#01#The VW Fox has been available in the UK since the end of April, although it has been on sale in Europe since April 2005. It's bigger than the
Lupo it replaces; curiously it's wider and a lot taller than the current
VW Polo and only 88mm shorter, with an all but identical wheelbase. It is, however, a lot cheaper than the outgoing Lupo with the least expensive model in the range, the 1.2-litre Fox, available at just £6,590 on-the-road. Our test car had the same 1.2-litre engine, but the trim was called Urban Fox; the major differences being the addition of electric front windows, remote central locking, body coloured bumpers and mirrors and a sliding rear seat with 50/50 split folding. And a higher price, £7,190, of course.
VW is able to sell the Fox cheaper than the Lupo because it comes from Brazil rather than Germany, where labour costs are much lower, and Volkswagen is expecting to sell 9,000 'Foxes' per annum in the UK, so it will soon become a familiar sight. Despite the tall shape, it looks like a VW, so much so I kept thinking of it as 'the Polo'.
The Fox is plainly aimed at the younger market. An insurance friendly rating of Group 1E (the lowest possible) will ensure its popularity. This might explain the "trendy" seat material with more stripes than most bar codes. They were a bit jarring at first, though thankfully they are monochrome stripes, but as my time with the Fox went on, I accepted them. I did notice that the seats were comfortable, although there was this nagging doubt that, like the car, they were scaled down a bit in size. I kept feeling I was sitting on the Fox, rather than in it, despite at least six inches more headroom than I would ever need.
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Fox is available with two engines, a 74bhp 1.4-litre four-cylinder and the 54bhp 1.2-litre three-cylinder engine of our car. The number of cylinders explains the engine note; triples have a distinctive 'throb' thanks to the firing order. It's all very low tech, but equally low maintenance. There are only two valves per cylinder, but there is an alloy head, chain driven camshaft and it meets EU4 emissions legislation. VW claims a 0-62mph time of 17.5 seconds, and a top speed of 92mph, but our Fox seemed much more willing than that! Around town the Fox feels so much quicker than the 0-62mph time would suggest; after all that is about the same as my own smart fortwo, and the Fox feels much the quicker. On a clear motorway run it was an effort to keep the speed down to 92! So long as the roads were clear it was possible to set very decent average speeds without the passengers ever suspecting otherwise.
All this and good economy too? The official combined economy figure is 46.3mpg with an extra-urban figure of 55.4mpg. Certainly we had no trouble recording around 50mpg despite not driving around slowly in the Fox. However, the CO
2 figure of 146g/km is nothing to be proud of and higher than might be expected.
Being tall, you might expect that the Volkswagen Fox is a bit roly-poly in corners. And you would be wrong. The electric power steering system might not provide brilliant feel, but it is weighted well, and the Fox proved to be very good in fast sweeping bends where the expected roll and understeer were kept very much at bay. This might help explain the good fuel economy we recorded; we didn't tend to slow down for corners as much as you might in other city cars.
All in all, the VW Fox would be a great choice for both the younger driver who needs cheap insurance and the older driver looking for economy. It looks bigger than the competitors such as the Citroen C1/Peugeot 107/Toyota Aygo, has all the street credibility of a VW and will be mistaken more often than not for the more expensive Polo. It's not the fastest car out on the roads, but it is fun to drive.
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Volkswagen Fox UK range overview
- VW Fox 1.2-litre: £6,590
- VW Fox 1.4-litre: £7,395
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VW Urban Fox 1.2-litre: £7,190
- VW Urban Fox 1.4-litre: £7,995
