hello everyone and welcome in this video
we are checking out the 2016
volkswagen beetle dune now the beetle
dune is a unique take on the 1.8 liter
turbo beetle it features a raised
suspension contrast stitching on the
interior dune exclusive seats unique
bumper and air intakes black cladding on
the exterior and a rather large rear
spoiler
under the hood the 1.8 turbo produces
170 horsepower and 184 pound-feet of
torque available from just 1500 rpm
which is sent to the front wheels
through a six-speed automatic
transmission as far as the interior
there's plenty of leg room and plenty of
adjustment for the driver so you can
move the steering wheel up down you've
got a nice infotainment system here
which does feature apple carplay
intuitive simple climate controls which
i do like visibility out the front and
to the sides checking your blind spot is
fine looking out the back is also fine
so good visibility all around there are
however a few quirks to the interior as
i mentioned in my previous beetle review
for example uh the e-brake the handbrake
it can come into contact with the
armrest if the armrest is down so they
kind of interfere
the rear view mirror is tiny so you
can't actually see out the whole rear
window using the rear view mirror if it
was larger you could so it's silly to me
why they do that another thing the moon
roof
you can close the cover and still have
the moon roof open and you know i think
that leads to the potential of having it
closed with the moon roof open and then
you know you park your car it rains it
all soaks through disaster you get the
idea and then the other thing on the
last point here is just the seat belt is
super far back so i'm a tall guy 6-1 and
i've got the seat further back than most
people probably will and i can't reach
with my left hand to grab that seat belt
it's too far back so instead you gotta
turn and pull it over you know that may
seem tedious but every single time i get
in this car i forget and i try and pull
at the seat belt and i can't grab it now
there are a few cars that do this
the mustang for example also has it
because it has these windows that go far
back which i do really like from a
visibility standpoint what i don't get
however is though why they don't just
add a little clip right here so you can
hold that seat belt right there which is
exactly what the mustang does and then
it's not a pain to put it on minor i
know but it's still something that i
think should exist so what's it like to
drive well i've actually been surprised
how much i've enjoyed driving it
especially considering this has the
six-speed automatic rather than the dsg
or the manual transmission now i had the
beetle r line with the manual
transmission in and i think part of what
kind of ruined that for me was just how
tall the gearing was so in this it
actually has much more aggressive
gearing than the manual transmission and
as a result i find it to feel just as
quick and definitely be a bit more fun
to drive now of course it's not as
involved as the manual transmission but
the gearing is such that it makes it a
bit more peppy a little more fun and
you've got all that torque at 1 500 rpm
so it kind of does come alive at these
low speeds
now like any automatic transmission the
gear shifting is a little bit of a delay
when you put it over into the manual
mode and you try to select yourself
but it is pretty smooth so overall it
feels fine to me you know you just have
a little bit of a delay which is pretty
typical of planetary automatic
transmissions as far as the fuel economy
it's rated 25 in the city 34 on the
highway and i took it on a fairly long
road trip up to shelton washington from
portland oregon and on that trip there
and back probably around 200 plus miles
i did over 35 miles per gallon average
and you know there's some back country
roads out there which i was having some
fun on so for the fact that it got over
35 for that entire trip is pretty
impressive
so really good fuel economy is certainly
possible in this thing
the steering also i've been surprised
and maybe this is because i've just been
driving a ton of suvs lately
but you know it just feels it's got a
good weight to it so as you come into
the corner the weight definitely builds
it's not an effortless uh steering which
you know some of the other volkswagens
i've been in have felt pretty effortless
and this one actually feels like you
know requires effort and you get
feedback through that because it builds
progressively as you come into the
corners so we've got some nice bends
coming up
you do definitely have some body roll
this is on a lifted suspension so a
little bit higher cg um there is body
roll there
i like the throttle mapping it's easy to
control nice and linear
solid brakes there
you know of course as you push the limit
in these front wheel drive cars you are
going to start to understeer
but this thing's actually pretty fun
i find myself actually enjoying this
more than that r line that i was in and
really i think the biggest difference is
the gearing i mean this might weigh a
little bit less because it's the 1.8
versus the 2-liter
but i've had more fun in this one okay
so we're going to check out the 0-60 i
looked in the owner's manual and i don't
see any buttons i cannot find if there
is a way to turn the traction control
off so that's going to be left on i did
see in the owner's manual that the
stability control can't be turned off so
i believe you also cannot turn off the
traction control so either way i've got
it in sport mode i'll put my foot on the
brake and the gas release i'll probably
get a little bit of slip and then you
know traction control come on and then
it'll just power through the rest of it
so
put on the gas
it actually allowed for a decent amount
of slip there
60.
so it looks like you hit 60 right at the
end of second gear so as i mentioned
previously you know much more aggressive
gearing than in the manual transmission
driving on the highway you do have a
decent amount of tire noise and a little
bit of wind noise
not too bad overall hope you guys have
enjoyed the video thank you for watching
if you have any questions or comments
feel free to leave them below