LIFE & STYLE

• Published date: 27 May 2023
• Publication title: New Zealand Herald, The (Auckland, New Zealand)

It’s no secret that the Amarok was part of a joint-venture project with Ford. It’s definitely a Ford-led product, but 20 VW engineers spent four years in Australia working with the Blue Oval, making sure what the German company calls its “non-negotiables” were part of the new Fordswagen package

What we’ve been wondering about until now, was how much the new Amarok would really look and feel like a VW up close, on/off the road. VW rhetoric versus real differentiation.

This is an important model for VW NZ. Amarok has always been a niche player compared with Ranger or Toyota Hilux, but it came along at the right time in 2010, when “lifestyle” utes were really taking off. That year, six out of the top 10 vehicles in NZ were utes and Amarok “got us a seat at the table”, says Kevin Richards, head of commercial vehicles at VW NZ.

Now that we’ve seen, touched and driven it, we don’t mind admitting the Amarok feels a lot more bespoke than we expected. Yes, the basic platform and powertrains are carried over from Ford; but of the stuff you can see and touch, only the doors, glasshouse, mirrors and a few interior components (like the portrait infotainment screen and door handles) are shared.

All other body panels and interior elements are Amarok-specific; note the squared-off wheelarches, very different to the Ford, and even the seats are sourced from the German company rather than borrowed from the Blue Oval.

There are four tiers to the Amarok line-up. The entry Life is the work truck, with a single-turbo engine (125kW/405Nm) and six-speed transmission. But it’s full of driver-assistance/safety features all the same: everything from adaptive cruise to Speed Sign Recognition (a first for VW in NZ) to AEB with pedestrian/cyclist alert and nine airbags. It also offers LED lights, a mechanical rear differential lock and an impressive 800m wading depth.

The Amarok line-up has a brace of 4WD systems that VW calls “4Motion”, but both are exactly the same as the drive technology offered on the Ranger; Life and Style have the same part-time 4WD with low-range.

However, the Style steps up to the twin-turbo 154kW engine with 10-speed gearbox, adding keyless entry/start (incredibly, a first for Amarok) and substantially upgraded interior trim.

The two V6 hero models are the PanAmericana and Aventura. The PanAm is biased towards off-road driving, with 18-inch wheels and all-terrain tyres, while the Aventura (a name carried over from the previous Amarok) is the flagship with...