DETROIT MOTOR SHOW: Volkswagen Beetle Dune

Dune buggies used to be all Scooby Doo and California sunshine in eternal summers and blasting through the sand, laughing at slow pokes in their Jeeps.

Now the heart donor for the original dune buggy (and the one that didn’t make any actual money on the craze) is going back to the well, promising even more freedom, but a lot less rebellion with its Volkswagen Beetle Dune.

Pitched as an off-road version of the Golf-based Beetle, the Beetle Dune concept car, which debuted at the NAIAS in Detroit today, is a near-production design that will give the two-model Beetle range a crossover niche-filler.

Based off the Golf Alltrack soft roader, Volkswagen is hinting that the Beetle Dune could be in production as early as this summer.

A key difference to the original dune buggies is that the engine is no longer sitting at the back end powering over-sized sand tyres. Being Golf based, the Beetle Dune’s powerplant sits across the front end and, though there are all-wheel drive architectures available, drives only the front wheels.

Powered by a 155kW version of the direct-injection, turbocharged 2.0-litre, four-cylinder engine, the biggest shock of the Beetle Dune is that Volkswagen continues to claim it will be off-road capable, even though it is only front-wheel drive.

To get there, it has an electronic diff lock (also known as the old computer-fiddling-the-brake-on-the-spinning-wheel trick) and a six-speed dual-clutch transmission, both of which are standard VW Group production items.

It’s enough of a package to push the Beetle Dune to 100km/h in 7.5 seconds and on to a 227km/h top speed, presumably on asphalt where the front end won’t dig a hole. Still, there are compatible all-wheel drive units inside the VW Group that will slot straight in should it ever make production.

On the positive side, the car’s stance is far broader than the standard Beetle, with the track widths being shoved out 29mm to stand at 1607mm at the front and 1573mm at the rear to accommodate its MacPherson strut front end, four-link rear end and 255/45 R19 tyres.

The Beetle Dune also delivers 50mm more clearance than the stock Beetle, it’s also 12mm longer (4290mm) and its flared guards and the chase for extra track have pushed the overall width to 1856mm.

Volkswagen hints broadly that this car is headed for production, which might explain why the biggest body differences to the stock Beetle are to be found mostly in the plastic, not the metal.

There is a new apron beneath the bumper bar housing new, circular LED daytime running lights (it keeps the standard Beetle bi Xenon headlights), there is an extension of the sill to ape the classic Beetle running board and there are thickly flared wheel arches which, combined, use less metal than a jelly bean.

There are a few tweaks to the metal bits, with the most obvious being a bonnet that’s now higher in the middle and boasts longitudinal vent holes, covered in a honeycomb grille. No, probably not real honeycomb.

Volkswagen claims the car uses brushed aluminium panels at both ends to protect the underbody, which will also give it something nice and flat to rest on when its front-drive gets it bogged in the sand.

The key cool vector on the Beetle Dune is its large rear spoiler and its complementary roof spoiler. Besides looking the business, the pair of air tumblers gives Beetle Dune owners (which so far numbers one – Volkswagen itself) somewhere to hang their skis and snowboards and, as VW keeps pushing, their sand boards.

There is probably more of the 2000 New Beetle Dune concept in the Beetle Dune than genuine dune buggy.  

That feeling carries over inside, where the Beetle Dune is extremely production oriented (read: it’s effectively a production cabin). There are some cool tweaks, though, including replacing the standard glove compartment with an original Beetle-esque horizontal grab handle.

Its gauges are traditional analogue units, including a prominent tacho and speedo and a less prominent fuel gauge. And then it gets funkier.

There are three more analogue dials atop the centre of the dash, then there is a 7.7-inch, high-resolution touch screen setup for the multimedia unit, which includes something Volkswagen calls an Active Matrix Organic LED to give greater crispness to the fine image details. No, we don’t know what it does, either, but it sure sounds a bit Marketing Touch Words.

It’s all fitted with Volkswagen’s Sideways user interface setup for the navigation unit, which actively puts in points of navigation and has the capacity to not just tell you where a restaurant is, but if your friends are already there or not.

None of which would fit in with the dune buggy ethos, but could deliver a production future to the Beetle Dune. Roger Dodger.

Gallery of the Volkswagen Beetle Dune concept

Get the latest motoring.com.au news from the Detroit motor show

Read the latest news and reviews on your mobile, iPhone or PDA at carsales' mobile site...

Don't forget to register to comment on this article.