VOLKSWAGEN has introduced two new editions of its hugely successful city car and I have been sampling the classy Club up! version.

Both the special editions Street up! and Club up! are based on the flagship High up! model and for an extra £610 they offer buyers extra kit and some styling changes.

The trendy Street up! gets larger 16-inch alloys, standard special paint and tinted privacy glass along with badging decals, body coloured bumpers, extra chrome round the front fog lights, leather steering wheel and unique upholstery as well as some other racy touches.

The more sophisticated Club up! added Blueberry metallic paint, special badging, silver decals and wing mirrors and Tartan Tonic upholstery.

The up! is one of three city cars offered by the VW group with its siblings being the Skoda Citigo and the SEAT Mii.

All are really good and you can make your own choice based on price or styling.

The up! is the most expensive of the trio as it carries the VW badge.

Like the others the up! is powered by a new generation three-cylinder engine with a choice of two power outputs.

It may be small on the outside but the up! offers an incredible amount of room inside due to its relatively long wheelbase and forward-mounted engine.

Four adults can be carried in comfort and thanks to its five doors it is also very practical.

A 251-litre boot is larger than the average in this class and that rises to a very useful 951 litres if the rear seat is folded.

The test car featured the 1.0-litre engine with the bigger 75bhp output and while that means it is no street racer, the up! is more than capable of holding its own in town or city traffic and it also cruises nicely at legal motorway speeds.

It feels quicker than the 13.2 seconds to 62mph suggests and it can reach 106mph if you take it to its limit.

As you would expect, the up! is very frugal, with an official average figure of 60mpg. I wasn't able to achieve that but I did get very close to it without really trying.

The up! handles well and deals will all types of surfaces. The steering is sharp and the five-speed gearbox is fun to use. It was also really easy to park in tight spaces.

It offers a good level of safety equipment and in this form boasts a fair amount of kit, including heated seats, electric windows and mirrors and a portable navigation system which snaps into a holder on top of the tidy dashboard.