Amarok test/review

[6thgear]

agreed. if i were in the market for this i'd wait for one of the 4wd outfits to give it a proper test!

however i do have a feeling that the amarok would tend to be driven as a shopping trolley/family vehicle rather than used as a true workhorse/offroader anyhow.

i think the hilux just has it down pat in that department...

[jb747]

I own a current model Hilux. It's been around Australia twice, once towing a caravan, and it will be off again in a couple of months. As delivered by Toyota, it was a long way short of the sort of vehicle that we wanted. But the bits needed to make it a lot closer to that goal were readily available. It has never given any trouble, and has been pretty severely 'off road'. It isn't particularly smooth, and I'd just love it to have a better engine and a much larger tow capacity.

Whilst the two litre VW diesel has the numbers (kw and torque) of the Hilux I'd have to admit that my preference would be for a bigger and lazier engine. I'm just not all that keen on having a thoroughbred out in the bush. Right now I'm seriously considering buying an Audi Q5 3 TDI (not for the bush I might add), and if VW had chosen to put that engine or a derivative into the Amarok I would be interested. But, with variants of the Golf engine, no thanks.

[phaeton]

The engine and concept has been developed by VWCV for a couple of years now.

I have no qualm with a low capacity engine powering the Amarok or that vehicle size.
We must also remember Europe is taxing high capacity engines this is VWs way of saving extra costs to the buyer and that the vehicle is built and made also for Developing markets where costs must be kept down otherwise no money would be made.

[flyingfridge]

Don't worry about the engine size chaps, we've got the same engine in the transporter now and it's a MONSTER! 400Nm at 1500rpm to HiLux's 343Nm at 1400rpm says a lot... in fact the 103 is closer in spec to the HiLux motor.

[Transporter]

Yeah, also new Euro6 emissions that are coming in 2014 are pushing manufacturers to downsize engines and reduce friction to improve fuel consumption, so the 6,8 and more cylinders engines will be soon the thing of the past. The 5 cylinder engines will replace them in prestige and high performance vehicles.

[Sharkie]

Review today ..... Safety, pricing key for inaugural Volkswagen ute

And more importantly for me .... 2 bits of key information .... 6spd manual only (initially) and a 2.0 TSI (Tiguan and GTI engine) to follow next year.

Both of those will mean an Amarok may just end up at my house .... 200kw/420NM Amarok (once modded) anyone?

[team_v]

Review today ..... Safety, pricing key for inaugural Volkswagen ute

And more importantly for me .... 2 bits of key information .... 6spd manual only (initially) and a 2.0 TSI (Tiguan and GTI engine) to follow next year.

Both of those will mean an Amarok may just end up at my house .... 200kw/420NM Amarok (once modded) anyone?

Sounds good.
I wouldn't mind one but i already have the Tig and see no benefit to selling it other than "proper" offroad potential

[gavs]

The comments people write after those articles always amuse me, especially the "experts" who have a friend of a brother that once met a guy in a bar who's cousin worked for 2 months in the service centre of a VW dealership.....

"It's underpowered, the Hilux is so much more betterer because it's more betterer" and the old "Toyota and Mitsubishi and Nissan are so much more reliable", which I'll bet 3 qtrs of the people that say that, havent owned a current model of any of those vehicles!

Anybody who says that their "Japanese" aka "Thailand" ute is more reliable, well, NONE of the 15 odd models of the Hilux, Navara and Triton we have at work have ever been reliable.

[team_v]

The comments people write after those articles always amuse me, especially the "experts" who have a friend of a brother that once met a guy in a bar who's cousin worked for 2 months in the service centre of a VW dealership.....

"It's underpowered, the Hilux is so much more betterer because it's more betterer" and the old "Toyota and Mitsubishi and Nissan are so much more reliable", which I'll bet 3 qtrs of the people that say that, havent owned a current model of any of those vehicles!

Anybody who says that their "Japanese" aka "Thailand" ute is more reliable, well, NONE of the 15 odd models of the Hilux, Navara and Triton we have at work have ever been reliable.

The main issue is servicing and support imho.
Any country town has a Toyota dealership and almost every car in teh outback towns is a hilux ute.

Since VW don't have dealer/service representation out there if you get a fault code or the DSG mechatronic unit fails or like in the mk6 you lose the drive gear, then you're pretty much F'd.

[phaeton]

I hope they bring the petrol variant here sounds good