable. You’ll just smile all the time.
I had a brand new 2019 BMW M2 Competition DCT with the bigger optional brakes, fantastic car, A very serious car, you can’t play around. I just didn’t use it enough and I couldn’t justify the expense.
I always wanted an UP gti, I’ve had the first polo gti and then the Lupo gti, but this is so much better.
Honestly, if you test drive one you’ll buy one!
Cheers for the feedback. I value anybody's opinion on a car, but you can't beat your own really. However, when it's someone in a similar, albeit much more pronounced boat, who is going from a higher performance car into one it means something. I think I would call it a warm hatch than a hot once, and I don't mean that as an insult as I think it works to its advantage. It does enough to be sporty but if it was too hardcore it would cost more and arguably be less capable tool.
Ultimately my next car has to be as narrow as a Cooper S F56, hit 60 in under 9s, and not be chronic. But more than anything it has to be cheap on a PCP or lease. If MINI come up with the goods on a Cooper S, especially given my current lump is going to be way under mileage this time when it goes back, then they get it. A Cooper is objectively - on paper and spec wise - a better car than the Up, but I don't think I'll do myself any favours getting the same car I used to have but a good deal slower. I think an Up probably wears its performance better and feels like you're going faster than you are, and it has the sound actuator thing going on.
There are some spectacular figures on Abarth 595 Competiziones, but I don't really like the idea of them. They also lack a far degree of kit and it's a very old car underneath. But in terms of bang for buck, they are great.
My concern with the Up, especially when I spec it up how I want it (Tungsten Silver, cruise and park pack - which sounds iffy if ever an option did, and something else I can't remember), with 10,000mpa over three years it's north of £300 a month (on any lease site I look at) which defeats the object of having the **** thing. The only good thing is that of all the cars on my list, the Up! is the only one drivethedeal can help with, and I know they are pretty capable of working a miracle or two (especially as I can approx 48 month PCP it and VT at 36 just for when the warranty turns into a pumpkin).
I'm not going to speculatively waste their time until I've driven one, and know that MINI aren't going to have a game of trying to rip me off.
The Abarth is the car I like the least, but that's not to say I hate it as it's on my shortlist and performance microscopic cars are thin on the ground, but I'm well aware of its deficiencies. But it does tick the most important boxes I have, and there are cheap deals popping up all the time.
At the right price, I'm fairly convinced the Up GTI and I are made for one another. I had a two year old cash bought BM 535d from new in 2006 when I declared I was getting a 2004 used Cooper S as I needed some pennies and everyone thought I was having some sort of a breakdown. This is much less of a descent!
I've done 700 miles in 9 months when I would typically do 11,000 purely commuting miles and it's just changed my outlook on what I'm prepared to pay for a car - even for when I start doing it again. Three years down the road I might decide it was a bad plan, but I'll take that risk.
One other thing I'm concerned about is the distinct absence of sidewall around those Oswalds. Has anyone had any bad luck with them?