FR-S

Make
Scion
Segment
Coupe

Back at the 2011 Frankfurt Auto Show, Volkswagen debuted its Buggy UP concept to decent, although not overly outstanding reviews. Based on the running gear and drivetrain of the Up! city car, the Buggy Up's design inspiration came from those old so-called beach buggies that were popular back in the 1960s in California. And now a report is claiming that VW received a US design application patent for a production version, making it very likely a production version is US-bound in the near future.

At the moment, the German automaker is still conducting market research in order to try to gauge how well such a vehicle would sell. Like the latest Beetle, a production Buggy Up would be more of a niche model and it probably wouldn't be built in very large numbers. But make no mistake about it: VW wants to expand on its Up! lineup as much as possible in order to milk additional profits. The concept version, however, was rather interesting considering its interior was completely waterproof and there were even drains in the floor and the open side wills to prevent flooding. Even the seats were coated with neoprene.

The infotainment system also has a waterproof design and the entire module can be removed when necessary. Whether any of these features actually make production is uncertain, but we're pretty sure some aspects will in order to give the car an extra dosage of quirkiness. If VW realizes that there's enough interest and if the price point can be kept fairly low, a production Buggy Up may turn out to be the ideal beach car for this century so far.