This Bonkers Brazilian VW Passat Hatch-To-Wagon Conversion Is So Strange And Wonderful

I’ve always liked the idea of modularity in cars, though there have been so few examples of real, owner-controlled modularity that actually made it to production. By owner-controlled modularity, I mean a car that has body panels that can be easily removed by the owner and replaced with other panels that fundamentally change the shape and utility of a car. Somewhat Lego-like, in a way?

I guess the Citroën Pluriel was sort of like this, in that the car could be reconfigured from a hatchback into a hatch with a big sunroof, a full “cabrio coach,” a convertible with side rails, a roadster, and a pickup. It was very clever! But was that “modular” or reconfigurable?

In fact, the only real example of a car with a major body panel that could be swapped out for a different one that dramatically changed the look and use of the car was the Nissan Pulsar NX, with its ability to change a notchback look for a shooting brake:

That’s the only one I can think of! But then I saw something from 1980s Brazil, that incredible time and place where automotive bonkersism didn’t just exist, but thrived and flourished, fed by a hearty stew of market protectionism and wild creativity. The something I saw was an early Volkswagen Passat (we got those as the Dasher in the US) but with an alternative rear tailgate that turns the fastback/hatch design into a wagon. Maybe even a shooting brake?

See what’s going on there? That new tailgate squares off the profile, going from fastback to squareback, to use terms VW is used to. This was called the VW Dacon Passat Camioneta. This was an especially interesting, or maybe puzzling, modification, since Volkswagen already offered the first-gen Passat as a wagon already:

Still, that’s a four-door wagon; if you wanted a two-door wagon, one, as I mentioned before, you might be able to consider a shooting brake, depending on how sporty you think the character of the car is.

Dacon was a VW Dealer that made a number of interesting VW-based customizations (including some amazing very custom air-cooled ones), and I suspect future Cold Starts will feature more of these, so you know, stay tuned.

Dacon’s Passat camioneta tailgate was made of fiberglass and painted to match the car. The currency listed in that article clipping above uses the very obsolete and short-lived Cruzeiro Real currency, and despite trying to find currency converters and doing some math, I haven’t really been able to figure out what the hell this thing actually cost?

Interestingly, there’s some pictures of these kits in the wild that lack those triangular side windows, making more of a sort of little-van look:

 

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This variation reminds me a bit of those clever Fiat Panda vans:

That van has some fun tiny barn doors in the back as opposed to a hatch, but I think you see the similarities there.

I wish these owner-installed alternate fastback-to-wagon replacement hatches still were an option people could buy. There’s still plenty of SUVs and crossovers out there with fastback profiles that could gain a bit of interior space and versatility with a more wagon-type tailgate.

Take modern Volkswagen for example! Right now they make two separate versions of the Atlas, the regular, three-row Atlas and the two-row, more fastback-style Atlas Cross Sport. Think of how much they could save on tooling and manufacturing if they just standardized on the Cross Sport-type body and offered an optional wagon-style tailgate! Here’s a rough sketch:

Look at that! That would work just fine! Think how much VW could save with something like this! VW knows how to get ahold of me if they need more detailed information or sketches, of course.

Top image: Facebook/Dacon