Smart looks, good vibes
VW AMAROK
$65,000 Life; $75,000 Style; $88,000 Panamerica; $90,000 Aventura diesel and petrol.
Clean car rebate (additional to price): $2473 biturbo to $5232 V6 before July 1. Single turbo diesel, petrol n/a.
125kW/405Nm 2.0litre fourcylinder single turbo diesel; 154kW/500Nm 2.0litre fourcylinder twin turbo diesel; 184kW/600Nm 3.0litre V6 turbo diesel; 222kW/ 452Nm 2.3litre single turbo petrol.
sixspeed auto Life; 10speed automatic Style,
frontend design with vastly different grille and headlights is wholly Amarok of old, modernised. Squaredoff wheel arches are another carryover.
VW fans should be pleased, even if some irks with the Ford also ask for improvement here. The biggest is the transmission shifter. In Amarok, as in Ranger, you’ll curse its propensity to locate to Park when you intend Reverse and a manual mode that’s not userfriendly.
The constant allwheeldrive, and its clever conditionbespoke algorithms, comes standard on the sixcylinder (as per Ford). It’s a breakthrough the diesel 2litre editions would benefit from too; the cheaper edition’s setup is reliable but clunky and hasn’t the same conditionsensitivity.
Being a different kind of Ranger means it has the same remits of being a workhorse, a
Panamericana, Aventura; parttime fourwheeldrive (Life, Style), fulltime allwheeldrive (Panamericana, Aventura).
Fivestar ANCAP.
Alloy wheels, 255/70 R17; Style and Panamericana 255/65 R18; Aventura 255/50 R20.
Diesel, Life 9.2 litres per 100km; Style 8.3L/100km; Panamericana and Aventura 9.6 L/100km; Aventura petrol n/a; tank capacity 80 litres.
Emissions (WLTP3): Life 242g per kilometre CO2; Style 218g/km; PanAmericana and Aventura, 254g/km; Aventura petrol n/a.
Length 5350mm, width 2208mm, height 1884mm.
leisure vehicle, an offroader and reasonably refined onroad transport, but won’t make it a direct rival, not just because VW prices are higher (in part because Amarok carries more standard kit; note all have deck liners and a tow bar) but also because the brand hasn’t anything like the same volume aspiration.
Ranger alone has occasionally achieved more than 1000 sales in a month. That’s the annual target for VW’s light entire commercial range here from 2024. This year’s ambition is 800plus. The type’s previous best annual performance so far was 968, in 2018, a tally fuelled almost wholly by the old V6.
Going forward, there’s belief the turbocharged fours will secure as much sales attention as the new 3.0litre six. That’s a big call given the previous V6 was so popular it bumped the original twinturbo fourcylinder into retirement.
Something in the air? Of course there is. Ute tax.
VW’s engines feel the exact same impact as Ranger’s. The levy on the entry single turbo 2.0litre diesel and 2.3litre petrol (from Mustang) is unclear, but for the fourcylinder biturbo diesel it’s $2473 preJuly 1, climbing to $5232 from thereon and, for the V6, $3190 and $6555. Yikes.
VW Commercials New Zealand’s boss, Kevin Richards, says it is what it is.
“Obviously we would rather the ute tax had not been increased but we appreciate the rationale behind the Clean Car programme and we just deal with these things as they come to us.”
Regardless, he adds, “we always thought, even before any change in Government legislation, that the fourcylinder had a bigger part to play.
Back to the first taste assessment. Aventura, which has attracted most preorders to date, is the smartest looker. Here the front bumper treatment has a silver metallic Xdesign insert and the brightwork continues through to the door handles and mirrors; even the sidestep has a polished edge along the side, and the roof rails continue the metallic look.
Within the cabin, everything spells durability but with, particularly at V6 level, more luxury than people new to this kind of machine expect.
Ranger’s cabin design draws much from Ford’s latest cars; VW’s is a bit different on that side of things, but it’s still smart and, potentially, betterwrought. The digital displays are Fordborn, but whereas some Rangers have two kinds of centre tablet display screens — a 10 incher at low cost, a 12 for high end — VW has gone for the larger as standard fare and comprehensively redesigned, implementing its own infotainment software and bespoke graphics. It’s a marked improvement.
Whereas Ranger’s functions are all touchoperated, VW has sorted a bank of physical buttons along the base of the screen to provide easy access to functions such as volume, driving modes and climate settings. Quirkily, though, temperature adjustment requires a user to press the display rather than adjusting a dial. There is connectivity for Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. A wireless charging pad is included, as are both types of charge ports.
The front seats having been reshaped, using VWpreferred foams, to meet brand expectation, is welcomed.
The improvements to rear bench shape and legroom that Ranger users have noticed also implement here, though in Amarok the middle seat seems compromised due to the size and design of the centre console.
Backtoback driving with Ranger would be an exercise likely worth contemplating. When engine outputs are identical, it’s unsurprising that VW makes no claim to performance or even economy change.
A major duty for the 20 VW engineers embedded within the much larger Ranger development team for four years was to lend a Veedub vibe to the suspension tune. Amarok’s setup is said to be softer. A short but brisk burl down a country byway in an Aventura was highly satisfying. It’s still more pickup than passenger, but the roadholding and sharp steering feel are decent.
The launch event allowed driving of all the automatic gearbox diesel variants. The 2.3litre fourpot turbo petrol — yes, the Mustang and Focus ST engine, with 38kW more and 148Nm less than the V6 diesel — will initially restrict to a shipment of 25 units, arriving in June. If these do well, more might follow.
Adaptive cruise control, lanekeeping aids, rear parking sensors, speedlimit notification, wireless phone charging and nine airbags (five more than the previous
Amarok) provision.