2010 VW Amarok revealed, Australian launch late next year

By Tim Beissmann | December 02nd, 2009

Volkswagen has released the first official pictures of its production-ready Amarok ute before its global launch early next year.

The images show a vehicle stylistically very similar to the Search and Rescue Robust Pick Up concept that VW has been parading around on beaches since September 2008.

Small chrome details near the front fog lights lead the changes to the exterior, with the Amarok still sharing its strong family resemblance with the new Transporter and Golf ranges.

Shots of the cabin reveal a more refined, car-like arrangement of the instruments and centre console, abandoning the bland, plastic appearance of the concept and embracing the famed high-quality fit-and-finish of its VW siblings.

Production of the four-door double cab version will begin in Buenos Aires, Argentina, early next year and the single cab model will follow in 2011.

Drive comes from two 2.0-litre diesel engines and a six-speed manual transmission.

The entry-level Amarok produces 90kW and 340Nm, while the higher-spec model increases performance to 120kW, with 400Nm of torque available from 1500 rpm.

A direct-injection petrol engine is also in the works.

Emissions from the 120kW version are 206 g/km CO2 and the 90kW unit sneaks in at 199 g/km, making VW’s new ute the first all-wheel drive pick-up in its class to pump out less than 200 g/km.

Permanent four-wheel drive is an option and the Amarok can also be driven in rear-wheel drive and switchable modes.

It features a Torsen differential to distribute drive at a 40:60 ratio to the front and rear axles, and electronic differential lock (EDL) and off-road ABS are also offered.

ESP, Hill Decent and Hill Hold Assist – which prevents the vehicle from rolling back by holding it in place on inclines until the driver presses the accelerator pedal – round out the list of technical gear, while four airbags also come as standard.

Payload capacity tops out at 1.15 tonnes with a maximum towing limit of 2.8 tonnes, and its 1555 mm long and 1620 mm wide cargo area (2.52 m²) is also class leading.

Pricing details and range specifications will be announced closer to the Amarok’s Australian launch in late 2010.

Cupid Stunt

****** PRIMO ***** where is wreckless anyway
A worthy contender out towing Hiluxes by a large margin but a bit late in the day with buyers being forced away from heavy 4wd’s.

Why has it taken VW sooo long to get a basic truck on the market, not exactly rocket science but thats what Pres Clinton said about the space programme. Tee Hee
Baji

Very well done both inside and out VW. Would be a ute i would be proud to own. The only issue i see with it is that buyers may be wary at first since the vehicle hasn’t been tried and tested like the rest of the competition.

I hope they do well though. would love to see an Audi version.

Benjo

An Audi version? lol, please!

Car Fanatic

Sweet, not only does it tow more than a Hilux, but it takes a bigger payload. It look much nicer inside and out, and knowing VW diesels, it will deliver the torque alot better than the Hilux too.

Another gem in the VAG crown, now all we need to wait for is Hung Lows immature and retarded insults against VAG products and their supporters, come on boyo, bring it!

Hung Low

It is a bit hard to topple your crown for immature and retarded comments but I pity window lickers so I will take your bait!

-The designers fell asleep with a Navara brochure in hand and thought that a -different grille, headlights and bumper were enough to justify it as a VW product.

-A piddly 2.0 Diesel will not cut the mustard despite of its torque peak figure, you still need cubes off idle to tow or carry a payload without overworking drive line components.

-Its a VW, which in the last decade are not exactly known for their robustness, reliability or 4WD pick ups. The 2010 range will have to prove this wrong.

- Car Fanatic drives a fancy South African built Golf which came with a bag full of left over bolts, nuts, screws, clips and an IKEA allen key that were surplus during assembly.

http://internode.on.net Pete

Sorry, HL, I don’t agree with your “need cubes off idle to tow or carry a payload …” My Transporter, albiet a 2.5L petrol, was used to tow a caravan weighing 1.4 tonnes while the van weighed 2.3 tonnes loaded up – handled the 40 odd thousand K with aplomb, returning around 15L/100Km averaging 95KPH. Talking to the boys at Trakka they pull a 1.5 tonne trailer on the back of a fully optioned T5 camper weighing 2.6 tonnes with a 128Kw/400Nm diesel around the continent and have no problems accelerating up hills (even that nice little hill heading north after teh Hawkesbury River bridge). So I guess you are wrong!

Also, I don’t know where you are getting your reliability stories from – read some blogs … there are plenty of stories about unreliable VWs AND reliable VWs as well as unreliable Toyotas and Hondas.

As for Car Fanatic driving a Sth African Golf, so what. I have a few acquaintances driving them and they have had no problems.

For the record – what type of car do you have?

smokin’r32

Looks great outside and in. Ill be interested to see how its priced, hopefully it’ll give the Hilux a run for its money

http://internode.on.net Pete

Agree, Smokin’r32. If the price is too high then this could fail on the Oz market. Can’t wait to read a full report on its (dis)abilities.

Safety Frist

Unfortunately this will struggle to be a real contender in Australia….Not because it isn’t good. (I seriously doubt that it’d be anywhere near bad). But because of the following reasons.
1/ Built in Argentina… The average Ausie struggles with anything built outside of Japan (just read these Blogg pages)
2/ 2.0 litre engines… even Nissan with it’s proven 2.5 & 3.0 engines struggle because it’s competition’s motors are bigger
3/ the Long held belief that unless it’s a Toyota then once you get outside the major urban areas in this country then anything else will break down and you won’t be able to get parts…
4/ New kid on the block, VW wouldn’t have a clue how to build a strong commercila vehicle mentality (they conveniently forget the Combi range and variations like Transporter)
5/ Price… CErtain Japanese manufacturers will not lay down nicely and let VWAG into their territory.. they will combat with price reductions and bonusing like the airlines did a few years ago….

These are my views on how this vehicle will struggle in Australia and probably shared by VWAG hence they do not seem to be in a rush to bring this thing here….

Teacher

I think you will find it is “Certain” and not “CErtain.”

Mitch

Does anyone else hate people like this?
http://internode.on.net Pete

Teacher, you missed the spelling/typo in the name “Safety FRIST”

Robin Graves

Navara is built in Spain, and the only thing the engines have ‘proven’ is that they love to crack cylinder heads and burn pistons.

Hung Low

And Clutches!

Car Fanatic

Really?

1) Cause Hilux is built in Thailand and Toyota sell plenty of them.
2) 2.0 capacity is alot smaller than 2.5 or 3.0, but it has more Torque than the 3.0 Hilux and the virtually matches the 2.5 Navarra.
3) I think there are enough Australians that know point 3 is not true
4) New Kid on the block can be a good thing, everyone likes something new, otherwise plasma TV’s and LCD’s would never have been the big hit they are today.
5) I’m sure VW are just as capable of price reductions and bonuses.

Why don’t we just wait for it’s arrival rather than trying to be Nostradamus!
Yanzo

a button to switch from awd, rwd and fwd should be in all cars! looks better then its competitors
t39

Just consider the great numbers of Mercedes Vito vans are out there: this shows that there is a good market for a superior product in any niche.

Amarok RWD version could be very interesting – this could be the only euro-based vechicle apart from BMW and Mercedes. Considering the refined interior and engines, Amarok might even steal sales from passenger cars or soft-roaders.

freddo

Tradies talk eachother about things like their utes.
Dont see many of them these days in vito’s because they are unrelaible and expensive to repair.
If VW hasnt put some serious R&D into these to improve the reliability of their vehicles they will flop.
They cant even build a soft roader car that holds together (toureg) so what chance have they got with this.

http://www.ausringers.com Liam

I understand VW Australia has the Hi Lux in its sights and so expect them to price the Amarok to be competitive.

But, I agree completely, that a 120kW 2.0 TDI won’t cut the mustard. Until they give the engines more cowbell they’ll struggle to steal too many sales from Hi Lux IMO.

I doubt the fact the car is built in Argentina will be a problem. Does anyone give a rats that the Accord and Jazz are built in Thailand (IIRC). Nobody seems to mind too greatly that the Beetle and Jetta are sourced from South America either.

I reckon it looks good.

Car Fanatic

My Understanding is the V10 TDI from the VAG stable will be in this by mid 2010.

Tomas79

That would be sweet!! But most propably priced well above 100k!!

Safety Frist

In reply also to
Car Fanatic says:
December 2, 2009 at 10:25 am

Just ask people about the South African buil 3 series, C class, Golf, Corolla and Focus…… All scare people (that’s actual market findings) Most people are NOT aware that the Hilux’s and Honda’s are NOT from Japan… you should see their faces when you tell them that the Nissan they are looking at is from Spain or that the Transit they are looking at is not from England but from Turkey… yes it does pose a problem to the majority of non car enthusiast purchasers. That is why sales people use it agains their comptitors so often….

http://internode.on.net Pete

I think you’re right. Most people are not aware where a particular vehicle is built. I blame this mostly on salespeople. I was told by a Mercedes dealer that the Vito is German (it isn’t) and this is why it was better than the American/Mexican sourced VW Transporter (which is actually built in Germany).

Safety Frist

I know because I (like most of my counterparts) do….. any information I can use to my advantage (without lying) I will use :p

GFC

Does anyone know if this has a live axle rear end…? Also does it have ABS, ESP etc

http://internode.on.net Pete

From the article it has ABS, ESP and lots of other acronyms.

Captain Nemo

I wonder how long before the tuners get their hands on these and we see some serious engine upgrades.

Maybe the V10 from a Touareg or V12 TDI from Audi.
Or even better a reborn LM002 version from Lambo would be sweet.
Jake02

I love it, and would trade my current car in on one. I looked at utes a couple of years ago and decided against them because they were just too far away from cars in terms of safety, engines and comfort. But now with this, I think I might really want one. Finally VW has put this into production (albeit in Argentina :S) . Price it appropriately, and it’ll sell very well!
The Insid-er

It’s interesting reading all of your comments about this car!

Just some points of clarification:

1) Hilux, Navara, Colorado, D-Max are all built in Thailand and all have shocking build quality.

2) RE Hung Low: The VW Golf is built in Germany, Not South Africa. It hasn’t been for almost 3 years now.

3) People talk about build quality.

Hilux:- Variable Vane stepper motor on the turbos fail on avg at 120,000kms at a cost of no less than $5000. The mounts for the automatic gearbox transmit cyclic vibration into the chassis and if a bull bar is fitted, the whole car shakes at speeds over 80kph, synchros on 1st and 2nd gear in the manuals fail, brake master cylinder starts losing pressure after 120,000kph, $60,000 on road for an SR5 model and you get little to no safety features, side airbags don’t alwys deploy in side-impact crashes, tub hits car body over rough terrain due to so much chassis flex

Navara:- Engines blow up, engines seize, engines friction-weld pistons inside cylinder bores, 1st gear in manuals explodes, gate action for the 6 speed manual is too big for the apature in the centre console, so the whole console moves when selecting 1st gear or reverse, diffs are moody, interior falls apart for no reason. Gearing in the gearbox is useless on and off-road, all due to trying to meet fuel consuption targets, engines still smoke after 20,000kms.

Colorado/Rodeo/D-Max:- Pick-up box cracks, has smallest load area of all dual cab utes, electronic push-button select 4×4 mode is intermittent, new Euro-built engine is gutless, tubs actually expand so the tailgate can fall open over rough road and never return to it’s home position.

Triton:- Aside form the looks of the new model with extended tub, probably the best of a bad bunch, bar 1st gear lunching itself in manual gearboxs and the rear diffs whine after 100,000kms or so.

4) The V10 TDI will not fit in the engine bay of the Amarok

5) The more powerfull diesel engine actually uses a pair of sequentially boosting turbos so there will be no hole in the rev range, unlike Hilux. Navara can’t overtake in manual form due to having to change gears so many times to keep the engine in the narrow torque band.

6) The faults with the Mk1 Toureg was Porsche’s doing to to the base vehicle being designed for the Cayenne, not the Toureg.

Now think about this:
Toyota only sell base model cars in Australia. Any fancy fruit comes at owner’s expense unless it is a run-out option. For occupant safety, the maximum rating for current dual cab utes is 3.5 stars for a fully optioned hilux. Tha Amarok will come STANDARD with EBD, ABS, ESP, 4 airbags. EBD on Hilux? extra cost. ESP? same again. More than 2 airbags? That costs too.

The fact that the interior of a fully optioned SR5 diesel Hilux looks identical bar some silver paint on a coupler of pieces of plastic, to the base model 2 door cab-chassis workmate ute is a joke.

VW are having a fair dinkum dig at making this a successful product, why don’t you all just wait and see. Not only does it look better than all current dual cabs on the market, but it will probably undercut the hilux and be better built.

http://internode.on.net Pete

Holy crap, what a good read. I couldn’t have said it better myself.
Andrew M

To my knowledge what you have said seems true,
But I believe the Colorado is made in the states out of parts supplied by Isuzu……

Colorado Just a facelifted Rodeo

The Colarado is made in Thailand, on exactly the same production line as the Rodeo… It was just a tiff between Holden and Isuzu that saw Holden drop the Rodeo name, and base their ute on the Chevrolet version of the Rodeo (which is also why we see the Isuzu D-Max in Australia now)

huge

I’m confused, there must be a town called South Africa in Germany because that’s what is stamped in my 09 golf tdi engine bay plate,

The Real Car Fanatic

Check the Vin number Huge,if it has a W it was built in Wolsburg ( Germany), if it has P then it was built in Mosel ( Germany) but if it has a U it was built in Uitenhage ( South Africa) Most Australian Golfs are built in South Africa ( 3 Dr GTi is an exception and maybe the R32), the other exception I believe is the Mark VI, they seem to be German built

Here is an example of the letter guide

WVW Manufacturer VW AG
ZZZ Filling Code, eg. Code for USA export
1J / 1K Type Golf IV / Golf V
Z Filling Code
X Model Year
W Place of manufacture < this is the letter you should be looking at.
012345 Serial Numbers

My 08 Golf TDi has a U so was built in South Africa so Insid-er is not entirely correct about them ceasing production 3 years ago

Thank you for your attention.

Seo

Singele cab, extra cab????

Needs to be cheap and cheerful, Great Wall sort of money
mark bulla

The ute needs an automatic. This ute is perfect for us FBT consious business buyers who are killing for a good 1 tonne dual cab ute in which the interior does not look and feel like a truck. But with the amount of km I do, an auto is a must.
Woodster

Great Looking ute

Amarok

As a tradie I need an Auto, will not drive manuals

VW, bring a 2.5 TDI as in Transporter,

I will be first to buy
tdut

I feel the Amarok will be great for the OZ market. Agree with concerns above about the size of engine and lack of auto.

Does anybody know if the Amarok will be produced as an R spec version? If it had the TD V6 with DSG auto, I’d order one tomorrow!
http://www.bodmassage.com.au bluemountains

I have a Golf 90 tsi wag, vw say use VW504 00 5w 30 fully synthetic,dealers use castrol 5w 40 synthetic (Note neither is a true synthetic as it’s only a refined mineral oil
(Hydrocracked)just a few % of the oil.
Have tried to explain to VW Sydney that I wish to use Mobil 1ESPFormula synthetic(Poly alpha Olefin)a far superior oil but they keep on referring me back to the dealers who have no idea.Any suggestions

MattP

Simple, take your car to a Dealer who will listen to you.

http://www.bodmassage.com.au bluemountains

Mobile one esp formula 5w 30 $20 a litre, is what I’ll use
“oil’s ain’t oils”

Brett

On the way to Toyota to change my current 06 SR5 diesel dual cab… The rok took my attention, took it for a blat, signed on the dotted line… I have been a loyal Toyota customer for years, and are a fantastic car/ute, but in my opinion, they are getting boring and not keeping up to customers ‘wants and needs’ with equipment and safety. MY12 has a few extras like esp and sat nav but why did they wait until they had serious competition to do _something_ slightly over and beyond???

I can’t comment on the long term quality and reliabilty and what not of the dub (take delivery in December), but I hope it exceeds my expectaitons like it exceeded my expectations in short term drive, handling, towing and 4x4ing capabilities in the weekend I had the demo.

People need to stop being narrow minded and forming opions when they have no facts to back it up. Most of the people bagging the Rok haven’t even seen one up close, let alone driven one. Get out of your stereotypical narrow minded world and explore different options. Had Toyota kept up with my wants and needs sooner, I would of stayed a loyal sheep, but they rely too much on repeat customers knowing the good reputation the Hilux has earnt thus far and not pushing it any further… It is 2011 after all…

Now before anyone starts, I do not work for VW… I am not affiliated with VW at all, I do think VW charge like a wounded bull for the car and especially accerories, but if the product is exceptional, I am happy to fork it out.

The lux (especially this one) has been excellent to me, very reliable, I get slack with on time services etc so it’s proven it’s worth. I didn’t like the fact it felt and sounded like a 1970′s John Deere tractor or the road noise or the bad handling… Even us country folk use it on the road and highways…It’s Just a shame they couldn’t keep up with the moving market

Here’s to a great relationship with my Rocky