The Beetle is a phenomenon, regardless of where it shows up in the world: People are always happy to see this car, whether it's the coupe or the Convertible. With the world premiere of the Beetle Dune at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Volkswagen is giving the public the chance to see a Beetle with a cool offroad look.
The Dune concept shows the potential for a new production version of thesportiest Beetle ever. The concept is painted in "Arizona", a yellow-orange metallic, with two-part wheelarch extensions that are offset in black. Like the Cross Golf, these extensions are rugged looking elements with a matte finish. There's one subtle difference here, though: integrated on top of the main matte parts are 0.06-inch-thick gloss black "blades" that appear to hover above the massive wheel housings, because they do not make direct contact. The wheel housings widen the body by 1.1 inches per side to give a total width of 73.4 inches, an increase of 2.2 inches over a stock Beetle. Overall, the Dune has grown compared with the R-Line model on which it is based. The overall length has increased by 0.5 inches to 168.9 inches and the car is both 2.0 inches higher off the ground and 0.8 inches taller.