Lightweight, beautifully made and still good looking it's little wonder hot Lupos remain sought after
I'm not about to go off on some Philip Larkin-esque missive but I've never quite been able to forgive my mum for almost buying a Lupo GTI. The 'almost' is the critical word here, her commendably impulsive car buying habits usually working to my favour. Like the time she took her Tipo to the Fiat dealership for a new clutch and came back with a brand new Cinquecento Sporting. "The salesman was VERY FRIENDLY," she said, somewhat defensively. As good a car as the Tipo was there were no complaints from me.
Dan still sore about missing out on a Lupo
I wasn't living at home at the time but I knew from the tone of her voice on the phone that something had become of the Cinquecento. Then the admission that its place had been taken by an
Alfa 145 Cloverleaf which, mysteriously, came and went before my next visit home and was never mentioned again. "I did almost buy one of those nice little Lupo GTIs though," she said in passing.
She should have done. And she should have kept it too, looking at the prices these things are now going for in the PH classifieds.
Launched in December 2000 and updated with a six-speed gearbox for the 2002 model-year halfway through 2001, the little Lupo hails from a period in VW group history in which premium car engineering and quality surfaced in ostensibly junior models. With cars like the A2, the seemingly never-ending Veyron project, the Bentley Conti and others, this was Piech encouraging a culture of engineering indulgence, not always in the most obvious places.
Interior in a different league, red belts 'fast'
Which is how the little Lupo ended up with a large number of bespoke aluminium panels - wings, doors and bonnet - and a sub-1,000kg kerbweight. Enough to give the Polo GTI-donated 125hp 1.6-litre engine something to be going on with (the Lupo's 8.3-second 0-62 and 127mph top speed were comparable to the later 1.8-litre turbo Polo GTI) and matched with an all-pervading sense of quality and solidity that recent, more ruthlessly price-oriented engineering has all-but wiped out. £12,980 was not cheap given it'd also get you in the much more potent Clio 172 at the time but including xenon lights and cabin quality Clio owners could only dream of the Lupo was a proper premium proposition wrapped in compact dimensions. Red seat belts, like the Cinquecento, were also cool.
Only 125hp but less than a tonne to lug around
Going by
HowManyLeft a good proportion of the near-1,000 cars sold in the UK survive, with 822 showing as registered last year. Not a bad survival rate for a hot hatch but it's a little car with quite a following and you'll need around £4,000 to get in one now. Are there many other cars retaining over a third of their value after 10 years on the road? Probably not, and especially not little runabouts like the Lupo.
This one, up for £4,650, looks to have been well-loved and is one of the MY2002 cars with the six-speeder, too. Black looks classy, and those subtly-boosted lines have aged very well indeed. Sorry Mum, but you should've bought this one back in the day. And what the hell did happen with that Alfa?
VOLKSWAGEN LUPO GTI
Engine: 1,598cc 4-cyl
Transmission: 5-speed manual (6-speed post-MY2002)
Power (hp): 125@6,500rpm
Torque (lb ft): 112@3,000rpm
MPG: 38.7 (official combined)
CO2: N/A
First registered: 2002
Recorded mileage: 70,000
Price new: £12,980
Yours for: £4,650
See the original advert here.
