2014 Volkswagen T-ROC Concept

I like the T-ROC even more in the official images versus the sketches from last week’s preview article here.

The T-ROC is still firmly a concept — but here is what we predict: this exact car, with streetable tires, coming soon to VW dealers nationwide.

Based on the MQB architecture, the T-ROC will hopefully be more affordable than the Tiguan, but more feature-rich than the Taigun.

The night-vision, terrain cameras and blackout functions of a military vehicle headlight are present on the T-ROC’s foglight (above).

Examples of this tech shown here:

Very cool.

Keeping the two-door layout is likely, but not ideal for most cool young folks. hat this reminds me of most? The California-classic: an air-cooled Beetle dune buggy conversion.

Was that a big job? Nope. Unbolt the fenders and most bodywork, add larger tires. Done.

Here is my first car: a 1975 SuperBeetle named Walter (Mitty).

Ready in a few hours and nearly-unstoppable with rear-engine traction? Yes. And even a light nose to float over deep quicksand.

The T-ROC and I are off to Michigan’s Silver Lake State Park — where the dunes and sand stretch 40 miles wide (and deep, it seems) on the shores of Lake Michigan!

But this time: we will not leave as the sad passenger in a tow truck after burning out the center diff and JATCO hydraulic clutches of our Subaru Legacy GT.

Was I going wild and having fun for five hours before it exploded into a smokey mess of non-movement? No.

Burned everything to shreds in first 10 minutes trying to get up the sandy ramp.  Car underbody was dragging on sand. 

It was a Sunday, too — meaning everything was closed.

Rest of story? Subie towed to dealer, Tom and dogs take long, painful taxi rides from hotel to renta-car place — at some airport 60 minutes from anything.

Drive back to Chicago Monday morning, wait one week in Altima loaner while Subie fixed, then drive back to Michigan to retrieve repaired Subie one week later.

State parks like this, while costing only about $25 up front to enter, can easily chow through $5000 if you bring the wrong car.

Most important thing I forgot to do? Deflate my tires to less than 10 PSI.

We had fun on the trip anyway, as these photos show.  Tank is 10-weeks-old in the above photos.

The T-ROC from Volkswagen is still a concept, but the interior looks mighty close to production-ready.

Our guess: Look for this cool truck next summer…