2016 Volkswagen Beetle Dune Drive Review

2016 Volkswagen Beetle Dune Drive Review - Volkswagen wants everybody to bear in mind the excellent ol' days. You understand, whenever before September 2015, when the EPA dropped its NOx-hammer on the company's dirty-breathing diesels. If you can not bring on your own to forgive and forget so conveniently, VW is happy to lead you even more down memory lane to the 1960s, when the contamination was hazier as well as the love moved openly. After the Microbus-inspired BUDD-e concept-- an all-electric mea culpa-- VW shows up excited to touch the fond memories ATM again with this new Beetle Dune.


The Beetle Dune, a midrange trim degree in special-edition guise, is indicated to evoke Baja Vermin. Those changed Kind 1 Beetles, produced in the image of the Meyers Manx, could be anything from an entertainment dune buggy to a bona fide desert racer. While there wasn't a solitary plan, a Baja Bug was immediately recognizable by the trimmed-back bodywork as well as swollen tires.

2016 Volkswagen Beetle Dune Drive Review

Certainly, there's a reason the reversion is called 2016 Volkswagen Beetle Dune Drive and also not Beetle Baja. In fact, 2 reasons: Compared with common Beetles, the Dune's rear track size expands by 0.2 inch (the result of wheels with a smaller offset) and also its suspension lifts the floor 0.4 inch greater. That's the degree of the Dune's mechanical adjustments. Coastlines will certainly not be invaded, dune will not be crested, and deserts will certainly not be skimmed.

We differed VW's suggested pavement-only route in our Dune, driving down a gravelly access road as well as making it 50 backyards prior to a drainage gully intimidated to detach the front fascia. While the Dune's front as well as rear clips provide the misconception that the auto is geared up with skid plates, we resisted the temptation to call Volkswagen's bluff.



The 2016 Volkswagen Beetle Dune Drive is an automobile having fun dress-up and also fishing for a starring part in Mad Max: Sesame Street. It will certainly sell on its black wheel-arch expansions and also the lengthy, standard spoiler that looks influenced by that rear-engined German icon. The Dune complies with the very same insincere formula that turns an Audi wagon into an Allroad or a Volvo wagon into a Cross Country-- only without four-wheel drive. It exists since we reside in a time when automakers believe every little thing can as well as ought to be a crossover.

2016 Volkswagen Beetle Dune Drive Review

It might be a disingenuous car, however the Dune is not a bad vehicle. Its merits are the same as those of any other Beetle. Huge pieces of glass make for an airy cabin and also outstanding presence. It guides as well as rides with regular VW skills. You could select in between coupe or exchangeable and black, white, or sandstorm yellow paint, yet you always obtain a turbocharged 1.8-liter four-cylinder as well as a six-speed automated. Our just major beef: the brake pedal requires an unusually firm as well as long press before the binders bite hard.


Instead of a Baja Insect, the Dune complies with in the recent footprints of lightweight scandal sheets such as the Beetle Jeans, the Fender Version, as well as the Classic. That provides us an idea for the next version. If Volkswagen can't determine the best ways to offer TDI cars in the United States again, possibly it can pay tribute to those torque-rich, high-mpg glory days with the Beetle Diesel Version, pushed by a zero-emissions battery-electric powertrain, obviously.

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