I have reviewed so many cars in the last six months or so, that I may have been guilty of getting used to the thrills and spills of driving the rapids. If this is the case, my homework this week brought me back to earth, very slowly, I might add, with a bang. The car in question is the Volkswagen Fox, the baby of the German manufacturer’s fleet.
The car has a 0-60 mph time of… wait… to… 17.5 seconds. Top speed is 91 mph and no, there’s no turbo attached to the puny 1.2-liter engine. To criticize the Fox for being slow and unexciting, however, is to miss the point of the car entirely. The giveaway is in the model name of the car I tested: the Volkswagen Urban Fox. In this day and age of skyrocketing gas prices, more congested roads, and the car the villain of global warming, the Fox might as well be where the smart money is when it comes to getting around town.
I don’t like to use the word ‘cheap’, but there’s no other way to describe the Fox, with prices starting at £6,430 to be precise (in the UK I might add). Putting four new wheels on the road, with a Volkswagen badge gracing your car for this money, is simply a remarkable feat. The cost savings don’t end there either, with Fox falling into insurance group one: the cheapest band. Fuel consumption almost seems to be offset with combined urban and extra-urban figures of 46.3 mpg.
Wow, this is starting to make a lot of sense. The Fox is also quite tall, so despite its diminutive length, the driving position isn’t much different than a larger 4×4 vehicle. The advantages of making the car tall aren’t limited to the driving position, as headroom and legroom are also bolstered by the extra inches on top. There is a lot of glass around the car making visibility great and parking a doddle.
Outside of his favorite habitat, things are going a bit rough with the fox, especially on the freeway. Now, before you yell “the little thing ain’t built for the big roads!” If we’re objective, there will be times when you’ll leave the big smoke and run into one of the multi-lane snakes that crisscross the country. Skipping (no pun intended) the 0-60 mph time, the Fox is, and I hate to use this word as much as ‘cheap’, slow. An overtaking maneuver requires the advance planning of a chess master and billiards champion all rolled into one. Shifting from fifth to fourth made little difference to my forward movement and worryingly, neither did a new shift to third.
The high sides also act as a very large pair of hands that catch all sorts of wind or bumps from a passing truck, making the Fox a bit spooky in the outside lane. Once off the highway, however, the Fox feels much more confident navigating the twists and turns of the country, thanks to a longer wheelbase than most in its class and a wider track. In fact, rather than welding the throttle pedal to the floor, a gradual movement combined with a neat gearbox brought big rewards in the great outdoors.
Parked in front of its rivals, the Fox sits comfortably in the ‘not ugly’ group, but also struggles to make it into the ‘pretty’ range. As with Volkswagen’s other small hatchback, the Polo, the Fox has subtle styling compared to its rivals, in this case the Citroen C1, Toyota Aygo and Peugeot 107. However, there is something more grown up and civilized in the Fox when viewed alongside the almost immature stylings of the other city cars.
An interesting tidbit for your next pub conversation: Volkswagen is committed to reducing the environmental impact of car production and wants to promote recycling and greener vehicles. In the case of the Fox, it is built in Brazil, where the Curana plant grows. The fibers of this plant from the pineapple family are mixed with a recyclable synthetic material that forms the material for the headliner and rear tray. No, the car is not edible.
The Fox has been built using the latest laser welding technology, which means it’s a very stiff car which helps it earn 4 stars in Euro NCAP crash tests and comes with ABS as standard. Optional extras include alloy wheels, air conditioning and a CD player.
The Fox has a big fight on its hands, not necessarily from its competitors, but from the car it replaces: the much loved and cute Lupo. Either way, the evidence is clear. The next time I get behind the wheel of a 2.0-liter turbo monster, I’ll wish I was a very sensible human being and drive a Volkswagen Fox.