The Volkswagen Amarok is one of the oldest dual-cab utes/bakkies/pickup trucks in the segment, but now with the option of an affordable V6 diesel engine, is it worth considering over a Ford Ranger or Toyota HiLux? Paul Maric reviews the 2021 Volkswagen Amarok V6 Sportline to see if you should still consider it!
Hardness tester results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Exterior: 01:04
Interior: 03:44
Infotainment: 04:54
Safety Tech: 06:22
Practicality: 07:02
On-road: 09:45
Off-road: 12:56
Verdict: 16:46
We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.
Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.
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#volkswagen #review #amarok @volkswagen @volkswagenaustralia
Hardness tester results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Exterior: 01:04
Interior: 03:44
Infotainment: 04:54
Safety Tech: 06:22
Practicality: 07:02
On-road: 09:45
Off-road: 12:56
Verdict: 16:46
We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.
Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.
Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1
You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.
Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!
Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!
CarExpert:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarExpertAus
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus
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Paul Maric:
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Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric
#volkswagen #review #amarok @volkswagen @volkswagenaustralia
Category
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MotorTranscript
00:00 G'day, I'm Paul, that's the Volkswagen Amarok, and it is the oldest dual-cab ute in this
00:05 segment.
00:06 It was released in 2010, so it is now well and truly getting on in age.
00:09 Today we want to figure out whether it's worth still buying.
00:12 This one here is the V6 diesel.
00:15 It is literally the only V6 diesel left in this segment now that the Mercedes-Benz X-Class
00:21 is dead and buried.
00:22 Fun fact as well, the next generation of this car, which is due in a couple of years, is
00:26 going to share a platform with the Ford Ranger, so they're going to team up.
00:29 You can view more about that up here on our exclusive story.
00:33 But in the interim, this is the Sportline, so it's one up from the base model, priced
00:36 at $56,590, and it competes with cars like the Ford Ranger, Toyota Hilux, Mitsubishi
00:42 Triton, but remember, this is the only V6, so it packs a bit more punch.
00:46 Today we're going to do a detailed review, plus a little bit of off-roading as well.
00:51 If you do want to skip ahead to other parts of this review, you can use the time codes
00:53 up on the screen there, or if you're on YouTube, just scroll down and use the chapters below.
00:57 And if you haven't done so already, subscribe, press the bell icon, it'll tell you every
01:01 single time we drive a big blue ute.
01:04 So despite being 10 years old, normally by this point cars look so dated and boring,
01:08 I still think this looks fantastic.
01:10 So you've got eight colours to choose from, all but white and red, randomly, are an extra
01:15 $700, and here with the V6 you can see the V6 models get this badge here, chrome highlights
01:21 as well, and then you've got that colour offset with this sort of, whatever shape that is,
01:27 grille where the air can come through to the radiators.
01:30 Honeycomb.
01:31 That's right, honeycomb.
01:33 And then the big, proudly worn Volkswagen badge.
01:36 Now headlights, you do get bi-xenon in some of the top spec models, but unfortunately
01:40 here you have these nasty looking halogen lights, and then also halogen daytime running
01:45 lights plus fog lights down the bottom.
01:47 And if we skip around to the side, we have 18-inch alloy wheels, a fairly chubby profile
01:52 tyre there, another V6 badge here, so everyone knows you've got the proper stuff under the
01:57 bonnet.
01:58 It's actually not too overtly utey, and by that I mean it doesn't have, yeah it's got
02:04 flared wheel arches, but it doesn't have the big plastic covers that you find on a lot
02:07 of utes today.
02:08 So I guess they've gone for more a car-like appearance here instead of, I guess a tradie
02:12 or off-road appearance for the Amarok.
02:14 Alright, jump around to the side.
02:16 Now the funny thing I've noticed here, whenever you're next to an Amarok or watching it from
02:20 side on, it kind of slopes downwards.
02:24 It sort of sits a little higher at the back, and it looks normal when you've got payload
02:27 in there and it's sitting a little flatter, but it kind of looks weird when it's running.
02:30 So a lot of people do suspension modifications to lift the front to kind of just even it
02:34 out a bit.
02:35 Privacy glass here.
02:36 Around the back here, V6 turbo diesel, in case you missed the two side badges, the front
02:40 badge and this badge over here.
02:42 And then you've also got four motion, which means this is a permanent all-wheel drive.
02:46 Another big Volkswagen badge.
02:47 Let's have a look inside this tray.
02:49 Now this is interesting, we tested a D-MAX recently and they've got the metal hinges,
02:54 whereas this is just like a sort of steel rope type arrangement.
02:58 Same sort of durability, but interesting that they use different setups.
03:02 And you'll also notice in here they've adopted that torsion beam that we find on the Ford
03:05 Ranger as well, which means lifting that tray and then having it fall down is much easier.
03:10 Now in terms of dimensions in the back, it's slightly unique in this segment, because you've
03:13 got 1555mm of load length, 1620mm of load width, but importantly, 1222mm between the
03:22 wheel arches, which means you can fit a Euro-sized pallet, which is kind of cool.
03:27 Then you have a payload of 976kg.
03:31 Then you've got all these tie-down hooks in the tray, plus a 12-volt outlet as well.
03:35 And if we close this, you've also got a, if the tow bar was there, a 3.5 tonne towing
03:40 capacity, but only a 300kg down ball weight provision.
03:45 So we're inside the Amarok, what does the key look like?
03:47 Well it's not a proximity key, so it's just a standard key with lock, unlock, a key flips
03:53 out and then the Volkswagen symbol on the back, and then you have a key barrel that
03:57 it goes into and that you have to turn for anything to happen.
04:00 So what about styling?
04:01 OK, so you can see that this is 10 years old, because this is kind of the styling that was
04:06 modern 5 or 10 years ago.
04:08 It was all about rough and tumble and durability.
04:12 Utes have now evolved to go one step further than that, they've realised that they are
04:15 lifestyle vehicles.
04:16 So look, while it does look scratchy and quite sort of hard-wearing, it still is presentable,
04:22 and in terms of your touch points, stuff like that centre console is nice, and then the
04:25 doors are softly padded where your elbow is going to rest, and the steering wheel sits
04:29 nicely in the hand as well.
04:30 So from that point of view it's all good.
04:32 But how hard are these surfaces?
04:34 Well, we have tested it with our gyrometer, so if you want to see how hard all the main
04:38 touch points are compared to other cars in this segment, just scroll down to the description
04:42 below where you'll find a link.
04:44 OK, finally, build quality, what's it like?
04:46 Well, glovebox is a little shaky there, but I've driven plenty of these over the years
04:50 and never once had a complaint about build quality, they're generally pretty well put
04:53 together.
04:54 OK, let's talk infotainment.
04:56 6.33 inches.
04:59 Size does matter when it comes to infotainment, because it is pretty difficult to see, it's
05:02 such a small screen, but it has a few little features in it, I'll show you in a sec.
05:06 So basically, touchscreen, it's all colour as well, you can see, you can swipe through
05:10 those menus there.
05:11 You get AM/FM radio, a CD player, which is pretty impressive these days, a lot of cars
05:17 don't have CD players.
05:19 In the media menu, that's where you can stream from your device if it's connected over Bluetooth.
05:23 You've got the phone menu as well, which is again for Bluetooth, and voice recognition
05:27 where you can give commands to the car for calling people or navigation through the phone.
05:32 Now, the interesting thing is you've got an SD card slot there as well to look at images
05:35 on here, that'd have to be zoomed in because you wouldn't be able to see too much, but
05:40 the impressive part is actually the app interface.
05:42 So if I click on app here, you see Apple CarPlay is integrated into that screen, it is a full
05:48 screen implementation, nice and smooth, works pretty fast.
05:51 It is a cabled system, there's also Android Auto, I'll show you what that looks like.
05:55 So again, a full screen implementation, and all fairly easy to use as well, so you can
06:00 click on the maps there, and then drag around as required, nice and fast too.
06:04 So very impressive that they've been able to integrate everything into that very small
06:08 screen.
06:09 So that's the sound system, and in terms of connectivity, you have your Bluetooth, but
06:12 you've got one USB point down here which is going to be in use for your smartphone mirroring,
06:17 an auxiliary outlet, a 12 volt, another 12 volts up the top, and then another 12 volts
06:22 off to the side.
06:23 OK, let's talk safety.
06:24 It's going to be a very short discussion because there isn't a great deal going on here.
06:27 There's no autonomous emergency braking, there's no lane keeping assistant, there's really
06:32 not a great deal, no blind spot monitoring.
06:34 You do get front and rear parking sensors, and while there is airbag coverage at the
06:38 front, there are zero airbags for the second row, which is again pretty disappointing in
06:44 a car like this.
06:45 It's likely to be carrying kids and other people in the second row.
06:48 You do get a reverse view camera, let's see what that looks like.
06:50 OK, so that's pretty decent.
06:52 You can see as my finger moves up there it brings an extra context menu.
06:55 You have rear and front parking sensors displayed there too, so it is a pretty decent setup
07:00 if you're going to be doing a lot of tight parking.
07:01 Moving on to practicality, and let's start with storage.
07:05 Your phone, where's it going to live?
07:06 You have stacks of room for a phone.
07:08 There's no wireless phone charging, but there's plenty of places to keep it.
07:11 What about your trusty bottle of water?
07:15 Fits easily in there.
07:16 Inside the door you have stacks of storage, plus it's carpeted as well.
07:21 Centre console, reasonably sized.
07:24 It's quite narrow, but that gives you an idea of how deep it is.
07:26 It'll fit a full-size bottle.
07:29 Check this glovebox.
07:31 It's tiny, it looks big, but once you get the manual in there there's really not much
07:34 room for anything else.
07:36 There's also this storage nook up the top for papers and parking phones, and then this
07:40 for your Oakleys.
07:42 And then in terms of comfort, you do get automatic dual-zone climate control, and while the seats
07:47 are cloth, they are extremely comfortable.
07:49 They hug you in nicely and they're nice and soft, so for all body shapes they're going
07:53 to be pretty good.
07:54 The steering wheel's great because it has reach and tilt adjustment.
07:58 Some utes in this segment still don't have reach adjustment.
08:01 Sits nicely in the hand.
08:02 It's car steering wheel, so it kind of feels like you're driving a car, not a dual-cab
08:05 and all of this stuff's really easy to reach and full manual adjustment for all the seats
08:10 as well.
08:12 Before we properly look at the second row, I want to show you some of the features here.
08:15 So the seats come up, which is good, and they've got a hook here so you can keep them up.
08:20 It kind of gives you that flat load floor, but unlike some of the other utes in this
08:24 segment there's no under-seat storage there, which is a little bit disappointing.
08:28 And the other thing that is truly bizarre, to access the top tether points, there's a
08:32 tab here, but when I pull it, it does nothing.
08:35 You need to have someone else, like a cameraman, eager if you can pull that tab at the same
08:40 time for it to drop.
08:43 Now it's silly because if you're on your own, it's just not really possible to do it unless
08:47 you climb onto the seat and grab both handles.
08:49 But anyway, so back here you have your three top tether points and then jack storage just
08:54 behind there.
08:55 Now, what about comfort?
08:56 So grab handles to get in.
08:58 Oh man, this is cramped.
09:01 So the Amarok is a wider ute, but it's not any better in terms of legroom.
09:07 My knees are well and truly wedged into there with this in my regular driving position,
09:11 which is quite far back.
09:13 But toe room's good, but yeah, I'm like leaning up against a metal bar there, which is not
09:17 great.
09:18 I've got to kind of go side-saddled to get this thing seated correctly.
09:22 Headroom pretty decent.
09:23 In terms of other features you've got here, cup holders are down here.
09:27 You can pop those into position and then they fold down like that.
09:30 You also have storage inside the door that you can fit your bottle into, also carpeted.
09:35 Matte pockets here.
09:36 There's a 12-volt outlet, but no rear air vents.
09:38 And remember, no airbags back here either, but you do get ISOFIX points to join those
09:43 three top tether points.
09:44 Okay, so we've hit the road in the Amarok and powering the V6 version of the Amarok
09:50 is a 3-litre turbocharged diesel, 165 kilowatts of power and 550 newton metres of torque.
09:57 But the key thing here is that it has overboost, so for 10 seconds it can crank that up to
10:03 180 kilowatts of power.
10:05 It's mated to an 8-speed automatic transmission and unlike most of the utes in this segment,
10:10 it's permanent four-wheel drive and that is a 60/40 torque split rear to front.
10:14 That means that you are getting a predominantly rear-wheel drive feel, but on sketchy roads
10:18 like gravel roads or perhaps wet surfaces, this is going to feel a whole lot more sure-footed
10:22 than most other conventional two-wheel drive utes in this segment.
10:26 The all-wheel drive system uses a Torsen centre differential and then it's got a braking
10:30 system on each wheel that acts as a traction control system effectively and that should
10:35 work well off-road.
10:36 There's no settings and stuff really to play with here and no low range either, which makes
10:40 it slightly unique in this segment.
10:42 So being a punchy V6 diesel, the official 0-100 time is 7.9 seconds.
10:46 I want to see if we can match that, so I'm going to flick this down into sport mode,
10:51 dial up the throttle a little bit and then just punch it.
10:58 That is really impressive.
11:04 It just punches you back in the seat.
11:06 I don't know, it's so confidence-inspiring knowing that you have so much torque under
11:11 your foot.
11:12 It doesn't feel wheezy like a four-cylinder diesel does.
11:14 Now the official fuel economy figure comes in at 9.1 litres per 100km and we are bang
11:19 on that, which is pretty rare when we test a car to have something that actually meets
11:23 the fuel economy claim.
11:24 And that brings me to the display ahead of the driver there.
11:27 So you've got your fuel economy figure, there's a trip computer and then you've also got audio
11:31 plus phone settings and also settings for the car as well.
11:35 It's all monochrome though, so it's not very advanced.
11:38 Now let's talk about the steering.
11:39 So this still uses a hydraulically assisted steering rack.
11:42 It doesn't use EPAS, which is what a lot of utes in this segment now use, which is an
11:45 electrically assisted steering rack.
11:47 So that means you can't get stuff like a lane-keeping assistant or semi-autonomous parking.
11:52 It's actually not too badly tuned.
11:53 It has enough feel through it, it gives you that car-like feel behind the wheel and it
11:57 still has a bit of meat to it but it isn't overly heavy, so it's just the right balance
12:01 there for steering feel.
12:03 OK, let's talk about the ride.
12:04 We've found a very crappy looking road here.
12:07 It's actually doing a reasonably good job.
12:09 It doesn't throw you around too much and it's not like the Hilux which needs weight in the
12:13 rear for it to feel settled.
12:14 This is just cruising over everything.
12:16 It's not quite as comfortable as something like a sedan but it is comfortable enough
12:20 for a dual-cab ute.
12:21 In terms of engine noise, you do get a little bit coming into the cabin but V6 diesels are
12:24 generally nice and subdued.
12:27 This engine is actually used in other Volkswagen products so it is a highly refined engine
12:31 to begin with and it kind of just does the job here really nicely.
12:34 In terms of visibility, I feel like we're sitting lower to the ground here than you
12:37 do in some utes.
12:38 So that means you're getting a nice visibility out on the road without feeling like you're
12:41 sitting on top of all the traffic.
12:43 Rearward visibility is good.
12:45 Reward visibility is fantastic because those wing mirrors are absolutely huge.
12:49 So I don't feel too overcome or daunted by having to drive this.
12:52 It doesn't feel like it's in the middle of everything in traffic.
12:56 Okay, let's talk off-roading.
12:58 So permanent all-wheel drive is actually pretty beneficial for off-roading.
13:02 There's no real modes you have to worry about.
13:04 There is one and I'll explain that in a second but in terms of the specs, approach angle
13:07 of 28 degrees, that is the angle of the face you can approach before you hit the front
13:11 of the car and a departure angle of 23.6 degrees, that is the same but for the rear of the car.
13:16 In terms of ground clearance, you've got 220mm to work with and a wading depth of 500mm.
13:21 So despite the fact it's a 10-year-old car, that is pretty impressive.
13:24 So the only thing you have to worry about here, there is no low range.
13:27 The 8-speed automatic has a very short first gear and that's kind of its version of a low
13:32 range but there is an off-road mode and a rear differential lock.
13:36 With the off-road mode, we'll click that on, it effectively changes the stability control
13:40 and it makes it so that you are able to get more slip in the wheels and also when it comes
13:44 to stopping, it changes the ABS profile so you can build up a layer in front of the wheels
13:49 and stop the car quicker and we'll demonstrate that in just a second.
13:53 But here's log mountain, we'll give it a shot here without the rear differential lock.
13:57 That is what I tend to do.
14:01 See how it goes.
14:02 Alright, it is a little bit bumpy but it's climbing up here without any stress at all.
14:09 It's actually really impressive.
14:11 So despite the fact it doesn't have a low range transmission, that first gear is kind
14:15 of acting as a low range.
14:17 That's really impressive, very happy with that.
14:19 Alright, let's try our descent here.
14:21 So the off-road mode also has a hill descent control which activates when you switch it
14:27 on.
14:28 Let's see how much we're going to collect on the way down here.
14:33 I can kind of feel some of these rocks just clipping on the way through.
14:38 So you are suffering a little bit there without that clearance but for the most part it feels
14:43 okay.
14:44 I'm just catching on the side step there.
14:46 I can feel the hill descent control working here.
14:48 I just literally hover my foot over the brake.
14:51 It's actually a really steady and gradual decline down.
14:55 This is really impressive.
14:56 I mean it just shows you don't need all the manual controls here to do basic off-roading.
15:01 Okay, so we want to test this off-road mode out, especially the stopping potential because
15:07 in theory when we stop without off-road mode it should take ages to stop on gravel and
15:12 then with off-road mode on it should stop a whole lot quicker.
15:16 So what I'm going to do is crank the speed up here to about 60 k's an hour.
15:21 I'm going to slam the brakes on right now.
15:24 This is without off-road mode on.
15:30 Predictably it takes forever to stop because the ABS system is locking, unlocking, locking,
15:35 unlocking in rapid succession.
15:36 It doesn't really have the ability to pull the car up.
15:39 So let's try that again, this time with off-road mode on.
15:43 Okay, so let's flick off-road mode back on.
15:46 The little indicator comes on.
15:47 Get this back up to 60 and then we'll hit the brakes.
15:51 Oh, that is stopping much better.
15:57 You can actually feel there's something pulling the car up a whole lot more.
16:01 When the ABS is just in its normal mode it kind of just runs away from you, whereas right
16:05 there it felt very confident in the way that it stopped.
16:08 There's also added stopping precision because of the four-wheel disc brakes instead of drums.
16:12 Okay, final thing we want to check is 500 millimetres of wading depth.
16:16 How well does it work?
16:17 I've got our little river here, let's go have a sticky beak.
16:21 Okay, so I've got to admit our river crossing here is very low at the moment, but it'll
16:26 give you an idea of what it looks like when this traverses a little bit of water like
16:30 this, maybe on the way to a campsite or something.
16:33 So 500 mil is pretty low compared to some of the other cars in this segment, but for
16:37 what it is, this is going to get the job done.
16:38 You can get a snorkel if you need to, that will improve your ability to do this type
16:43 of stuff, but pretty good for a standard car.
16:46 Okay, so Volkswagen Amarok.
16:48 Despite its age, it actually still represents great value for money, and it has one heck
16:52 of a punchy diesel engine, especially useful if you're doing a lot of towing.
16:56 Keep in mind, obviously though, 300 kilogram down ball weight limits your towing capacity
17:00 to around 3,000 kilograms, despite the official rating of 3,500.
17:05 Also, missing a lot of safety technology, which in this day and age isn't very good,
17:10 but if none of that bothers you, this really is a standout in this segment with full-time
17:14 all-wheel drive, and just a really nice driving experience.
17:17 So let me know in the comments below, do you think we need more V6 diesel utes in Australia,
17:23 or in the world?
17:24 I think that they are a really good addition, and slightly better than the four-cylinder
17:27 stuff that's out there on the market at the moment.
17:29 So let me know in the comments below.
17:30 If you enjoyed this video, make sure you hit like, share it, also press subscribe and the
17:34 bell icon if you haven't done so already, but until next time, take it easy, and I'll