Amarok test/review

[Sharkie]

Review today in Drive

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

[Sharkie]

... which I'll bet 3 qtrs of the people that say that, havent owned a current model of any of those vehicles ...

Not knowing from a commercial use perspective, but I've had 1 x Rodeo DC 4x4 and 2 x Triton DC 4x4s for personal recreational use and they had a relatively tough life with me doing beach and semi-serious off-road traveling. All were 100% reliable and never let me down.

I'd be hesitant putting a new and untried VW DC 4x4 ute through the same .... apart from the fact that I wouldn't want to do that to a new VW anyway .....

My opinion on it still stands, I'll wait for some serious offroad mag to test it and deliver a verdict before I'd venture far off the beaten path.

Still would like to have one in TSI and manual form though.

[gavs]

Sharkie, as someone who has owned proper DC 4x4 utes, I value your opinion

We will be doing some decent testing once ours arrives off the boat (due some time in the near future) and believe me that in the 4x4 community, the amarok is creating a fair bit of hype, especially with Hilux owners who take the defensive stance of "my 2006 hilux is going to be way more better, after I can pay off the $20,000 worth of engine and gearbox repairs the Toyota refuse to warrant due to the vehicle being used in tough off-road conditions....".

The mags are really hesitant about it because they don't understand it. We have their journos here at work quite a bit and because they are typical hardcore off-roaders (with big lifts and stupid 35" tyres on patrols that spend nearly all their time in workshops because they were built in a backyard with an oxy torch and 5 cases of jim beam/bundy cans.....) and they do not understand technology. Unless it is familiar, they are scared of it and then their general reaction is they hate it because they don't understand it. I am finalising a product (that will publically debut at the Sydney 4x4 show next month) that falls into this category. They keep saying they don't get it, so they hate it.

Don't be surprised if every report that comes from 4x4 Action, 4x4 Australia etc says they don't like it. Don't take this as gospel though as most of these guys think the only good 4x4s have either Land Rover, Land Cruiser or Poo-trol badges on them....

[flyingfridge]

Didn't the Touareg win Overlander 4x4 of the year when it came out? Plenty o' tech there....

I get where you're coming from though gavs, i think one of the amarok articles i've read recently summed it up well...

VW also faces the challenge of levering buyers away from the Japanese-branded utes (most of which are built in Thailand), which boast generations of loyal, rusted-on customers.

[phaeton]

I saw that ^^ was in stitches

[Jayse]

Couple of DRIVE reviews:

from today:

new VW ute | VW Amarok ute

Safety, pricing key for inaugural Volkswagen ute

Cheers,

Jayse.

[flyingfridge]

New review by James Stanford posted on GoAuto from the South Africa drive event.

Volkswagen 2011 Amarok - VW continues Amarok countdown | GoAuto

Looking good!!

[phaeton]

Still mentions light clutch like the prototypes.

[flyingfridge]

I imagine clutch feel will be pretty similar to Transporter which is pretty light and has a very sharp take up point. I stall them around here every now and then when I forget about it.

[phaeton]

I imagine clutch feel will be pretty similar to Transporter which is pretty light and has a very sharp take up point. I stall them around here every now and then when I forget about it.

Then thats okay

I drove a T5 2.5 with the 96kW engine was the best drivers van I have ever drove.

[gavs]

My Golf has a light clutch which I like now that I am used to. I would HATE for this vehicle to have a Navara or Hilux-esq clutch as they are shockingly heavy. For a 4x4, I can't go past the clutch in a 100 series Landcruiser, perfectly weighted, good travel and really evident friction point.