DO-IT-ALL DELIGHT
A year with VW’S Amarok V6 has left us convinced it’s the double cab to get ... provided you can afford it
IT was a moment I’d been waiting for ever since the keys to the Amarok were handed to me for the remainder of its long-term test following exeditor Steve Smith running in the vehicle for the first few months. A red Volkswagen Golf 7 GTI pulled up alongside the Amarok at the traffic lights. The youngsters had clearly recognised the V6 badge on the big bakkie and I knew what they had in mind for when the lights turned green.
Despite being much heavier than the GTI, thanks to its grippy 4Motion system, the Amarok leapt off the line to easily pull ahead of the GTI … albeit only briefly. Lesson taught. And that was just one of several surprises the Amarok had in store.
Throughout its tenure, its comfort and performance were always impressive and I seldom wished I had been behind the wheel of something smaller and more manageable. This became evident when I spent 16 hours in
the big bakkie over the course of little more than a day for a 1 600 km return trip to Colesberg from Cape Town. On the way back, we took a 330 km detour from Beaufort West to Loxton via Fraserburg and Leeu-gamka. It was the wettest I’d ever seen the Karoo; there was even a waterfall outside Fraserburg. The sodden, rutted gravel failed to rattle the Amarok and we could unleash the full potential of the V6 engine on the open roads.
Another highlight was the Ergocomfort 14-way adjustable seats. Apart from being extremely comfortable, they offered support in all the right places and a number of passengers commented favourably on them.
Other excursions included a visit to the Helderberg 4x4 offroad course close to Somerset West and the Atlantis dunes outside Cape Town. Sand is the perfect playground for the Amarok. Whenever it felt like the wheels were getting bogged down, all it required was a quick flex of the right foot and the bakkie’s tyres would churn up sand and the vehicle would pull itself out of the situation. However, those
pretty, diamond cut wheels are prone to damage when venturing on a rocky off-road course.
In all situations, on- or off-road, the Amarok performed brilliantly. The combination of a smooth eight-speed automatic transmission and an abundance of power and torque means the big bakkie is perfectly capable of scaling a mountain. The rear diff-lock was used frequently and it makes a significant difference over slippery, rocky terrain.
The VW was also flawlessly reliable until a few days before its first service, when one of the fuses linked to the electronics of the driver’s seat blew. This was fixed during the service and the seat operation returned to normal ... until the new fuse also blew.
When the Amarok’s odo passed 15 000 km, it was booked in for that aforementioned service at Barons Cape Town. I dropped it off at the service centre the day before so the work could be carried out early the next morning. The consultant kept me updated on the progress and the only additional maintenance required was the fitment of a new fuse. When I picked up the bakkie, it was cleaned inside and out, ready for its next adventure.
Over the course of a year, the Amarok impressed us with its fuel economy. While Steve Smith drove it, tank-to-tank fill-ups often resulted in consumption figures of between 11,0 and 12,0 L/ 100 km, understandable as he lived only 10 km from the office on a predominantly urban commute. After it was transferred to me, the consumption dropped with my daily 70 km trip mainly on the N2 highway. The best consumption I was able to achieve was 9,24 L/100 km, which is
especially impressive if you take the brawny package into account and consider the figures we’ve achieved with other double cabs. I noticed the onboard computer indicated up to 0,5 L/100 km less than the true figure.
The only downside to using a big bakkie as a daily driver is threading it through tight multi-storey car parks or down the narrow roads of Cape Town and Stellenbosch (unlike some smaller bakkies such as the Mitsubishi Triton, the Amarok is both long and wide). I usually parked the VW at the far end of a parking garage where other users couldn’t ding it. If no bays were available, it was a tight squeeze to get in and out of the driver’s seat, plus the Amarok stuck out of most bays.
I made the incorrect assumption the Rigidek cover fitted on top of the loading bay could open only at an angle. Recently, I learnt you can completely remove it in less than a minute. That said, it is handy being able to store items in the load bay; once the deck is closed and the tailgate locked, the load bay is secure.
TEST SUMMARY
Although Volkswagen has significant experience in building larger commercial vehicles, it had little understanding of large leisure bakkies until opting to develop the Amarok. It certainly took its time – especially before launching this fantastic V6 engine into the package – but the result remains impressive nine years after its original unveiling. While offering all the practical elements you would expect of a permanent-allwheel-drive bakkie, the level of refinement, safety and comfort is outstanding for this segment. This performance, combined with impressive fuel consumption, confirms why the Amarok V6 remains the market’s singlebest leisure double cab.