It has enough similarities to the Beetle (mix of carbon-copied engine, hood ridge and 2-letter brand acronym in a circle as a logo) that logic points us directly at expecting a Beetle.
Hood ridge doesn't match. Hood logo doesn't match either (Wolfsburg logo wasn't on every Beetle). We don't even know for sure the logo represents an acronym. Besides, that looks like a faux-grille obtained with character lines, very little curve, nothing like the Beetle nose. No separate wheel arches, completely different rear end and probably a different nose, too. Short rear overhang pointing at a pint-sized car. And the well known propensity of the devs to mix and match - like, we got a Porsche layout in a japanese sportscar, a Jeep clone from a japanese manufacturer, a Reliant Robin + Piaggio Ape mix as an Ibishu. That's enough for me to think there's way more than "a Beetle" in these pics. Even if it ends up being a perfect Beetle clone, I totally expect them to brand it as something from some place else, like, from Italy, just to have a suitable italian vehicle to go with the new map.
Miramar debuted together with Utah, yet was a JDM car. The Sunburst, a Japanese car, was bundled with two Maine maps. --- Post updated --- "AB" is quite noticeable in it. --- Post updated --- And 100% similar motor. --- Post updated --- The only thing it points at is a car with a small rear overhang. --- Post updated --- The devs also have a propensity not to mix and match - the D-Series looks very much like an '88-'97 GM's C/K trucks, the Covet is almost an '88-'91 Civic dead ringer, the 200BX is pretty much a 240SX and the pre-facelift Moonhawk looks like a carbon-copied '73-'75 GM A-Body coupe.
I'll said again. Car design in BeamNG is original with little similarities to real cars. Burnside, Pessimas and ETK 800 are really similar to real cars (Cadillac, Civic/Acord and BMW) but cars like Miramar, Barstov or Moonhawk have original design (or like ETK I Series, it is mix of BMW, Audi and maybe even Mercedes). That new car could be even something like BMW Isetta but under different brand. Don't expect 1:1 Beetle or any other car you think it would be.
There are a few made-up Beam cars, but most are very close to real stuff. I know it would not be 1:1 Beetle, but it would likely be a similar relation as the 200BX:240SX one - not a copy, but the influence is far-reaching.
All we know is its gonna have a beetle like engine, cant really make assumptions on what it looks like based on a snapshot of the logo and the shape and size of its trunk.
We still have no Euro-spec vehicle to go with Italy, while they had plenty of american vehicles already available for Utah. I wouldn't want take a Bolide on drovers' tracks, thank you very much. A japanese car, in US spec. "A" is, second letter could be anything. Or, they could be a stylized cathedral for all we know. Could be a german manufacturer, ok, "Automobilbau" or something. Or it could be anything, because, you know, VW wasn't the only manufacturer to use acronyms in their logos? Which is not what the Beetle - an outboard-rear engined family car - is. And there's still zero similarity to the Beetle in those pics, other than the carbon-copy engine. An engine that was put in pretty much every Volkswagen of the time, no less. It's quite certainly a Volkswagen rip-off, but not necessarily a Beetle.
watch it be like a really stylish cement truck or only just the hood, badge, rear engine bay, and engine. nothing else and not even put together, like just the parts, and those parts alone bahahha
I'm still saying that there are not much indication they being one and same vehicle, there can be Beetle like rear engine vehicle and another vehicle of AB brand. Surely it can be Beetle engine Fiat influenced vehicle, but those two pictures do not necessarily show same vehicle. One is yellow and another is beige, so definitely they are two different vehicles, even if they would be same brand and model, which is not necessarily the case.
That would be insanely sneaky of the devs... I doubt it, since from the hood, it resembles a cheap car from the mid 1900s (probably continuing to run in production for another few decades.) which would go perfectly with a cheap tiny flat 4.
that hood is giving me a TON of 1960s' VW 1600 TL vibes i'm sorry but that looks pretty similar to me, and i don't know why! i'm also REALLY loving that logo, by the way. Hats off to @Falkrum !
Yes based on past record of car releases, it would be highly unlikely to have two completely different vehicles of same / similar era / class to be teased and released in next update. But then we would be only presuming that it is single vehicle, it might be quite likely, but currently I don\t think there is a lot of facts to support either way. Auto Bravissimo (or whatever AB stands for) would also suit quite well to small cheap car of Beetle/Fiat type. In world of motorsports those kind of cars have been very popular at entry level racing, so it will be very good addition to game. One thing I'm thinking here is that detail level of engine is quite bit higher than other vehicles, maybe other vehicles are updated graphically at some point?
That kind of does not make sense to me. In modeling of engine, size is not much to do with detail, flat 4 of such type has a lot more stuff to model than generic i4 from Ibishu and they have added distributor too. I have been attempting to model a distributor for last hour, my lack of skill is creating bit of a challenge there, too many shapes in that darn thing.