Ace Aventura!
VW’s pick-up truck is still top of my rugged list
LIKE hundreds of thousands of others, I suspect, I spent much of Monday and Tuesday mulling how I would spend the €190million Euro Millions jackpot I convinced myself I would win.
As things turned out, I received an email from the National Lottery excitedly screaming: ‘Your ticket has won a prize!’ and my heart leapt. Well, for about 45 seconds, because it turned out to be €8. Sadly, I spent €10.50 on three lines, which rather serves as a metaphor for my financial acumen all my life.
So all my dreams were parked once again, which is a pity, because close to the top of my list was a Volkswagen Amarok. I take one out for a week every year, because I love the Tonka-toy ruggedness of this award-winning pick-up truck, which remains as sturdy as ever, and I would happily gaze out the window of my country retreat looking at it lined up beside a Lamborghini Sián, a Maserati Gran Cabrio and an Audi S7 for going up and down and back from the shop. Also, not to be.
By pure chance, I had the Amarok the week of Storm Luigi, or Lorenzo, or whatever it was called, and I was looking forward to driving into fields to rescue stranded animals, or maybe dropping food to the elderly in rural areas. Needless to say, Lorenzo came nowhere near us and, save for a short period of heavy rain, even its fringes delivered little in the way of excitement.
For those in areas that actually were affected, though, the Amarok would have been a godsend, especially this Aventura special edition, which came fitted with roof-mounted floodlights that honestly could light a stage at Hill 16 from the Davin Stand.
If there was an issue with Amarok’s past, it’s that the cabin erred on the utilitarian side in entry-level models, but the Aventura brings with it a whole new level of sophistication. Here, you get Ergo Comfort seats in soft Nappa leather with 14-way adjustment as standard, and a leatherwrapped multi-function steering wheel too. The car is fitted with the Discover Media Navigation system, though it would have been nice if they just had transposed the awesome infotainment system over from the top-of-the-range Touareg SUV.
The truck sits on 20-inch Talca alloys and has a body-coloured sports bar and chrome-plated side bars. Best of all, my test model was painted in Ravenna Blue Matte, a lovely low-watt coat that one man in the supermarket car park mistook for wrapping.
Of course, this is a practical fourseat working vehicle, and to that end, the cargo area at the rear, with lockable cover, offers 2.5sq m of load space, with a gap of 1.22m between the wheel arches. It has ground clearance of 192mm, a wading depth of half a metre, and always-on all-wheel drive.
Where the Amarok really scores, though, is in performance. With over 850 Newton metres of torque, it has enough grunt to pull the DUP into the 21st century, and the 3.0-litre diesel V6 also lets you kick off at some clip, with a 0100kph of just 7.8 seconds. Somewhere near Gorey, there’s a lad in a 3 Series BMW still wondering what just happened, because a truck left him for dust on the M11. The eight-speed auto gearbox is seamless and smooth, and there’s not even all that much intrusive noise from the mighty engine.
Standard spec included the wheels, bi-xenon headlamps, side step illumination, USB connectivity with voice control, heated seats and washer nozzles, velour mats with Aventura branding, and a UV-resistant load compartment coating. Optional extras on my car included the matte paint job, matte black and partly chromeplated exterior mirror housings, black door handles, and heated and electrically adjustable exterior mirrors, for a total of €67,619, including VAT.
Of course, you don’t have to spend this much, with the Comfortline model on sale at €46,885, and the Highline from €51,865.
It’s pretty sad, I know, and especially at my age, but there’s something about the Amarok that just makes you feel more outdoorsy and useful, even if a storm couldn’t oblige and let me actually test it to its full potential. My week in this affable beast every year is the one I always look forward to (Though maybe not for on-street parking), and while I would need a lottery win to justify buying one, I’ll keep buying the tickets.
Who knows, maybe my luck will come good and I’ll win the jackpot. If I do, I’ll start thinking about how to spend it.
Tomorrow — or Amarok, as we almost say as gaeilge...