There are those European automakers that compete in the
North American market and those which don't. Volkswagen, for its part, may
stand firmly in the former category, but there are still entire model lines
that remain out of reach for American buyers: diminutive hatchbacks like the Up! and the Polo, of course, but also
entire brands like Seat and Skoda which (unlike Audi, Porsche,Bentley, Bugatti and Lamborghini) aren't offered
Stateside altogether. But there's another brand within the Volkswagen Group
whose products don't, in Wolfsburg's estimation, warrant shipping to the United
States – one that would be all too easy to forget. And that's Volkswagen
Commercial Vehicles.
Though its products wear the familiar VW emblem, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles stands essentially as another brand within Europe's largest and most successful auto group. It mostly produces vans like the Caddy, Transporter, Crafter and Caravelle, but is also responsible for the only pickup truck built in Germany: the Volkswagen Amarok. Like its van stablemates, the Amarok isn't offered in North America, so we crossed the pond to drive it for ourselves (and, of course, for you) to see what we were missing out on.
Driving Notes
Though its products wear the familiar VW emblem, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles stands essentially as another brand within Europe's largest and most successful auto group. It mostly produces vans like the Caddy, Transporter, Crafter and Caravelle, but is also responsible for the only pickup truck built in Germany: the Volkswagen Amarok. Like its van stablemates, the Amarok isn't offered in North America, so we crossed the pond to drive it for ourselves (and, of course, for you) to see what we were missing out on.
Driving Notes
Previewed by the Robust concept back in 2008, the Amarok has
been on the market (certain markets, anyway) since 2010. Assembled both in
Argentina and in Hannover, Germany, the Amarok is similar in form to other
short-bed, four-door pickups like the Mitsubishi Triton (similarly
not available in America) and the Honda Ridgeline.
The version we drove on both paved and off-road sections of
the Milbrook Proving Ground in the UK was the Amarok
Canyon, a special edition that's based on the mid-spec Trendline (not on
the base Startline or top-spec Highline) but upgrades with more bells and
whistles, from 19-inch alloys and running boards (which are mounted too close
to the body to actually use as a step) to tinted glass and two-tone upholstery.
As a result of all the extra equipment, the relatively reasonable 20,000-pound
UK starting price (before tax) balloons to a comparatively enormous as-tested
price of 37,841 pounds (including VAT). That makes this fully-loaded pickup about
the same price in the UK as an entry-level Touareg, which starts at nearly $45k
in the US. Significantly more, for comparison's sake, than the Honda Ridgeline
that starts here at just under $30k and tops out at $37,505.
Powering the Amarok Canyon – an interesting trim name
considering the GMC pickup
of similar size and nameplate – is a 2.0-liter four-cylinder TDI packing 178
horsepower and 310 pound-feet of torque. (A scrawnier 138hp version available
on base models.) It's mated to either a six-speed manual or eight-speed
automatic transmission, and drives through VW's 4Motion all-wheel drive system.
We drove both versions, and found ourselves wondering why more pickups aren't
available with stick-shifts back in America, because the combination of
rough-and-tumble truck with manual transmission, quite frankly, proved
intoxicating. (Last we checked, for reference, you could still get three pedals
on the Chevy
Colorado/GMC Canyon, Ram HD, Nissan Frontier and Toyota Tacoma, but that's
about it.)
With the six-speed manual, the Amarok Canyon will run from
0-62 miles per hour in 11.0 seconds and top out at 110 mph. (Add another 0.3
seconds and cut two mph for the automatic.) In other words, the Amarok is not
one of Volkswagen's more performance-oriented models, but then it's not
designed to be.
Driving the Amarok on a variety of surfaces, we were,
however, impressed with the combination of truck attributes and German
engineering – a rare combination considering that every pickup available
Stateside is a product of either an American automaker or a Japanese one. Their
trucks may be able to haul more than VW's, but if you've ever stepped into a
pickup and felt a bit of a disconnect between the ruggedness of its
construction and that of its fit-and-finish, the Amarok would likely surprise
you with its German build quality. The overall feeling is of a truck – inside,
out and underneath, right down to the knobs and interior trim – that has been
hewn from sturdy materials.
What you shouldn't expect, however, is for the Amarok to
drive like a Touareg with
a pickup bed at the back. It's not a crossover – it's a truck, and it drives
that way (even if it exhibits more car-like refinement than most). But after a
day of piloting nimble hot hatches and cossetting diesel luxury sedans (more on
those to follow if you watch this space), the Amarok proved a breath of fresh,
earnest air and left us with a big smile across our faces. This writer never
considered himself much of a truck guy, and in truth has not driven many
pickups; it took the Amarok's unique combination of go-anywhere capability
coupled with German engineering to really see the attraction (especially where
necessity doesn't dictate the form).
Which only raises the question: should Volkswagen bring the
Amarok to North America? We don't doubt that it would find a fair few customers
in American dealerships (and maybe a few more in Canada, where European tastes
often prevail), but the Amarok was never designed with the US market in mind.
And four years since its introduction overseas, the opportunity may have passed
VW as the Amarok soldiers along. But sooner or later, Volkswagen will have to
replace the Amarok with a new model. When it does, we hope it at least takes
American tastes and potential demand into account. Because as it stands, we're
missing out.
Image Credit: Copyright 2014 Noah Joseph / AOL
Autoblog
by Noah Joseph
http://www.boscheuropean.com
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