2023 Volkswagen Amarok (inc. 0-100km/h & off-road) review

CarExpert

The all-new Amarok has finally landed in Australia! Paul Maric gets behind the wheel of the 2023 Volkswagen Amarok Aventura V6 to see if it's any good following our international launch review.  Hardness tester, noise and lane keeping results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE  More Volkswagen content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/volkswagen More Volkswagen Amarok content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/volkswagen/amarok  Skip Ahead: Intro: 00:00 Exterior 01:17 Interior 06:38 Infotainment 08:36 Safety Tech 11:51 Practicality 12:56 On the Road 18:39 Driver Aids 26:08 Performance 27:31 Off the Road 31:14 Verdict 39:33  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 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carexpert.com.au  Paul Maric: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulMaric Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric  #vw #amarok #review #volkswagen

Transcript

00:00 G'day, I'm Paul. So, when we reviewed the Volkswagen Amarok at the international launch,

00:04 our video went crazy. It was the most watched Amarok review on the internet. So,

00:08 now, it's time to follow it up with an actual drive of the new Amarok here in Australia.

00:13 We're going to test it in the same way that we test all the other cars, just to see whether this

00:18 does stack up to what the old Volkswagen Amarok actually did. So, let's talk pricing. So, this

00:23 here is the top specification. It's called the Aventura. This is the turbo diesel V6. Don't

00:29 worry, there is a petrol as well that we will get to eventually, but today is going to be all about

00:33 the diesel. This is priced at just under $80,000. If that's too expensive, the entire range kicks

00:39 off at just under 51 grand. This competes with things like the Ford Ranger, funnily enough,

00:43 the Isuzu D-Max, the Nissan Navara, Toyota Hilux. There's a stack of competitors in this segment,

00:49 as I'm sure you already know. In fact, we actually reviewed all of the competitors in this segment in

00:54 our recent YouTube of the Year test. So, that was a whole bunch of fun. If you do want to watch some

00:58 of that content, have a look at the link in the description below. Today, we're going to do a

01:01 detailed review of the new Amarok. So, if you do want to skip ahead to other parts of this review,

01:05 you can use the time codes on the screen, or if you're on YouTube, you can scroll down and use

01:09 the chapters below. If you haven't done so already, subscribe to our channel and press

01:12 the bell icon, so you can find out when we review a blue ute. Now, before I get into the exterior

01:19 design, I will call out there's a bit of noise and stuff happening in the background at the moment

01:22 of cars I can't show you, but anyway, they're very closely related to this. So, ignore that for the

01:27 moment. You've got eight different colours to pick from. All but white is going to set you back just

01:32 under $1,000. Let's talk design. So, I did mention in our international review that I actually think

01:38 this looks sensational in person. It really has some presence. I think I could take or leave this

01:43 sort of X stuff here, but you can get other grades that have different coloured centre sections.

01:48 But, for me, this is a very smart looking vehicle, and look, I think it actually looks

01:52 better than some Ranger variants as well. It just has a really sort of nice presence to it. You've

01:57 got a big Volkswagen logo down the front there with a camera for the 360 camera. Amarok just

02:02 down here as well. You've got a section down here for the radar and also cooling for that turbo

02:08 diesel V6. V6 badge up here, which signifies that this obviously is the diesel variant.

02:12 I mentioned before that this is available with a petrol, a four-cylinder turbo petrol.

02:16 Same price as this, and I'm really excited to drive that because, while it has been offered

02:20 in the States previously in Ranger, it hasn't actually been offered here in Australia before.

02:24 So, we'll see what that's like. Over on your headlights, you have full LED headlights with

02:29 a matrix LED setup. So, that means it does active shadowing. Cars are approaching you,

02:34 you can stay on the high beams and it won't actually be noticed by any other cars on the road.

02:38 Down the bottom, you have a set of LED fog lights as well.

02:41 Now, we're down to the side here. I've got something interesting to show you.

02:44 This is a set of 21-inch alloy wheels on a dual cab ute. Never thought I'd be saying that,

02:51 but quite a nice design. So, machined finish on the outside, piano black on the inside there

02:55 with the Volkswagen logo down the bottom. Wheel arch cladding here as well with a little notch

03:00 up the top there. Now, this is interesting because Volkswagen has designed this to be a

03:04 bit of a sporty model. So, what they want to get out of this is a dynamic feel behind the wheel in

03:09 comparison to the Ranger, which this shares a platform with. Look, I'm going to be mentioning

03:14 the Ranger a fair bit in this video because now that we've spent so much time driving it,

03:18 I really do have a really good point of comparison and I'll be able to tell you things that

03:22 Volkswagen has done better or Ford has done better because if you are buying this,

03:25 you've probably crossed shopping Ranger as well. So, I'll mention that throughout the review.

03:30 Now, in terms of the ride and handling tune, it's our understanding that this actually has

03:33 a bespoke tune for Amarok in comparison to Ranger. So, when we do go for a bit of a drive,

03:38 I'll run you through what that actually feels like behind the wheel. They had engineers embedded here

03:43 in Ford's design and development program because the Ranger was designed and engineered in Australia.

03:47 So, the Volkswagen engineers were working on the Amarok alongside the Ranger guys. So,

03:52 I'll be keen to see what it all feels like behind the wheel.

03:55 Up the top here, you've got chrome on the wing mirror for the Aventura. A bit of camera here

03:59 for the 360 camera. Side steps down the side here, I did mention in the international review,

04:03 these feel a bit sort of cheap. It's the same story in a lot of dual-cab utes today outside

04:09 of stuff like the Raptor, which has proper sort of side steps. These sort of feel a bit cheap

04:14 and flimsy. Chrome door handles there, chrome strip around the side. Privacy glass, you have

04:19 roof rails up here. You get this on the Aventura, it's a compass and you get this similar setup to

04:26 the Wildtrak, which is a sailplane with an electric roller cover there as well. Disc brakes on the

04:32 rear, lift springs set up and again, similar to the Ranger, the damper is on the outboard of the

04:38 chassis rails to give it better dynamic performance and 275 wide tyres all round.

04:43 Full motion here because this is obviously an all-wheel drive vehicle. Come around to the back

04:47 here with me. Now around the back here, you have a set of full LED taillights. I really like this

04:51 design. They've kind of blocked off this section here to make it look different to the Ford Ranger

04:57 and I think this really gives it a nice sort of unique stance and vibe out on the road. This

05:02 doesn't actually have the radar integrated into it, similar to what Ford has. Instead, Volkswagen

05:07 has mounted their radar here behind the bumper as opposed to within that taillight section. You've

05:13 got a full motion badge there, Amarok bossed into here. You then have a big Volkswagen logo there

05:20 with a camera in the centre. This is your step up into the tray. Unlike Ford, they don't have the

05:25 side steps to be able to get into the tray there, so you enter the tray from the rear here, but you

05:29 do have lights built into here for your registration plate. Three and a half tonne brake to towing

05:34 capacity and I'll show you just some of the features inside the tub here and also the

05:40 dimensions you're going to find as well. Torsion bar here to make it easy to open and close,

05:45 button off to the side here to open that roller cover, and then once that opens, it exposes a

05:51 light. You've also got hooks on the side here, a 12-volt power outlet. In terms of the actual

05:57 dimensions, it has a load length of just over 1500mm, a load width of just over 1200mm and a

06:03 payload of just under 900kg. So it is all sort of pretty straightforward and a very usable space. It

06:11 is all pretty sort of hassle free. That does take up a little bit of room, this roller cover, so you

06:16 will notice that right down the front there you are a little compromised there, but it's not too

06:19 bad. Also on the key as well, you can open and close the roller cover by double tapping that too,

06:23 so it is kind of versatile. Shut that up. Now, let me know in the comments section, what do you

06:30 think about the Amarok? Do you like the design? Do you like the offering? What do you think about

06:34 the pricing and the range they're offering in Australia? Let me know in the comments section

06:38 below. So we are inside the Amarok. We will start off with the key. So you've got unlock, lock,

06:45 and this is the button you press to open the tailgate, and then on the back there you've got

06:49 a Volkswagen logo. It's a proximity sensing key, so you can leave that in your pocket,

06:54 and once you're inside you have a push button start attached here to the steering column.

06:58 So let's talk design to start with, and look, I think just based on the time I've spent with

07:04 the car now and just looking at all of the surfaces and all of the bits and pieces that

07:08 are going on around here, this does feel more premium than the Ranger, and it's stuff like this

07:14 dashboard finish here that just feels a lot nicer and better presented, and when you're spending

07:19 $80,000 on a car you probably want things to look as nice as they possibly can. Same story here

07:25 along the doors. It just looks sort of nicely finished. It is let down a little bit by these

07:30 scratchy surfaces here as you sort of work your way down the side of the car, which is a little

07:35 bit disappointing, but outside of that I do think that there is a noticeable difference here between

07:40 the Ranger and the Volkswagen Amarok in terms of how premium it actually feels.

07:45 In terms of your touch points, you've got sort of softish there and soft on the door panel there as

07:52 well, and in terms of how soft it is, well, we've got our durometer. We've tested the main surfaces

07:58 in this cabin. If you want to see how this car compares to others that we've tested before,

08:01 have a look at the link in the description below. Now, what about build quality? So,

08:05 did notice a couple of things. That is kind of loose there. You'll notice that even though that's

08:10 clicked in, it's sort of sitting a little bit loose. I did notice as well that some of these

08:15 finishes along the top there, you can see the exposed sort of plastic edging on that as well.

08:21 That could be a little bit better. I also did notice here in the back seat, and I'll show you

08:25 that in a bit more detail when we do hop in the second row, but this is loose as well. So,

08:29 a couple of things there worth noting, and also door slam test is what it sounds like.

08:33 Nice and solid. Now, let's talk infotainment. So, you've got a 12-inch infotainment screen

08:40 in the centre here and a 12-inch display ahead of the driver. I'll start off with the infotainment.

08:45 So, it comes standard with inbuilt satellite navigation. That all sort of works fairly well.

08:50 The home button is up the top here, so you use that to access all of the home features,

08:55 and then you can also dive in through to settings using that navigation menu as well,

09:00 and then you've got all the different functions as you go. So, one thing I will call out as well

09:04 is that you do have shortcut buttons down the bottom here, so you can adjust your volume using

09:09 a manual knob. You've got hazard lights, parking, climate control, assistance for safety features,

09:15 and also drive modes, but it is a little bit frustrating that there is no sort of set

09:19 functions for doing basic things like putting it on recycled air, for example. You have to

09:25 actually go into the climate menu and then manually press this button here. So, it is

09:30 kind of like a two-step process. You have to take your eyes off the road to achieve all of that,

09:34 and I think they could have probably used a better integration here of the buttons for the

09:39 infotainment system. If I do compare this to the Ranger, though, this is significantly quicker. So,

09:44 I don't know whether they use a different processor or it's just that their skin has

09:48 been programmed better, but compared to my car, the Raptor, this is just so much faster and easier

09:53 to use. It doesn't sort of have lag every time you go into some of these menus, and everything

09:57 just happens really nicely. In terms of smartphone ringing, you have both Apple CarPlay and Android

10:01 Auto. This is what Apple CarPlay looks like. This is the other thing I love compared to the Ranger.

10:06 A hundred fun songs for kids, that wasn't for me. I like here that this actually takes up more of

10:13 the screen. In the Ranger, there's this redundant menu down the bottom there that kind of gets in

10:17 the way of things, whereas this is a big screen takeover there, and it's nice and sharp and easy

10:22 to use. In addition to that as well, I also like that if you do want to jump to other parts of

10:27 things that you've done previously, the shortcuts are down the bottom here. In the Ranger,

10:31 it is incredibly clumsy and silly. You have to click and swipe up, which is impossible to do

10:36 while you're driving, whereas here in the Amarok, you just press it and then it just happens. So,

10:40 it is just much easier to do it that way. And this is what Android Auto looks like.

10:44 So again, nice full screen integration there. Nice and quick as well. So yeah, no complaints there.

10:51 On the sound system front, you have AM/FM/DAB digital radio. See, that is a little laggy there

10:56 when I enter that menu, which I haven't been to for a little bit. That is all plumbed through an

11:00 eight-speaker Harman Kardon branded sound system. Sound system's really good. It's about on par with

11:05 the Ranger. It doesn't sort of feel any better or worse than that. The Ranger has a B&O Play

11:10 sound system, but I think in terms of quality of sound system for a dual-cab ute, it is pretty

11:15 sort of impressive there. Now, jumping over to the screen ahead of the driver, this is, I think,

11:20 where Volkswagen has really differentiated itself from the Ranger offering, because you get here a

11:24 standard, that big 12-inch display. You can't get that in the Ranger unless you go to a Raptor.

11:28 So, even the Wildtrak has a minimised version of this display. And even if I compare it to the

11:33 bigger display on the Raptor, this is a significantly better setup. It just looks

11:37 much nicer and it's much quicker and doesn't have anywhere near as many bugs as the Ranger has when

11:43 it comes to displaying things there. So, I think Volkswagen's put a lot of effort into making sure

11:47 that that screen works really nicely and does everything that it's meant to do.

11:51 Now, let's talk about safety tech. So, you have autonomous emergency braking with pedestrian and

11:56 cyclist detection. You've got an auto-dimming rear vision mirror. AUB works both forwards and

12:01 in reverse as well, which is great news. Blind spot monitor in that wing mirror there. You do

12:06 have rear cross traffic alert and then also a lane keeping assistant. Radar cruise control as well.

12:13 We'll test out the lane keeping assistant on our bowl a little bit later on when we do go for a

12:17 bit of a drive. You have front and rear parking sensors and a 360 camera. This is what that looks

12:21 like. So, there you go. Pretty clear view out the front there. 360 view is okay, but a bit sort of

12:27 distorted around the edges. You can then zoom in to certain functions too. So, you can look

12:33 out the front there or you can look further down the back. You've also got the ability to go in on

12:38 edges of the car and also do things like your hitch assist that shows you how close you are

12:44 to the trailer. You then also have broader views there for the front and the back as well. So,

12:51 yeah, pretty decent camera setup. Quite sort of impressed with that. And this is what the horn

12:54 sounds like. Now, let's talk about practicality and we'll start off with your connectivity. So,

13:01 you've got a 12-volt outlet down the bottom here, a USB-C port, a USB-A port. You also have a USB-A

13:07 port up here for a dash cam, which is great. You have a wireless phone charger down the bottom

13:12 here, so you can slide your phone down there and that all sort of starts charging and everything.

13:17 It is a little bit interesting though because, you know, you see there as I try and get my phone in,

13:23 it can be a little bit clumsy because what they've done is they've integrated the brake controller,

13:28 which comes standard with the car, down here and in the Ranger it's actually over here. So,

13:33 I don't know why they've not used the space here where it's not going to get in the way of things.

13:37 In addition to that, one of the other things that is a bit frustrating that I'll run you through in

13:41 a second is that the cup holders have moved from here to here. So, that means when the gearstick

13:45 is in park, it is a bit tricky to get things in and out of that slot. But just a minor grievance

13:49 there. In terms of storing your drinks, so coffee cup, it can fit here in the cup holders without

13:55 any dramas, no de-lidding there. Coffee cup is also held in by these teeth. Now, I do have a

14:00 complaint here with regards to where these sort of cup holders are located. So, part of the issue

14:06 I had this morning when I had the coffee in there, if you have it in either of these, because this is

14:11 so high, you're driving along, you want to get your coffee, you kind of have to reach back awkwardly

14:15 to pull it out and then you have a sip and then stick it back. These cup holders were moved from

14:20 this location here in the Ranger to here. So, they are quite tricky to sort of reach and as a result

14:25 of that as well, you don't have as much storage too, because this whole area is taken up by the

14:29 gearstick. Gearstick could have easily been moved over to bring those cup holders back and make

14:34 this a little better. The other thing I just find completely bizarre as well is that in Wildtrak and

14:39 Raptor and also across the entire Everest range, you actually have cup holder holes here under the

14:44 air vents and instead, Volkswagen has put the light switch here, which means you can't actually

14:48 put the cup holders in. This is what it looks like with our water bottle in there. So, again,

14:53 fits in fine with the teeth. You can also fit a water bottle inside the door there. We'll try a

14:58 larger water bottle, see if that fits inside the door. Yes, it does. You just have to kind of cram

15:04 it in there. In terms of other storage, you do have this centre console here, which is quite nice

15:09 and deep. You then also have glove box down the bottom here. That's also joined by this top glove

15:14 box as well, which is nice and big too. So, it's a much better storage space than it is in the

15:19 Ranger. You've also got a sunglasses holder up the top here and a little storage nook on top of the

15:24 dashboard. Now, on Comfort, you have dual zone automatic climate control. I mentioned before

15:28 that you have to access this menu here to adjust your temperatures and also switch it on and off

15:33 and also put it into recycled mode. And then your headed seats are accessed through the screen here

15:38 as well. Just on Comfort, these seats are fantastic. I don't know, they kind of look the

15:44 same as the Ranger seat, but the Volkswagen guys at launch actually mentioned that there are some

15:48 differences to the foam in these seats and you can tell the difference. They are just fantastic

15:52 to sit in and that's one of the things I liked in the previous generation Amarok, that they just

15:56 hugged you in nicely and kept you comfortable and I'm feeling the same thing here. Electrically

16:01 adjusted for both the driver and front passengers. You can go forwards, backwards, backrest can go

16:05 forwards and backwards. You can lift the front, the back and also lumbar adjustment. Now, just on

16:10 the steering wheel, it's a bit of an odd one because this looks kind of the same as the steering

16:15 wheel from the old Amarok. It doesn't look like the steering wheel they're now using in a lot of

16:20 new Volkswagen products. It also has a stack of blank buttons around here, so three of those

16:24 buttons are blank. The explanation we got from the Volkswagen engineers at the international launch

16:30 was that when they were co-developing this platform with Ford, Ford offered a number of

16:34 cables that had certain functions and this is the steering wheel they decided to use and obviously

16:40 there are less cables than there are buttons here on the steering wheel. So, I don't know,

16:45 maybe a bit more effort could have been put into that to not have it looking as blank as it is,

16:50 but outside of that, steering wheel sits nicely in the hand and offers both tilt and reach

16:55 adjustment and on our reach test, all of this stuff is easy to reach while you're driving.

16:59 So, second row, let's have a little look. I'll grab this lever, I'll just pull this up so I can

17:04 show you what it looks like under here. So, this is where you're going to find your jack and just a

17:09 little bit of storage. I think that the Ford system is slightly better because the jack and all these

17:14 other bits and pieces are actually behind that seat, so you do get this as additional storage,

17:18 whereas here it's all sort of taken up by these accessories, but when you do drop that out of the

17:23 way, you do have access to a little bit of storage behind here. So, you can see they've got a sub

17:28 woofer there and also an amplifier as well. You can, I guess, tuck something into there if you

17:33 want to, but it is sort of slightly cramped. You do have two top tether points as well for a baby

17:38 seat and this is what it looked like with my baby seat in there. Just to give you an idea of how

17:43 much room you have. So, when you are in here, my seat is pretty much all the way back. It kind of

17:48 gives you an idea of how much room I have. My knees are sort of dug into that a little bit,

17:52 not a great deal of toe room there. Headroom is not too bad. Creature comforts, you have

17:58 air vents here, 12 volt outlet. This is the section that I mentioned before that

18:03 just isn't finished very well at all and I found the exact same issue on one of the cars at the

18:09 launch as well. So, they obviously haven't fixed that as part of production just yet.

18:14 You do have mat pockets in the back of these seats with little storage nooks up the top there as

18:19 well. Got a centre armrest here with two cup holders. The bottle can go in there and bottle

18:24 can fit inside the door as well. Now, what about our windows? So, it's auto up and down.

18:31 They go all the way down as well. Very impressive.

18:39 So, we've just hit the road in the Amarok. So, just recapping, I know if you've watched our

18:44 other Ranger reviews, this is all going to get quite repetitive, but under the bonnet there,

18:48 you've got a 3.0-litre turbocharged V6 diesel engine. It makes 184 kilowatts of power and

18:54 600 newton metres of torque and that's all mated to a 10-speed automatic transmission.

19:00 So, different to previous generation of Amarok was full-time four-wheel drive when you mated

19:05 it to the V6. And here, on the other hand, you can actually run it as two-wheel drive high range,

19:10 which I actually prefer to save fuel. So, you can run it in that. You will see a definite fuel

19:14 saving there. The other good news here as well is that you can run your rear diff lock in two-wheel

19:20 drive high range as well, which is excellent. You can then also switch this to four-wheel

19:24 drive automatic. So, four-wheel drive automatic is designed to work on any surfaces. Again,

19:28 it's not like other four-wheel drive systems that are in four-wheel drive high range that you can't

19:32 use on sealed surfaces. This actually works across a variety of surfaces. You can then run through

19:37 to four-wheel drive high range and four-wheel drive low range as well. When we go off-road,

19:41 I'll run through some of the off-road controls too. How does all that feel behind the wheel?

19:45 Look, this gearbox is actually really good. So, if I lay into the throttle here, it'll dive back

19:50 through the gears quite quickly and punch me back in the seat. Never really feels lazy and it's

19:55 always on the ball ready to go. So, it is definitely a really good gearbox tune and I

20:00 think it works beautifully with this engine as well. You can see that whole combo has just come

20:03 together really nicely for this chassis. If you do want to do any manual shifting though,

20:08 it is a little bit annoying that you have to press M on the side of the gear stick here

20:12 and then flick up and down through the gears using the side of the gear stick. And because

20:16 it is a 10-speed, you're doing a whole lot of bloody flicking there. It would be nice to just

20:20 have paddle shifters. I know that you associate paddle shifters with sporty cars, but ultimately

20:25 what we discovered when we did our big ute test, when we did the towing section, paddle shifters

20:30 would have actually come in really handy for the longer descents where you just want to be able to

20:35 slap through the gears and keep your eyes on the road. So, it would be nice if they actually

20:38 integrated a paddle shifter option at some point. Fuel economy comes in at under nine litres per

20:43 100 ks. Let's have a little look here at what we're averaging. So, we're sitting on 10 exactly. So,

20:49 it's actually not a bad figure. This is a mix of city, highway and also a couple of faster laps

20:54 around the proving ground here. So, I'm pretty happy with that fuel economy figure. It's really

20:58 not that bad when you consider the size of this vehicle and the size of the engine as well.

21:02 Let's talk about the ride in and around the city. So, look, you are going to sacrifice ride quality

21:10 on the 21s. There's definitely no denying that, and that is one of the downsides of having a pretty

21:15 cool looking wheel and something that is designed to be a little bit sportier, and we'll see if it

21:19 is actually sportier when we go for a faster drive in a second. But the end result of that is a

21:23 slightly firmer ride in and around the city. Not the end of the world, but yeah, it is definitely

21:29 firmer than the previous generation Amarok, and it does feel like they've gone to a bit more effort

21:33 to emphasise the sportiness. I am looking forward to driving the other variants that are on 18s and

21:38 different sized wheels because I think we'll see a big difference there in terms of ride quality.

21:42 Definitely not over the top, but it is just something you notice.

21:46 Okay, let's talk sine waves. Let's get it up to 130 here for our sine waves. This is

21:51 maximum speed in Australia. It gives us a bit of an idea of what the body control is like.

21:55 So there's 130. Oh, that is really floaty. Oh, it actually feels like we're slightly leaving

22:02 the ground there. That's interesting. So I don't know what they've done there with the ride because

22:06 the ride actually does feel slightly firmer in and around the city, but there on the sine waves,

22:12 you can feel it doesn't quite have the body control at the top end. So they have dialled

22:17 in some softness there, and I think that is to compensate for the 21-inch wheels. I think if you

22:21 kept it quite firm, it would be firm constantly and it'd be pretty much doing your head in all

22:26 the time. Okay, time to hit the bumpiest, most terrible road in Australia. We do this at 90km/h

22:34 to see what the ride quality is like. If you do end up in some of the dodgier parts of Australia,

22:41 there's 90km/h there. You can hear in my voice that it is shaking around a fair bit.

22:45 It's actually doing a really good job. So even though it is on 21s, it's really not that bad.

22:50 Here's our condensed sine wave. So this is throwing the car around a fair bit there,

22:55 but it's not too bad. Yeah, look, it is doing a commendable job here. Again, I'm just shocked that

23:00 with this being on 21s, the ride actually feels as good as it does. So yeah, that is quite impressive.

23:06 Now, when it comes to faster driving, there is no sport driving mode, but what I'm going to do

23:12 is put it into 4A and we'll go for a little punt around our circuit-y. You can see the

23:16 power distribution in front of us there that just gives us a bit of an idea of what the car's doing.

23:22 Tip it into our first corner.

23:24 Got a little bit of body roll, but when you get stuck into it, it actually just shoots out of

23:34 the corner really nicely. You kind of feel like you know exactly what it's doing, and I can just

23:42 lay into the throttle out of that corner and you can see the power distribution is just giving us

23:46 torque where we need it. It doesn't actually, like when it's in rear-wheel drive, it tends to be a bit

23:51 tail-happy when you send a sudden surge of that torque to the rear axle, but here with 4A active,

23:57 even in these slightly damp conditions, it is actually holding on really nicely. These aren't

24:01 the most ideal tyres if you are planning on kind of doing any sportier driving. They are highway

24:07 terrain and they run out of traction pretty quickly, but this is perfect for something like

24:13 a mountain pass or if you do want to just get stuck into it for a bit of a fun drive and still

24:18 have that highway terrain available for later. It's actually pretty good. Here comes out,

24:26 back straight. It definitely feels sportier than the Ranger, and I am noticing here,

24:33 especially when it is slightly faster, you do have more available traction. It is holding on better.

24:38 Great communication through the steering wheel as well, really hoofing along nicely there. So,

24:43 yeah, not too bad. It is pretty impressive and it does definitely feel sportier than the

24:47 equivalent Ranger. One other thing that's slightly different to Ranger is AdBlue. So,

24:54 this has around a 20-litre AdBlue tank. It is bigger than the AdBlue tank that was in the

24:59 previous gen of Amarok, which means you're not going to be filling it up as often, and then this

25:02 also has an 80-litre fuel tank. Now, cabin noise. This is an interesting one because I don't know

25:07 if it's my ears deceiving me, but this does feel quieter than the Ranger, even though it is very

25:14 much a shared platform. It does feel quieter. So, this is the result when we used our calibrated

25:20 sound meter. We'll also overlay results from when we did our last Ranger test, keeping in mind

25:26 it wasn't our calibrated sound meter back then, but it should give you a rough indication of how

25:30 close they are in terms of cabin noise when you are on smooth and coarse chip surfaces.

25:34 Let's talk visibility. So, I can see clearly down the front of the car there. The little sort of

25:39 bonnet bulges there are great because they give you a good indicator of how close you are to

25:44 things down the front. You've got a blind spot monitor built into the wing mirror. That also

25:48 takes into account trailer length, which is set on this screen here. So, that's a really great

25:52 system and really increases the safety when you are towing as well. Visibility out the back is

25:57 fine. There's no dramas there, and then you have all of these cameras that you have access to

26:01 when you are sort of trying to park in and around the city, with some big wing mirrors too.

26:05 Okay, time to test this lane support system. So, this doesn't have like a lane tracing function

26:15 like you do find in some Volkswagens and also like you do find in the Ford Ranger. All it has is just

26:20 a lane keeping assistant. So, I'm going to engage that. We'll engage cruise control as well. Okay,

26:28 so there we are at 70 kilometres an hour. I'll just bump that up by 1k now. Okay, so we're going

26:33 to test this in our three outer lanes. We just want to see how well it works in everyday life.

26:38 I wasn't overly impressed with this when I was driving it on the freeway. It kind of just

26:43 ping-ponged within the lane. You do have to pretty much keep your hand on it the whole time.

26:47 Oh, that seems to be doing a decent enough job here in this lane. I'll jump up to the next lane

26:53 over. Let's see what it's like here. Wait for that to engage. That's active. Look, it's actually not

27:02 doing that bad of a job. That's sort of keeping us pretty central to the lane there without any

27:07 drama. So, maybe I just caught it napping. All right, we'll jump up to our highest banking. This

27:13 is basically designed to give us an idea of how much torque it's willing to apply to the steering.

27:18 There we go. There you go. It's actually doing a decent job there. So,

27:23 that is a pass in lane one, two and three. There you go.

27:30 Okay, let's do some performance testing. Predictably, it has just started raining.

27:34 Just my luck. So, we'll see how we go. So, I'm going to line up here. We're going to do it a

27:41 little bit differently because I need this slightly better surface for the wet to start off on. But,

27:46 we're going to go all the way through to 120 and we'll see what our overtaking time is as well.

27:50 There's no sport mode, so I've just turned stop/start off. We'll load up the throttle.

27:54 Two-wheel drive automatic first, then we'll go to 4A and see how that works. So, here we go.

28:00 A bit of throttle. A tiny bit of wheel slip there off the line.

28:05 We are getting there. Go through to 120.

28:09 And there we are. I'll bring it up to a stop.

28:16 This surface is terrible in the wet. Oh, that's all right. There we go. Let's have a look at that.

28:24 So, 0 to 100 came in at 9.31 seconds. So, okay, but not amazing. And 80 to 120 was 6.44 seconds.

28:36 So, again, not too bad, but also not amazing. So, what we'll do now is we'll go back and try

28:43 it again, this time in four-wheel drive automatic to see if that actually helps us.

28:48 Okay, time for our next run. I've just moved it over to four-wheel drive automatic. We'll

28:54 see if it is any better in that mode. It is so wet out here, it's ridiculous. So, look,

28:59 in four-wheel drive automatic, we shouldn't have any traction issues at all. So, we'll see how we go.

29:04 I'll actually change that screen so we can have proper tacho. So, here we go.

29:08 All right, I felt a bit stronger off the line there. Take it all the way through to 120.

29:18 Here we go. There's 100 and 120. I'll get on the brakes.

29:24 Okay, let's have a little look. So, that time around, 0 to 100 was 8.57 seconds,

29:38 so significantly better. And then 80 to 120 was 6.38 seconds, which is slightly better as well.

29:44 So, yeah, look, I think it is clearly better there in four-wheel drive automatic, and that is going

29:51 to get you off the line fastest. I don't actually have the numbers for the Ranger here in front of

29:55 me, but we'll overlay them on the screen there just so you can see a comparison, keeping in mind

29:59 it is still a little bit wet at the moment. So, that is going to obviously affect these figures a

30:03 bit. Next up, we're going to do a break from 100, and look, it is sopping wet at the moment. So,

30:09 I'm just going to do this anyway so we can log a figure, but what I'll also aim to do is actually

30:14 get a figure in the dry as well that we can overlay at the end, just so you can get a clear

30:18 indication of how quickly it stops. But here we go from 100 k's an hour. Oh, wow.

30:26 Oh, it's taking forever to stop, which is understandable given it is wet.

30:34 Let's have a look there. So, 100 to 0 took 4.86 seconds and 66.98 metres. So,

30:43 a very long time to stop in the wet. We will overlay a stopping time here in the dry as well,

30:50 just so you do have a point of reference there. But, yeah, it just shows you that these dual

30:55 cabvies take a long time to stop in the wet compared to a regular car. Okay, and now our

31:01 reverse acceleration test. Let's see how quickly this will go in reverse. Here we go. Mash that

31:07 throttle. There it is there, 38 kilometres an hour. Okay, so it is time to do a little bit of

31:16 light off-roading in the Amarok. Let me run you through all of the settings and all the fun stuff

31:22 here. So, to start with, I'm going to switch stop/start off, and it is a bit annoying there's

31:27 no button for that. You've got to go through a menu and all that sort of stuff. So, I already

31:31 mentioned before when we were driving on the road that you do have your standard sort of four-wheel

31:35 drive mode. So, two-wheel drive high range for on-road driving, four-wheel drive automatic for

31:39 on-road driving, four-wheel drive high range for driving on unsealed surfaces, and four-wheel drive

31:43 low range for driving on unsealed surfaces. If you do want a better explanation of why that is the

31:48 case and how all of that works, have a look at this video up here, which is our four-wheel drive

31:52 controls explained video. You also have a manual button here for the rear diff lock that you can

31:57 activate in all of these drive modes, which is excellent. You have a hill descent control and

32:01 a traction control button. You also have drive modes. When you push this, it takes you into the

32:06 drive mode settings. So, you have eco, tow and haul, slippery, mud and ruts, and deep snow and

32:13 sands. Now, in terms of your actual four-wheel drive specifications, you have an approach angle

32:17 of 30 degrees, a departure angle of 25.6 degrees, ground clearance of just over 230mm, and a

32:23 wading depth of 800mm. So, what we're going to do first is go over our offset mogul in two-wheel

32:30 drive high range. This is just to see how well the traction control system works when one of the

32:36 drive wheels loses traction, and we are only sending torque to the two rear drive wheels at

32:42 this stage. So, I'm going to get that wheel off the ground. Currently, we're seesawing, so we have

32:46 that wheel off the ground, that wheel off the ground, and I'm going to apply some throttle here

32:50 and let traction control do all of its work. I'll just gradually apply more and more throttle.

32:55 I can feel it biting at the moment. That is awesome. It has just done all of that for us.

33:00 So, basically, what it's doing is it's just applying a brake to that wheel as it goes,

33:05 and that's causing it to send torque to the other wheel, which then gets us out of this bind where

33:10 we only have one wheel with traction. So, very impressive there. So, we'll do a U-turn now and

33:15 attack that in four-wheel drive high range. Okay, so let's slot this over to four-wheel drive high

33:20 range. Keep in mind, I'm not going to lock the rear diff. We'll just see if this will get us

33:25 over here in high range. There it is. It's active up there. You can see that working. In fact,

33:30 there's actually an off-road menu here that I might bring up so we can see what it's doing.

33:34 So, you can see there we've engaged front and rear axles, and then you've got pitch and roll

33:39 there as well. We'll look at that as we're climbing our next hill, and then power distribution too.

33:45 So, let's see how this goes. In 4H, it's actually just 50/50. So, if I roll onto the throttle there,

33:51 you can see it's doing everything at the exact same pace. So, we'll go pitch and roll.

33:54 Okay, so here comes our offset mogul again. We're going to get it to the point here where we have

33:59 two wheels off the ground once more, and in 4H, it's actually sending 50% of torque to the front

34:04 axle and 50% of torque to the rear axle. So, I'll just gradually apply throttle now. Let traction

34:10 control do its thing. There it is again. It is such a brilliantly tuned system. It just does

34:17 what it says on the box. I haven't had to fiddle with anything. The traction control system just

34:21 works, which is exactly what you want in a car like this, running ute like this. You just want

34:25 it to work without any dramas. I also love how you get these screens come up as well, which just

34:30 gives you a really good idea of what's going on ahead of the car. Okay, so it is time to climb

34:34 our hill. I'm going to set this to mud/ruts. It actually gives you really cool animation there

34:40 ahead of the driver when it's doing all of that. So, in mud/ruts, it engages the rear diff lock

34:46 for us. I'll actually go to low range, so I'll put it into neutral, flick it over to low range.

34:51 It says 4x4 shift in progress. There it is. So, stability control is off in low range. Rear diff

34:58 is locked. We're going to just climb up here with gradual throttle application. It has been very

35:02 muddy here. This hill has been chewed up as well. So, let's see how it goes. There's the camera

35:09 coming up again. We are on highway terrains here as well. It is walking up here without any dramas

35:17 at all. That is damn impressive. That is awesome. Nice. All right, we'll go through our mud bog.

35:22 All right. So, next step for us, we're going to go down this hill in front of us. What I'm

35:29 going to do, just to show you why this vehicle is so impressive compared to some of the other

35:33 peers in this segment, I'm going to go back to four-wheel drive high range. And a lot of

35:37 these vehicles in four-wheel drive high range, hill descent control doesn't work if the rear

35:41 diff is locked. So, I've engaged all of that. That's all active. We're then going to switch

35:47 on our hill descent control just by pushing that. So, it comes up saying hill descent control is

35:52 ready. And then what we'll do is just creep over the edge here. I'll put our camera back on as

35:57 well so we can see what's going on. I'll let the car do all of the work as we come across the edge

36:04 here. There it is there. Very impressive. I'm just trying to adjust the speed here using

36:10 cruise control. That doesn't seem to be doing anything for us. Actually, yes, it does. So,

36:18 there you go. I can adjust hill descent speed using cruise control as well, which is pretty

36:22 good. So, so far so good. What we're going to do now, after I drive through this little

36:27 mud hole just here, is we're going to go back up the hill this time though.

36:32 I'm going to stop halfway up and then try and get back on the throttle and see if it will actually

36:38 work. Okay, so we'll slot this back into low range. Let me just straighten that up.

36:44 So, like low range. Rear diff is locked. All right, let's see what happens. So, as a reminder,

36:54 I'm going to drive up, come to a stop and then get back on the throttle. It is so muddy here.

37:00 We'll see what happens. So, I'll come to a stop just there. Wish me luck on the throttle.

37:06 It is doing a good job here. A little bit of wheel slip there.

37:12 That is impressive. Seriously impressed by this. It is such a good package just for

37:18 someone who wants to do some light off-roading like this. You know that you can approach a

37:22 hill like that and know that the ute will just get through it without having to do anything

37:27 too crazy. You just have to press a few buttons here, engage your mode and away it goes. So,

37:31 yeah, I'm getting impressed with that. Okay, let's do a little bit of driving over some rocks here.

37:38 So, ground clearance of over 230mm. So, it should be okay here in terms of clearance.

37:42 I've left it in low range here just so I can basically ride the brake with the throttle.

37:50 Gives me a bit more control over this. It's really comfy even on 21s here. It's not too bad.

37:56 Keep in mind though, if you are going to be doing some serious driving on rocks,

37:59 a 21-inch wheel probably isn't going to be all that suitable if you do catch a rock on the edge.

38:04 Looks like we just got the sidestep there. Not great sidesteps if you're going to be driving

38:10 over rocks either by the way because it will damage them pretty easily. So, but yeah, very

38:14 comfy in here. I would just be looking at a more aggressive tyre if you're going to be doing

38:18 anything sort of too hardcore off-road. And lucky last, let's have a look at how this goes through

38:25 our water crossing. So, it's currently sitting at 650. This has a wading depth of 800,

38:31 so it shouldn't be a drama. Let's see how it fares through here. I haven't been here for

38:36 a little while, so I've got no idea what sort of condition this is in at the moment.

38:40 All right, here we go. So, I'll just drop it in. Oh, that is nice and deep. All right, here we go.

38:47 Digging through here. You can hear water lapping around there. Yeah,

38:55 piece of cake. It's coming through very nicely. I'll be careful on the climb out of here.

38:59 What traction is like. Yeah, no dramas at all. Very, very impressive. Yeah, look,

39:09 just like the Ford Ranger, this is great off-road. They've done such a good job with all the traction

39:13 control systems and all the drive modes. It just gives you all the confidence you need.

39:17 You don't need to be an expert, and this is fairly light off-roading. If you're going to

39:20 do anything more serious, you're going to want, obviously, different tires, but as a sort of

39:24 out-of-the-box package, even on the 21s, I think this is pretty awesome.

39:27 Okay, so Volkswagen Amarok. Actually, I probably should explain why I look different. We had to

39:38 come back another day because we got rained out the other day and didn't get a chance to get some

39:42 of the shots that we needed, so that's why we're here again. So, Volkswagen Amarok. Look,

39:47 I don't think this particular spec makes sense, the Aventura, because it's just under $80,000.

39:52 It's nine grand more than a Wildtrak, and yes, you have to add a few packs to the Wildtrak,

39:58 and the Wildtrak also doesn't come with the bigger screen, but now they've announced the

40:02 Ranger Platinum, which brings it very close to this in terms of specification, and you are getting

40:06 some more features in the Ranger that you don't actually get here in the Amarok, and this is

40:10 still more expensive. So, to me, the V6 diesel isn't where you'd be buying the Aventura. I think

40:15 with the Aventura, it's more a petrol proposition because that's an engine you can't get in the

40:20 Ranger range. So, outside of those things, it drives really nicely. It is a nicely handling car

40:27 in comparison to the Ranger. It feels a little sportier. They have tuned in a bit of that

40:30 sportiness compared to Ranger, but outside of that, I did sort of think that some of that

40:35 build quality stuff could be better. In the second row there, that stuff that was wonky.

40:39 We also noticed the stitching on the passenger seat wasn't very good either. It was out of

40:43 alignment and a little frayed at the bottom. So, there are a few things here that hopefully

40:47 Volkswagen will improve as the production process out of South Africa continues for the Volkswagen

40:52 Amarok. So, I am very keen to drive the rest of the Volkswagen Amarok range because I think that's

40:57 where the value proposition starts making a whole lot more sense. So, let me know what you reckon in

41:01 the comments section below. Have you ordered one of these? How do you justify the price over the

41:06 Ranger? I am keen for your feedback. Let me know down there in the comments section. If you did

41:10 enjoy this video, please make sure you like it and you share it with your mates. And if you haven't

41:13 done so already, subscribe to our channel and press the bell icon as well. But until next time,

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