VW concept previews Oz-bound Robust
September 23, 2008 by George Skentzos
Volkswagen has unveiled its new ‘Robust’ Ute as a pre-production concept known simply as ‘Pickup’ which is due to be officially unveiled at the International Automobile Exhibition in Hanover.
The Robust Ute will be produced at Volkswagen’s plant in Argentina, with Australian models confirmed to arrive by late 2009.
The concept version is a dual-cab, four-seater model with a one-tonne payload capacity, though no doubt the production model will feature variations as diverse as Toyota’s HiLux range.
Under the bonnet is Volkswagen’s latest generation common-rail turbo-diesel (TDI) engine mated to an all-wheel drive system – although exact specifications are not yet known.
In keep with the concept theme, the ‘Pickup’ has been portrayed as a Search and Rescue vehicle for rapid response at the beach.
Volkswagen claims its new Robust pickup is the first of its kind from any high-volume European manufacturer and has been based on a completely unique chassis.
Print it: 
Hopefully they use the 3.0 V6 diesel a-la Touareg.
The 4cyl 2.0 VW diesels are too small, and the 2.5 will likely be defunct by end of 2009 as it’s still a PD not common rail.
This might easily move to the front of the queue in the class for my money.
The Toureg is so so horrible off road…my base Forester XS runs rings around it on the beach, forest etc..
This car will shake up the established top end work ute market…. ie. SR5 Hilux etc… should bring new levels of standard equipment and build quality…. As you say Reckless, as long as they bring it in with bigger Turbo Diesel… although, you could argue the 2.0 would power the base models.. ?
I like the way the headlights’ design is integrated with the grille, and can well imagine an indicator lamp replacing the blue lamp for production.
As proportions go, this looks so right. Mind you, so do the Mitsubishi, Navara, Mazda and Ford.
The top seller in the field is the ugliest. Yes, they’re work horses, so other things matter more. But I remember reading how Elizabeth Taylor felt so humbled by her beauty. She couldn’t understand that with such minimal differences in the places, sizes and shapes of our lips, ears, nose and eyes, that some people are decreed beautiful and others are deemed ugly.
It’s proportion. You’ve either got it or you haven’t.
How is it going to shake up the top end work ute market?Because of VW’s extensive experience in this oversupplied market segment?Nearly every major manufacturer has one or more versions of this type of vehicle in Australia.
It’s going to be built in Argentina.Is it an established VW Plant with a history of manufacturing?More importantly, will it adhere to the same worldwide VW quality controls?
I can realistically envisage this type of vehicle mainly competing on a price basis.I’m sure seasoned competitors will have the same if not more features than the Robust.
Just what the Australian market needs… MORE “pick-up utes”,so overpaid tradesmen can pimp them up! :(
Vamos Argentina todavia!
Love the Look!!
Hope a wagon version will become also available!!
Also what about the suspension? Is it solid axle and IFS combo?
Reckless1 – your wrong the 2.5 TDI in the Crafter is common rail and this engine should easily carry over.
fasthonda – VW Argentina has been building cars since the 1980s and it adheres to all VW Quality Controls.
there appears enough good sh*t built into this one that the ‘hoff’ will just have to reprise baywatch fcs!
but Bolt cutters? An axe? for beach rescue?
Sure, the imagineers were aiming it at lumberjacks……….in budgie smugglers.
jokes aside, it’ll probably drive right over the top of koreans & yanks, choke on the odd nissan/mitsi and go straight for toyota’s jugular. good on it.
Because of the “free trade agreement’ we have with Thailand we wont be seeing this here anytime soon.. And last time I checked with JD power VW were not the most realiable of brands….
oooh.. VW Robust.. V6 3litre TDI as in my tourareg.. wow.
now, just make a cab-chassis version, and I’m there.
Paul.
Tim Says:
September 23rd, 2008 at 9:06 pm
The Toureg is so so horrible off road…my base Forester XS runs rings around it on the beach, forest etc..
Hahaha, joke of the day. Forester runs rings around Touareg off road……good one. Maybe where light weight counts, but not where low range is needed.
Phaeton – yes, Crafter engines are CR, Touareg 2.5 is still PD. Interestingly, though, the 3 variants in the Crafter all produce far less power/torque than the PD version. The CR 2.5 has only 120kw/350nm.
The 3.0V6 diesel would still be the pick if it happens :)
And an R36 version to show what a pile of dung the TRD Hilux is…..
Tim. No. Your Forester tyres are thinner than tooth picks. Touareg is a 4WD with chunky wide tyres, locking differentials, decently geared low range and decent ground clearance. Forester is soft roader with three limited slip diffs in series. Terrible setup for offroad. We take the neighbours 79V offroad all the time. It is a poor car that often struggles in low range on sand. Who are you kidding? I call BULLSHIT on you. Sit down.
Well I have first hand experience here. The Touareg dropped on its belly on an easy exit at Bribie. All of his diffs were locking, unlocking, changing ground clearence….nothing happened. Mind you, it was with only 3 people on board. It became a joke of the day, when a $100 grand “4WD” couldnt make an easy exit after 8 atempts.
I mean, an old couple in their Discovery, flicked a switch and got out of there in one go with no trouble at all. Then an old Hyunday Santa Fe laughed his arse off and got out of there and then so did my Forester (with Manual/decent low range). The Tourag had to be pulled out by a ‘83 Hilux…
The point is, even with all his wizardy, it is a horrible car for sand – it weighs too much and doesnt have the power (V6 TDI) to get out of these situations. And you guys will be surprised where the Forester goes..their AWD system is unmatched, leaves some LandCruiser owners scratching their heads.
I’d buy one of these alone just on looks.
I am not an expert on cars but for some time now i have been looking for a ute for my IT job as i carry a lot of tools and parts.
If VW built an R version of one of these, i would go straight to the dealer now begging for one
^ Tim, it sounds like you’re talking yourself into believing your off road expertise in a forester. Get real, it’s a toy.
If the above did occur, it’s probably more to do with driver experience / inability than the vehicle’s capability.
I suspect the Landcruiser owners are scratching their heads in amazement that the forester even got over the curb and onto the ever treacherous nature strip.
Well, you can’t knock real life experience, Tim.
Speaking of real life experience, Danman, my 55,000 km Golf has been a tiny bit less reliable than one of my two previous Camrys and massively more reliable than the other.
Take JD Power with a grain of salt. Skodas rate top of the pops in the UK survey and are essentially re-bodied Golfs and Polos that rate lower. Audis got a terrible satisfaction score out of a US JD survey many years ago and it was all due to undersized drink holders, way down in the fine print.
VW Australia’s boss says the Robust is gittin’ its ass down here as quick as she can lay her hands on it.
Hey George, this is how good Toyota wanted their TRD Hilux to look, but it doesn’t make the grade.
Tim Says:
September 24th, 2008 at 10:14 am
Well I have first hand experience here. The Touareg dropped on its belly on an easy exit at Bribie. All of his diffs were locking, unlocking, changing ground clearence….nothing happened. Mind you, it was with only 3 people on board. It became a joke of the day, when a $100 grand “4WD” couldnt make an easy exit after 8 atempts.
If the clueless driver of the Touareg you saw while getting hand experience had thought to turn his traction control off, as did the disco driver, the Toureg would have sailed out.
Your Forester is no match for a Toureg in any conditions.
Hey WVB, its obvious what the boltcutters and axe are for.
I am a rich and greedy land developer and we have had a lot of problems with the poor little people, who think that beaches are for swimming, fishing, surfing, when we all know that they are for developing.
Some of these green coloured people have even chained themselves to trees to stop us making lots of money from these horrible sandy places.
The boltcutters are for cutting through the chains, and if that fails then you can cut the tree down with the axe.
FO by another name is still FO.
TDi 2.0 common rail engine is redlined at 5K rpm, the tacho in the pic is redlined at 4.5K rpm, so must be something other then the TDi 2.0 CR. anyone know what VW engine is redlined at 4.5K rpm?
t39, could that mean its a bigger motor if its redlining earlier?
the front looks a bit like the the new camaro.
Well spotted t39, I believe it is the 2.5l 5 cyl from the crafter which develops max KW at 3500rpm. As Phaeton points out, this is a CR engine and would seem the most likely candidate as it’s from the commercial range.
http://www.volkswagen.com.au/v.....6.File.pdf
I’m not in the market for a Ute, but if I was :oD
I like!
VW TDIs rock!
Confusion Says: I suspect the Landcruiser owners are scratching their heads in amazement that the forester even got over the curb and onto the ever treacherous nature strip.
Not to mention the speed humps at the mall.
The Euro’s kill the Japs when it comes to diesel technology so whatever engine powers it it’ll certainly embarrass the current market leader. Which is sooooo over rated anyway, not to mention ridiculously priced and downright ugly!
We can only hope and prey they fit the V10 from the Tourareg.
Please Volkswagen, please fit the V10, please….!
Why the V10? would you buy one…. NO
It makes me laugh when people plead for giant engineering and marketing to do something silly… Yeah a v10 engine is a vehicle sold Primarily on price… ever seen a V10 toureg getting around.. me neither.
The Crafter’s 2.5 R5 diesel engine would still be competitive on paper if fitted to the Robust ute, if I’m not mistaken.
Crafter R5 120kw/350Nm while Hilux 2.5L D4-D 126kw/343Nm and Triton 3.2L DI-D 118kw/343Nm
PD doesn’t necessarily mean worse than a common-rail set up, just means less ‘refined’. People still drive around in Patrols and Landcruisers with enormous diesel engines (some not even turbo’d -_-) that sound as though they’d eat you if you get too close, and they dont seem to mind? x_x
Why do engines etc fitted to commercial vehicles get detuned? One would think they as a commercial vehicle, they could utilise the extra torque (not so much power?) more usefully. (For example: V6 CDI engine in Vito van is detuned to 450?Nm torque and some amount of power while same engine in passenger cars produce 500+Nm torque)
And since it was discussed about the 2.0L TDI engine; VW Transporter van comes with 1.9L engine lol..
“DanMan Says:
September 25th, 2008 at 9:04 am
ever seen a V10 toureg getting around.. me neither. ”
You hang out in the pov suburbs too much. I’ve seen numerous V10 Touaregs driving around. The people who own them love them, they use barely more fuel than the V6 diesel, and much less than the V6 petrol version.
But if the 5cyl 2.5 fits in, then the V10 will fit, as long as the vehicle is wide enough, since the V10 is two 5s joined together.
Mmmm, a W20 version could be interesting…….
‘I’ve seen numerous V10′ Stop it with your numbers, your killing me… VACTS is your friend here.. actually NO it’s not! 12 rego’s in Brisbane this year! Between Highway auto in Springwood And Austral In Newstead.. (The biggest selling in Aust).. Bloody facts.. and wow i didn’t even insult your socio economic status…
Most people who commint to a Vehicle love them in my experience… But then people love living in Iraq too…
Oh hang on.. Maybe you saw the same Vehicle on your morning commute and saw him (or her) driving home at night and counted them twice!!
Stastical Anomalies!
No, I’m not colourblind.
I can tell the difference between blue and silver and grey V10 Touaregs. One clue is the V10 badge on the back.
Just because you haven’t seen any, doesn’t prove there aren’t any. Clearly your statistical analysis skills are also lacking if you believe your little world is the norm.
Who says I commute, I don’t – that’s another wrong assumption to add to your others.
And Vfacts doesn’t single out V10s from other models, so you wouldn’t know the mix. I can’t find any references to V10 vs non-V10 in the VFACTS data from here http://www.autonews.net.au/static/vfacts/main.html
If you removed the VW badge, half of the people who are salivating would be saying yuk, just what the world needs, another big American styled 4×4 pick up! Put a Honda badge on it and its the next Honda Ridgeline or its Chevy Avalanche twin. Built and designed for the American market. And if it does land here its unlikely to be priced at Japanese prices considering a 4motion Transporter crewcab starts at 43500 +orc. I can easily see this being much dearer.
‘VACTS is your friend here.. actually NO it’s not!’
That’s what i meant there about the breakdown model by model..
I emailed the importer and asked.. I know a friend there.
But hey i got you to research so, result!
No dealer would want an unsold V10 on their floorplan so order only i’m afraid.(4 months)
Still i didn’t insult you.. LOL.
Still my industry experience against your wheels subscription and i got nothing i guess.
I bow down before your greatness o master of knowledge..
There ya go again, making assumptions and believing them to be fact. I do not subscribe to wheels.
The V10 Touareg is a top line 4wd. One wouldn’t expect them to be common, and they’re not. Still, enough people say yes, which means I see them with roughly the same frequency as I spot a Cayenne, Range Rover or Perplexus.
It’s called ‘brand creep’. 85% of V10 (or even sillier, R50’s) would be registered within 15 klm’s of a particular states CBD. In this demographic an Audi badge carries more weight than a VW.
Doing some quick research an Audi dealership is always with 10KLm of a VW dealership.. Those Germans! this is what they do best.. Social engineering on the other hand, Terrible! (dont mention the war..)LOL
I think people should relax
It’s a nice ute, it’s still a concept and hasn’t even made production as of yet.
I think we should leave our opinions until there are reviews or driven one.
I will personally be test driving one as soon as it comes out
DanMan: “Doing some quick research an Audi dealership is always with 10KLm of a VW dealership.. Those Germans! this is what they do best.. Social engineering on the other hand, Terrible! (dont mention the war..)LOL”
The nearest Audi dealer to me is 150km+ away =(
Tourag is not that great! If you’re after an off-roader for 100grand, it’s not worth it. Landcruiser, Audi, BMW beats it hands down.
I saw one stuck the other day. Even xtrail pulls it off w/o any effort. It’s really too heavy and the ride is not as comfy as others in the class.
It’s not reliable.
Moneyman, The BMW X5 is still only a soft-roader, While the touareg can be specked up to be a little bit more serious offroad. But If you want true luxury and offroad Performance you would be looking at the Lexus LX, Range Rover, Benz G500,GL etc…
Dlr1 your comment is spot on!!
I haven’t seen an X-trail pull a Jumbo.
Fnar fnar fnar
Gotta agree with Golfie……I do see the rare species called Perplexus. They are endangered in numbers mega hey.
“moneyman Says:
September 25th, 2008 at 11:59 pm
Tourag is not that great! If you’re after an off-roader for 100grand, it’s not worth it. Landcruiser, Audi, BMW beats it hands down.
I saw one stuck the other day. Even xtrail pulls it off w/o any effort. It’s really too heavy and the ride is not as comfy as others in the class.
It’s not reliable.”
Oh, dear. Someone who thinks a BMWX5 is as capable off-road as the Land Cruiser, and Xtrail is better than Touareg.
One of the engines used will be the 2.5L TDI from the Transporter range and not the Crafter engines. The 2.5TDI used in Transporter will be CR when T6 is launched ahead of the “Robust”. There will also be an option for a petrol engine, more than likely a TSI 4cyl rather than a V6, an R series however is a real possability depending on the cars reception through the US and UK.
VW have spent alot of time in Australia with this car to make sure they get it right for our unique applications of a “pick up”.
Any Rumors of a Stationwagon body??
I genuinely love the look, reminds of my current Prado, with a different grill and lights, and a ute tray at the back!
There is talk of a Wagon varient down the track, it would be similar in shape the the Mitsubishi Challenger or previous model Nissan Pathy.