By: IOL Motoring Staff
Uitenhage - In the surfer culture of the 1960s, the only thing cooler than a Volkswagen camper was a Baja Bug; fast forward to June 2016 and VW’s attempt to cash in on Beach Boy nostalgia is here in South Africa .
The Baja Bug was never a factory model, you had to make your own. First prize as a starter kit was a rare Karmann Beetle convertible; failing that, you would cut the roof off a standard Beetle and weld in cutaway panels where the doors used to be, to stiffen the body.
The mudguards would be trimmed to accommodate big, fat low-pressure tyres on raised suspension and away you went. The Baja Bug, and its descendant, the fibreglass-bodied beach buggy, were surprisingly effective for their intended purpose, which was to get surfers and their boards across the dunes of the Baja Peninsula to wherever the surf was up, because they were robust, air-cooled, low-geared and light enough to scoot across loose sand without digging themselves in.
Also read: VW Beetle gains rugged 'Dune' Style
Since the advent of the New Beetle in 1997, there have been a number of concepts featured at various motor shows, for 'crossover' Beetles drawing inspiration from the Baja Bug cultures, but none of them ever made it into production - until now.
The Beetle Dune, premiered at the 2015 Los Angeles motor show (where else?) comes from a concept shown at the 2014 Detroit show, itself derived from an adventurous yellow beetle-based buggy first seen in 2000.
Mechanically, it's a standard New Beetle, available in South Africa only with the 110kW 1.4 TSI petrol turbofour and seven-speed dual-clutch transmission - but it tries to look the part with special 18 inch rims on raised suspension, revised front styling, new bumpers and diffusers at both ends.
The black honeycomb screen in the central air intake widens towards the bottom, and with a trapezoidal insert on each side housing the indicators and foglights.
The back end is defined by a large spoiler, black on top and body colour below, LED tail-lights and the new bumper with matt-black inserts.
Yellow and black
The Beetle Dune comes in your choice of three colours - white, silver and yellow, with silver diffusers, mirror housings and side sills, and with or without an optional black roof.
The inside is trimmed in yellow and black with a painted dashboard (yellow is standard, black an option) and a large, lidded glove compartment, as on the air-cooled originals.
The instrument faces are also framed in yellow and there's yellow contrast stitching on the black fabric upholstery (leather is an option).
Standard kit, over and above the 'street' version, includes automatic headlights and wipers, cruise control, lumbar support, parking sensors at both ends and hill hold.
Also included is an eight-speaker audio system with CD/MP3 player, SD card slot, Bluetooth connectivity, USB and auxiliary ports. For a few dollars more, however, you can have a 400W, 10-channel Fender sound set-up with adjustable ambient lighting in red white or blue, a light ring around each door speaker, a tweeter in each mirror triangle and rear trim panel, and a monster sub-woofer in an enclosed bass box in the boot.
PRICE:
1.4 TSI Dune DSG R416 700
That includes a three-year or 120 000km warranty and a five-year or 60 000km maintenance plan; service intervals are 15 000km.
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