Is there a market for a £40,000 pick-up? There is. Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles’ UK outpost is in fact so confident of the revised Amarok’s success that it has dropped the previous four-cylinder variants and installed a 3.0-litre V6 diesel in their place.
Built in Argentina. And Germany. And Nigeria.
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The Amarok is one of those vehicles that a lot people forget about. It started off as a quiet experiment, built in Argentina at General Pacheco, far away from Volkswagen’s homeland. European buyers took to it to such an extent that production was added at a van plant in Hanover.
A third albeit small build operation joined the production chain in July 2015, CKD assembly now taking place in Lagos. The facility is a JV with Stallion Group, the distributor for Volkswagen, Audi, Skoda and Porsche in Nigeria. This Dubai-based firm owns what was once a VW plant, the factory having been opened in 1975 to make the Beetle but then closing in 1990. Stallion also assembles vehicles for Hyundai Motor, Nissan Motor, Ashok Leyland and Iveco.
All UK Amaroks are sourced from either Pacheco or Hanover, the pick-ups assembled in Lagos being for local and regional distribution only.
Engines and gearboxes
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By GlobalDataVW has been making this model since December 2009. The fact that not a lot changed with the recent facelift shows that the design is ageing well. There are the usual revisions to headlights and grille which most vehicles receive at the mid-cycle point but if the back end has changed at all, I can’t tell the difference. The press test vehicle had V6 TDI 4MOTION badges which is the obvious giveaway that there is something new under the bonnet.
The 2.0-litre diesel is still available in most other markets but there has never been a petrol engine in any country. The UK importer decided that it would make the V6 standard here, so this replaces the 140PS and 180PS four-cylinder engines which the Germans, Argentinians and others can instead specify. The 3.0-litre TDI comes with a choice of outputs: 204PS (150kW) or 224PS (165kW) and it was in the latter spec which I got to try the new model.
The eight-speed automatic gearbox which has featured in the Amarok since late 2011 was impressive back then, especially at a time when the world’s best seller in this segment, the Toyota Hilux, could only muster a six-speeder. And the new-shape Hilux’s auto still has two fewer ratios than the Volkswagen.
Dynamics & chassis
Its maker claims the 5.25m long Amarok double cab pick-up “combines car-like comfort and technology with full off-road capability”. I wouldn’t argue with that statement. The first time I drove one of these vehicles was on a UK media event across grassy, hilly fields. At that time I was nursing a shoulder which was healing a week or so after a dislocation. The strongest memory remains how comfortable the suspension made could have been a painful experience. For a truck that still has the same long-travel leaf-sprung rear, recent drives have only added to my earlier impression.
You can try as hard as you like – I did – but the back end just doesn’t seem to want to jump out of line, and under heavy breaking with no load in the tray there wasn’t a trace of instability. While others, such the Nissan Navara, have drums at the rear, the VW has discs. Even with 550Nm of torque, the behaviour under hard acceleration is car like too.
The Amarok has a ladder frame construction and debuted a then-new Volkswagen Group platform. A double-cab was the first bodystyle, with a single-cab following from mid-2011 but we don’t get that derivative in the UK.
This vehicle continues to be fitted with American Axle & Manufacturing’s TracRite Electronic Locking Differential (ELD), along with a chassis-mounted locking differential electronic control module. The axles are manufactured at AAM’s Araucaria Manufacturing Facility in Brazil.
Interior – a mix of old and new
If you’re a fan of older Volkswagens such as previous Passats and Golfs, there’s a lot to like on the inside. That’s not meant to be a put-down. Solid but soft and not too shiny plastics, a new touchscreen infotainment system plus CarNet and App Connect, deep door pockets lined with soft fabric to prevent rattles, everything laid out logically – this is a no-nonsense vehicle.
The test Amarok, which was in top-spec Aventura trim, also had the best fitted floor mats I’ve ever seen: they covered every part of the carpet, to the millimetre. I lifted one to see if there really was carpet underneath. These sorts of small touches may seen inconsequential but they suggest a thorough level of engineering and intelligent thinking has gone into the rest of the vehicle.
When was the last time any of us turned an ignition key (or pressed a START button) and nothing happened for a few seconds? Admittedly, there was snow for a few days while the Amarok was with me, and it wasn’t at all an inconvenience but the diesel V6 needed a short while to be summoned into life. When you own any car, you get used to things like this, but wasn’t it VW which all those years ago which had diesel cars’ glow plugs triggered by the interior light coming on when the driver’s door was opened? Such clever thinking but perhaps for some reason that idea has gone away.
A record year for VW Commercial Vehicles
In the UK, the Amarok is distributed via Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles’ Van Centres, with the first customer deliveries taking place just before Christmas. The CVs division set a fifth consecutive sales record in 2016, registering 50,100 vehicles. That also means Volkswagen has more than doubled its volume since 2009. With a share of 12.1 per cent, this is the number two brand behind Ford. The Amarok suffered a sales decline, from 3,908 in 2015, to 3,586, but that should change in 2017 with a full year of the new model.
Britain is an important market for Hanover-based Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, and the sales expansion in these islands outpaced the brand’s 11.4 per cent year-on-year rise. Deliveries worldwide numbered 480,064 vehicles, though Amarok sales declined by 9.5 per cent to 69,200 from 76,500 in 2015. Considering how long this pick-up has been on the market without a facelift, and the collapse of the Brazilian market, it’s not a bad result.
Towing, performance
Back in the UK, this is the only pick-up in its segment to offer a diesel V6. Thanks to all that torque, the payload is 1,114kg, while unbraked, you can tow up to 750kg or 3,100kg with additional braking fitted. Acceleration to 62mph takes 7.9 seconds, and top speed is 120mph, both strong figures for the class. If you want to see a demo of these abilities, have a look at this beautifully shot commercial which I found on YouTube.
The average on the Combined cycle is 36.2mpg which is some 7mpg better than I managed. CO2 is 204g/km and that’s for the 224PS engine with an automatic gearbox. In addition to the 204PS unit, VW will offer a 163PS (120kW) version of the V6 later in 2017 but only with manual transmission.
Could the Amarok ever be sold in the USA?
Volkswagen of America continues to rule out launching the Amarok there. The division believes the vehicle’s size makes it unsuitable for the local market. That’s odd, given how Toyota is presently expanding its only Mexican production plant due to the popularity of the Tacoma with buyers in the US: more than 190,000 were sold there last year. Ford, meanwhile, clearly regrets not having been building the Ranger in North America in recent years. Having seen Toyota’s success, as well as that of GM’s Chevy Colorado and GMC Canyon twins, Ford has now decided to put its own rival into production at Wayne/Michigan Assembly in 2019.
Once the dust settles on what the new federal government in Washington’s true intentions are towards vehicle manufacturing in the NAFTA region, Volkswagen will be able to take a proper look at the potential of making the next model at either Puebla in Mexico or Chattanooga in Mississippi.
The future second generation model, and an SUV too
Apart from the addition of the occasional special edition, no further changes are expected for the Amarok, and a second generation model should arrive in 2019. That seems likely to be based on a updated version of the existing body-on-frame RPU platform.
An Amarok SUV (not its model name) should be released a year or two after the arrival of the next generation pick-up. A global rival for the Toyota Fortuner, Ford Everest, Isuzu mu-X and Mitsubishi Pajero Sport, this derivative should do especially well in Asia and the Pacific rim. And who knows, perhaps the UK too, given that Mitsubishi should soon be selling what it will call the Shogun Sport here.
