Filed under: Frankfurt Auto Show, Economy, Etc., Hatchbacks, Volkswagen
VW's up! might be renamed Lupo in 2011
The trio of Up! concepts foretell Volkswagen's re-entry into the ultra-affordable transportation business, and the interweb car lovers at World Car Fans may have cracked the name code of the cute mini. While Up! is catchy and adorable, the Germans may be playing mind games here, just like when the IROC concept became the Scirocco. The middle two letters of the currently defunct Lupo subcompact are obviously "up." Very clever, we guess.
World Car Fans also penned the production date to be 2011, with a potential grand entrance at the Frankfurt Motor Show. VW has already announced that the Up! will be produced in India, and the factory is expected to come on line by 2012. Both the three door Up! and roomier Space Up! will be produced, along with a possible miniature "off-road" version. We're all for really cheap, rear-engined cars that get phenomenal fuel economy arriving on our shores, but we may only get the larger van version because we're fat.
Gallery: VW up!
Gallery: VW space up! blue
[Source: World Car Fans]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
AlexP 9:33AM (2/27/2008)
Lupus would be better.
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John 9:36AM (2/27/2008)
Their names are out of control! This just sounds like Lupus, while Routan keeps conjuring images of giant, flying Japanese monsters for me.
I'm not a fan of the alphanumerics, but in this case, bring 'em on!
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Ted 10:05AM (2/27/2008)
I got your Alphanumerics right here:
I drive a G35X with the new VQ35HR motor, and ATTESA AWD.
What the hell is with these companies? The alphabet soup needs to stop.
-ted
Jorge 10:13AM (2/27/2008)
They use Alphanumerics to keep names neutral.
Lets say a cars name a Beth. A guy would have no problem saying he drives a Beth but what if the cars name is a guys name such as Jim or John. Would you drive a car with a guys name.
jgp 10:20AM (2/27/2008)
Lupo's an older name that dates back about a decade. VW killed the Lupo a couple of years ago, and this is the replacement. It makes perfect sense.
Besides, when I see "Lupo", I think of wolves, not red-herring House diseases.
Guenther 11:08AM (2/27/2008)
I would drive a truck named Mike. Or Dave, or Bob. You know- simple, unpretentious names.
Lupo draws on VW's old theme, naming cars after animals- the Beetle, the Rabbit (now back), the Fox, and the Lupo. This is much better than their segment inventions where they come up with those other naming disasters, like Touran, Sharan (Ozzy sez "SSHARAN!"), Tiguan (TIGer and legUAN contracted) I can understand that its difficult to come up with new names, but its someones full-time job to do that. They can do better.
papercutninja 10:28AM (2/27/2008)
What are they going to name the successor to the New Beetle?
The (sh)IT(ty baby boomer car)?
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lovice 3:24PM (2/27/2008)
What's wrong with Lupo???
The original VW A-Segment hatchback was called Lupo!
Since the current one (called Fox) doesn't do very well, so VW goes back to its original name. What's wrong with that???
Oh, I see. Coz you never had Lupo in the states, right? And this autoblog website didn't even exist when VW had Lupo. So suddenly VW reintroducing Lupo seems to you Americans like a stupid idea.
Come on, do some research before judging!
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Jon Dutch 6:29PM (2/27/2008)
I just hope we get one of them. I would love to see the Polo over here, but like you said, we kind of have a "big car fetish" over here... and we're fat. I love small cars, personally. Smart cars are awesome. Electric cars, like the ZAP! Xebra (www.zapworld.com) are even better. Small, compact, efficient and green! Freaking neat right? Do us all a favor VW and get over the complex. Give us small cars and we will all learn to diet!
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Warren 4:37AM (2/28/2008)
Kind of obvious. It's the same as the scirocco concept being called the iroc. It's just the center part of the production name.
Look out for the new etl concept lol
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