2023 Volkswagen Amarok (inc. 0-100) on/off-road review

CarExpert

The all-new 2023 Volkswagen Amarok is here! While it shares a platform with the Ford Ranger, Volkswagen installed a group of engineers within Ford's headquarters to develop the Amarok derivative. Is it any good? Paul Maric finds out!  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: 00:55 Interior: 04:39 Infotainment: 06:22 Safety Tech: 08:39 Practicality: 09:19 On the Road: 12:23 0-100: 17:13 Off-road: 20:24 Verdict: 24:12  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

Transcript

00:00 G'day, I'm Paul. Volkswagen has taken the wraps off the new Amarok, we've had a proper

00:04 look at it, a bit of a deep dive, but today is all about actually driving it. And I'm

00:08 really excited for this because while this shares a platform with the next generation

00:13 Ranger, Volkswagen claims to have done a lot of the work under the skin on its own. So

00:17 we'll see whether that is the case today.

00:19 Now, this competes with things like the Ford Ranger, Toyota Hilux, Isuzu D-MAX. There are

00:25 a stack of competitors in this segment, so it is going to have a hard time blending in

00:29 given how many people are actually buying these days. We don't know pricing just yet,

00:33 but we do know that it is going to launch in Australia next year. Today I'm going to

00:36 take you through a detailed look at this. We're going to do an on-road review and a

00:40 little bit of off-road driving as well. So if you do want to skip ahead to other parts

00:43 of this review, you can use the time codes on the screen, or if you're on YouTube, you

00:46 can scroll down and use the chapters below. And if you haven't done so already, subscribe

00:50 to our channel and press the bell icon so you can find out every single time we drive

00:53 a blue ute.

00:56 So let's talk exterior design. You can get your new Bucky in eight different colours.

01:00 This one here is unique to Volkswagen, so you won't be able to get this on the Ford

01:03 Ranger. Now just very quickly as well, the Ford Ranger, how did they make this look so

01:08 different? Well, Volkswagen actually installed 20 engineers and designers out of Ford's headquarters

01:15 in Geelong, where they were doing all the engineering work on this, and Volkswagen was

01:18 involved right from the very beginning of that whole process. So that meant they could

01:22 have their own design and integrate their own components. And when we go inside the

01:25 cab, I'll give you a better idea of all the sort of Volkswagen-specific stuff that's in

01:29 there. So that is why, despite this sharing a platform with the Ranger, it looks totally

01:33 different.

01:34 So down the front here, depending on which grade you go for, you get different designs.

01:38 And this one here is the top spec. It's called the Aventra. Aventra, sorry, there's no D

01:42 in there. And then depending on which grade you actually go for in between, it will then

01:46 change all of these colours. Even the base model has like a black setup down the front

01:51 here. It looks pretty tough, actually.

01:52 So big grille here for cooling for that engine. Big Volkswagen logo as well with the camera

01:56 there with a little washer installed. Amarok lettering deep etched into there with a radar

02:01 down the bottom.

02:02 The headlights, Matrix LED headlights, and they've actually got that across most of the

02:07 Range, which I think is pretty impressive. Fog lights down the bottom there as well.

02:10 And then we'll whip around to the side.

02:12 Now down here, get ready for this, 21-inch alloy wheels, absolutely enormous. So I don't

02:18 know how this is going to go in terms of the way that it drives both on-road and off-road,

02:22 but a 21-inch wheel on a dual-cab Ute is an adventurous option, but they do have a custom

02:27 suspension tuned for this wheel layout.

02:29 And keep in mind as well that they do have a 21-inch alloy wheel on the Everett, so the

02:32 platform is engineered and designed to take this type of thing.

02:36 You get front and rear disc brakes, you get wheel arch cladding up the top here as well.

02:40 I like these flared wheel arch as well, they stick out nicely and give this quite a bit

02:44 of character too.

02:45 Now, up the top here you have chrome on that wing mirror, a camera built into here for

02:50 the 360 camera, zone lighting as well and an indicator built into there.

02:54 Not a huge fan of these side steps, when I was getting up on them before they're quite

02:57 sort of flimsy, so I don't know, if you're going to be doing any off-roading and you

03:01 collect a rock on one of those, it could be the end of your side step pretty quickly.

03:05 Chrome door handles there, you've got roof rails, privacy glass.

03:09 I quite like this, so sailplane with a little compass built into there for good measure.

03:14 Under the back here you have leaf spring suspensions, they haven't gone down the path of a coil

03:18 sprung setup.

03:19 Now look, I think the Ranger drives fine without coil springs and hopefully this feels the

03:24 same as the Ranger does.

03:25 Four motion on the side here, because that is Volkswagen's version of all-wheel drive.

03:29 This particular spec with the V6 comes with a constant all-wheel drive system as well.

03:33 Come around to the rear, so have a look at this, some more changes up the back here.

03:37 So LED taillights, I quite like this setup and you can see this plastic element has been

03:41 built into here to kind of give it a very different look to the Ford Ranger and I think

03:45 this is quite a classy and sophisticated look.

03:48 Another four motion badge down there, you can see Amarok etched into this tailgate as

03:53 well, big Volkswagen logo there.

03:54 Three and a half tonne brake towing capacity, which is good news, a little more of that

03:58 chrome highlight.

03:59 I did notice there is no side step here like you do find on Ranger variants outside of

04:04 the Raptor, which make getting things out of the tray a little easier, so they've obviously

04:08 not gone with that for the Amarok for some reason.

04:10 Now inside the tray you've got a pretty familiar setup to the Ranger.

04:14 You have this bed liner, it's not the spray-in type, but you do have an electric roller cover,

04:18 so that whips out of the way and it gives you the same interior dimensions here as you're

04:23 going to find in the Ranger as well, which means fitting a Euro-size pallet too, which

04:28 is good news.

04:29 And finally, built into the tailgate you've got a torsion bar in there which makes it

04:32 easier to open and close that tailgate.

04:34 So let's jump inside the cabin, I'll run you through the infotainment system and some of

04:37 the Volkswagen touches.

04:39 So we are inside the Amarok, let's start off with the key.

04:42 So it looks familiar, it's the same key as the Ford Ranger, so unlock, lock and then

04:47 two button pushes here to open the roller cover on the tray and then a Volkswagen logo

04:51 on the back there.

04:52 It's a proximity sensing key, so you can leave that in your pocket.

04:54 Once you're inside you have a button here on just next to the steering wheel to turn

04:58 it all over.

04:59 Now, have a look at this, it does look a little bit familiar to Ranger, but in a similar theme

05:04 to the front and the exterior design, Volkswagen has added all of their touches, including

05:09 a custom infotainment system, which I'll run you through in just a second.

05:13 But I do like touches like this, you've basically got this sort of leather material along the

05:17 dashboard there to replace the soft touch stuff that Ford uses.

05:20 And I think this gives it a really premium appearance and that follows through to the

05:24 doors there as well, so you kind of get the vibe that this is a bit more of a luxury car

05:29 in comparison.

05:30 Even stuff like this, you've got that sort of brushed plastic look around there instead

05:34 of piano black, so I think that is nice.

05:36 It is a little scratchy around the place though, so you can hear all that stuff there, it's

05:40 still a little bit scratchy and it would have been nice to see that sort of premium material

05:44 flow through down the bottom.

05:45 The steering wheel's different too, and thankfully it's not the annoying steering wheel that's

05:49 fitted to other Volkswagen products with the touch sensitive pads, they're all actually

05:52 physical buttons, which is great.

05:55 The only sort of thing that I've just noticed here though, that this being the top spec

05:58 model has all these blanks on it, so I'm curious to know what it's missing or whether there

06:02 are extra features that are going to be coming in the future.

06:04 But yeah, now just in terms of build quality and stuff like that, normally this is where

06:08 I do my flex test and all that sort of stuff, but these are pre-production cars, so we'll

06:13 wait until we get these back in Australia and I'll have a proper sort of run through

06:16 it all.

06:17 Now, what does our door sound like?

06:21 Very nice and solid.

06:22 Righto, let's talk infotainment.

06:24 So there are a stack of models in the Amarok lineup, but today I'm just going to focus

06:28 here on the top spec version.

06:30 You can get two different screen sizes depending on where you are in the Amarok lineup, but

06:34 this one here comes with a bigger 12-inch display.

06:36 Just like the Ford system, I just love that it takes up that entire space there, it's

06:40 a really high resolution screen.

06:43 But also like the Ford system, it can be a little laggy at times, so here on the nav

06:46 display it's all working fine at the moment, but if you kind of surprise it and go to one

06:51 of the screens and start looking at other information, it takes a little while to load

06:55 and I don't know, I would have thought brand new car, brand new infotainment system, all

06:59 the latest hardware would be a little faster.

07:01 So this will eventually be capable of doing over-the-air updates and I'm hoping when that

07:05 happens it will be much snappier and they'll be able to just work out some of the bugs

07:10 as part of the sort of development process.

07:12 But in terms of the features, you get in-built satellite navigation, in terms of smartphone

07:16 mirroring you have both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, both of those are wireless which

07:20 is great news.

07:21 You'll also notice this is a different layout too, so in the range of where you have manual

07:25 adjustments for volume and also temperature controls, here they've kind of condensed it

07:29 all into these controls and I quite like the surfaces on that, it's got a rough finish

07:33 to it, it's a bit sort of knurled there which is great.

07:35 And then you can just click on one of those to get taken to things like your climate menu

07:39 and it all looks and feels completely different to the Ranger, so it isn't just a re-skin

07:43 of the Ranger infotainment system, it's all sort of quite unique.

07:46 AM, FM and DAB digital radio, Ranger comes with a B&O Play sound system, this actually

07:52 has a Harman Kardon sound system, so moving away from again Ranger in that theme where

07:58 you are looking at different items there and they actually fit beneath the rear seat as

08:02 well a different layout in terms of the amplifier and the subwoofer too, so it is something

08:06 that clearly they've put a fair bit of effort into configuring just for this vehicle.

08:11 Now over here ahead of the driver, if you're on the top spec you're getting the bigger

08:14 display which isn't even available on the Ranger at all, so I love that.

08:18 That also has a custom skin there for Volkswagen too, so you can flick through those menus

08:21 and configure that as you like, so that's a really cool setup there.

08:24 So on an infotainment and tech front they really have sort of loaded this with as much

08:28 as they can.

08:29 Each Volkswagen Amarok that is sold in Australia will also have the integrated brake control,

08:33 so it's not fitted to our car but that will sit beneath here, so it gives you that full

08:37 package straight out of the factory.

08:39 Now let's look safety tech, so you have autonomous emergency braking with pedestrian and cyclist

08:43 detection, auto-dibbing rear vision mirror, you have radar cruise control, blind spot

08:47 monitoring.

08:48 Blind spot monitoring can also take into account the length of the trailer which I think is

08:51 a really great feature, and the blind spot monitor is built into the wing mirror over

08:55 there.

08:56 You get rear cross traffic alert, front and rear parking sensors and a 360 camera.

08:59 I'll show you what the camera looks like here.

09:02 So it's interesting, the camera, it looks OK but it doesn't quite look as sharp as the

09:07 Ford camera, so I'm wondering if they're using different hardware here in Amarok compared

09:11 to Ranger, so I'm going to have to follow that up and find out, and if I do find out

09:15 I'll let you know in the comments section below, I'll pin a comment there and follow

09:18 up on it.

09:19 So, the mentality, and we'll start off with your connectivity, so you have wireless phone

09:22 charging, great news, 12-volt outlet, USB-C, USB-A.

09:26 You also have a USB-A port up the top here to hook up a dash cam and that kind of thing.

09:32 In terms of storing your phone, it can live down there on the wireless phone charger,

09:35 or you can pop it there on the cup holders.

09:36 In terms of the cup holders themselves, you have little teeth in there to hold everything

09:40 in place, bottle storage inside the doors too.

09:43 Other storage, you've got a really decent sized centre console bin there.

09:47 You don't have the cup holders in front of the air vents like you do in some of the Ranger

09:52 and Everest trims, but you do have a pretty reasonably sized glove box, and then a secondary

09:56 glove box up the top here, and a little storage nook just there, and finally a sunglasses

10:02 holder as well.

10:03 And finally, what about your comfort?

10:05 So you have dual zone automatic climate control here for the front row.

10:09 In addition to that, you also have heated seats for the front row.

10:13 In terms of seat adjustment and seat comfort, so seats can be adjusted electrically for

10:17 the driver and front passenger.

10:18 You can go forwards, backwards, backrest can go forwards, backwards, you can lift the front,

10:23 you can lift the back, you also have lumbar adjustment.

10:26 Now the seats, they are actually pretty comfortable.

10:28 We've spent a fair bit of time driving the car prior to filming this, and yeah, I actually

10:33 feel pretty good in the seats.

10:35 So the last Amarok was kind of a benchmark for seat comfort, so they have definitely

10:39 carried it on with this.

10:41 And finally, what about your steering wheel?

10:43 It has both tilt and reach adjustment, and on our reach test, all of this stuff is easy

10:48 to reach while you're driving.

10:49 So second row, probably no surprises here, but bottom of this lifts up, you can then

10:54 hook that into position, and this is where you store your items.

10:57 Now from memory, Ford puts the jack and stuff behind the seat, but it seems here with the

11:02 Amarok, they kind of wedge it into that slot, and then you have that one spare for hiding

11:06 odds and ends.

11:07 You can also then drop this out of the way too, and this is what I was talking about

11:12 with that different speaker arrangement.

11:13 So the subwoofer is here in the Ranger, but they've put the Harman Kardon subwoofer over

11:17 there and the amplifier on this side, and as a result of that, you don't have any storage

11:21 for odds and ends here, but you do have your two top tether points, and they're joined

11:25 by the two ISOFIX points.

11:27 Now, what about legroom?

11:28 So it won't be any different to Ranger.

11:31 I have this seat in my standard driving position, and that means knee room is okay, but not

11:35 amazing.

11:36 Toe room is okay, and headroom is pretty good.

11:40 So creature comforts here, you have air vents just here, mat pockets here, grab handle to

11:45 hop on in.

11:46 Now, this is cool down here because you actually have a power outlet, so it's 150 watt, 230

11:51 volt.

11:52 That is really cool, and then a 12-volt outlet.

11:54 There are no USB ports down here, which is a little bit disappointing, but at least you

11:58 do have the flexibility there of actually hooking things up.

12:00 You have a centre armrest here as well, and that is where you'll also find, it's a bit

12:06 hard to open, two cup holders in addition to storage inside the doors.

12:10 I will also point out as well, notice this doesn't really fit that well back here.

12:14 So I don't know if that's just a pre-production thing, but hopefully they fix that for the

12:19 production cars when they do finally hit the roads in Australia.

12:25 So we have just hit the road in the Amarok.

12:28 So we were in the top spec Aventura for our sort of interior look, but I've swapped into

12:35 the Panamericana, so that's second down from the top.

12:38 So before we get started, I'm going to run you through just the list of engines that

12:42 is going to be launching with Amarok, and again, it depends on whether you're in Europe

12:47 or in our case, Australia, whether you get the Euro 5 or the Euro 6 engines.

12:51 So I'm just going to run through the Australian specs here.

12:53 So it's launching with a set of 2-litre diesel engines.

12:57 So the entry level is going to be a 2-litre diesel turbocharged, 125 kilowatts of power,

13:02 just over 400 newton metres of torque, and that's going to be available with a six-speed

13:06 manual or a six-speed automatic.

13:08 From there it steps up to the same diesel that you find in the Ford Ranger, which is

13:12 a 2-litre bi-turbo diesel.

13:15 That is a 154 kilowatt of power proposition and 500 newton metres of torque, and that

13:21 is mated to a 10-speed automatic, part-time four-wheel drive.

13:25 Then you're in this one here, which is again familiar to Ranger.

13:28 It's a 3-litre turbocharged V6 diesel, 184 kilowatts of power, 600 newton metres of torque,

13:35 and also mated to a 10-speed auto, but just like the Ranger you can run this in four-wheel

13:39 drive automatic, so that is basically a permanent four-wheel drive mode.

13:43 And then finally, rounding out the range, is going to be a 2.3-litre turbocharged petrol

13:48 engine, and that's probably the one I'm quite excited for because that's an engine that

13:50 has lineage to Focus RS.

13:53 That's also going to be available with 10-speed automatic only, and that one is going to be

13:58 only available in the top-spec Aventurer model.

14:02 That'll pump out 222 kilowatts of power and a little over 450 newton metres of torque.

14:06 So let's talk about this one.

14:08 So Panamericana sits on 20-inch alloy wheels, the top-spec Aventurer on 21s, so there is

14:14 a little bit of a difference there.

14:15 In addition to that, the Aventurer actually gets a thicker anti-roll bar at the front,

14:19 which means it is a little more poised for handling as opposed to this, which is kind

14:23 of a mix between off-road and handling.

14:26 So how does it feel behind the wheel?

14:27 It's actually really good.

14:29 It's quite responsive here in the V6 diesel.

14:31 The V6 diesel also has a different note to range, which I thought was quite curious,

14:35 even though they're saying that nothing is plumbed in through the speakers, it does sound

14:38 a little bit different as you get onto the throttle, and yeah, 10-speed auto is nice

14:43 and responsive too.

14:44 One thing I did notice when we were going for a drive earlier on is the lack of paddle

14:48 shifters, and I know that paddle shifters are associated with sportiness, but they're

14:52 actually quite useful for towing and just being able to rifle through the gears as required.

14:58 Here I have to go down to the gear stick and use the plus and minus here, and it's a little

15:01 bit distracting I reckon as opposed to just a set of paddle shifters that you can pull

15:04 at any time.

15:05 Now we don't have fuel economy figures yet, so that'll come as we get closer to launch

15:11 along with pricing and that kind of thing, but what I can tell you today is about how

15:15 it rides.

15:16 So we drove the Aventura yesterday, which was on 21-inch alloy wheels, and look, the

15:22 ride was good, but I thought it was a little bit busy, and as a result of that you do find

15:28 that when you are on smooth roads, and surprisingly there are a stack of really smooth roads here

15:32 in South Africa, it can feel like it's jittering a fair bit as it drives along.

15:38 This one on the other hand is a different story.

15:40 So here in Panamericana trim, because it's sitting on 20s, it doesn't have that thicker

15:45 anti-roll bar, it actually feels a little nicer to drive, and it is quite smooth and

15:51 comfortable, and I think that's what you want.

15:53 If you're not wanting to be totally focused on off-roading, the smooth and comfortable

15:57 approach is probably what you want to go for.

15:59 Given that the Aventura will be available with the turbocharged petrol engine, that

16:03 is probably going to be the sportier option for people who aren't so obsessed with being

16:07 able to go off-road, because on those tyres you are going to be doing a whole lot of off-road

16:10 driving.

16:11 Now let's talk about drive modes.

16:13 So unlike Ranger, where you select drive modes here, you've got to dive into this menu, and

16:19 then you only really have off-road and towing driving modes.

16:22 So normal Eco, Tow Haul, Slippery, Mud, Ruts and Deep Snow, Sand, there is no sort of sport

16:27 mode, but let's take it for a little punt up this road and we'll see how this feels.

16:32 Nice twisty section of road.

16:36 Oh, this feels really good.

16:39 I'm finding as we power through some of these bends, especially the higher speed ones, it

16:43 really hooks up nicely and you can lean into the throttle.

16:47 Especially here in that four-wheel drive auto mode, it's able to shuffle torque between

16:50 the front and rear axles as required.

16:52 And as a result of that, you don't get any of that sort of understeery, oversteery feel

16:57 that you get in some dual cab units, which are just rear-wheel drive oriented.

17:00 And this engine is really responsive as well.

17:03 Ten-speed auto is nice and sharp and quick, dives back through the gears, pins you back

17:07 in the seat.

17:08 That 600Nm of torque is just a really good combination with this size of vehicle.

17:13 So we don't have an official 0-100 time for the Amarok, but put it up against the V-Box

17:18 and this is how it went.

17:20 [engine revving]

17:22 So there you go, sub nine seconds and then our 80-120 was around six seconds as well.

17:38 So about on par with where we were with Ranger as well, which is kind of to be expected.

17:43 We will do some more comprehensive testing when we do finally get these back in Australia though.

17:48 [engine revving]

17:50 Now let's talk about road noise.

17:52 It's actually not too bad.

17:54 There is a little bit of wind noise that comes in over these mirrors at highway speeds, but

17:58 it's actually pretty quiet in here.

18:00 I think Volkswagen's aim with Amarok was to make it a little bit more refined than Ranger

18:05 and I think they've been able to achieve that thanks to the tyre selection as well.

18:09 Here we're on a fairly course-chipped section of road doing 80km/h and I'm not really hearing

18:13 anything come into the cabin outside of that wind noise and that is partly thanks to those

18:17 tyres as well, which is good news.

18:19 [engine revving]

18:21 What has Volkswagen actually done to this package to differentiate it from the Ranger?

18:25 Well, it comes down to steering and suspension tunes.

18:28 The steering feel is different and unless I can drive them back-to-back, it is hard

18:33 to pinpoint the exact changes there, but this has a, I hate using this sort of term, but

18:38 a Volkswagen feel to it.

18:39 So it is quite communicative and it has a sportier feel than the Ranger does, which

18:43 is a bit more relaxed when you don't go down the path of something like the Raptor.

18:47 So from that point of view, it does feel like there is a difference between these two packages

18:51 and I think that's important as well.

18:53 You don't want to piggyback off someone else's platform to just achieve the same thing.

18:56 This, to me, actually feels like its own unique vehicle and it kind of feels a little bit

19:01 like the previous generation Amarok, certainly in a Ventra trim where it is a little on the

19:05 firmer side, it has that sporty bent to it.

19:08 Here as you step down to the Panamericana, it feels a little more relaxed and a bit more

19:12 sort of comfort-oriented than that sportier version.

19:15 And look, one thing I will touch on just with the screen and the layout that Volkswagen

19:19 has here compared to the Ford setup, I kind of, yeah, I don't know, I do like having the

19:25 drive mode selected down here simply because for me to change drive modes now, I need to

19:29 take eyes off the road to hit the mode button, wait for that menu to come up, then I need

19:32 to click on the one that I want there.

19:34 It would just be better if there was a quicker way to actually achieve that.

19:39 So yeah, just a minor grievance, but yeah, a button or just some lever here to change

19:45 those drive modes would be great.

19:48 What about your visibility?

19:49 So I can see clearly down the front of the bonnet there, it's got some nice sculpted

19:52 lines to it.

19:53 The wing mirrors are huge as well, so I'm getting great visibility down the side of

19:56 the car, especially with that blind spot monitor built into those as well.

20:00 And then this also has the same blind spot tech that Ranger has, so it means that when

20:04 you do have a trailer connected, you are able to see further down the back of the car thanks

20:09 to the sensors mounted to the rear bumper here, so they give you an indication of how

20:14 far down the vehicle your trailer is, and then if anyone comes into that blind spot,

20:18 it will alert you inclusive of the trailer length, which I think is excellent technology.

20:23 Righto, time to do a little bit of off-roading.

20:28 We've switched from the V6 diesel into this style, which is a 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder

20:34 diesel.

20:35 I've got these set up for the off-road course, they're on the 18s and also all-terrains as

20:39 well.

20:40 This is like an hour-long course, so this is going to feel a little disjointed, but

20:44 I'll only record just the interesting bits that are worth talking about.

20:47 I'll run you through this setup.

20:48 So with the V6 diesel, I mentioned that you can run it through four-wheel drive automatic.

20:53 Here on the four-cylinder, it's the same as the Ranger, where you can only run it in two-wheel

20:56 drive high range.

20:58 That is on sealed and unsealed surfaces, and then four-wheel drive high range is available

21:03 to use on unsealed surfaces, and if you want to get a better understanding of why, click

21:06 up here to watch a video we shot before explaining four-wheel drive controls.

21:11 Look, I do like the fact that you can manually select diff lock and all that sort of stuff

21:16 here without having to go through a menu.

21:18 So you've got a diff lock button, hill descent control and a traction control.

21:21 There are no modes, so with some variants of the Ranger, you can actually select your

21:26 off-road modes here.

21:27 You don't have any of that.

21:28 You also don't have a 360 camera on this particular car, so you can't sort of see the ruts and

21:33 stuff you're about to fall into.

21:35 So it's all kind of left up to the driver to take care of that.

21:39 Having said that though, everything here is pretty straightforward.

21:44 So all of your controls are easy to find, and as a novice, it's all easy to use, which

21:50 I think is the important part.

21:51 You don't want anything that's too complex or hard to understand if you don't know what

21:55 you're doing.

21:56 Okay, so we've got a bit of a descent here.

21:59 I'm going to flick hill descent control on.

22:01 We'll see how that works.

22:03 Yeah, cool.

22:04 So same as Ranger, I can adjust the speed using the cruise control controls here, which

22:11 is great.

22:12 So yeah, I love that flexibility because I really don't like it when you are doing off-roading

22:16 in some dual cab utes and you don't have the flexibility to choose your descent speed.

22:22 This is really just an easy way to do it.

22:24 Okay, we've got a couple of moguls just here.

22:28 Thread the car through that.

22:29 We have the rear diff locked, so it's all pretty straightforward.

22:33 Yeah, no dramas there at all.

22:37 Okay, I like this.

22:38 A little bit of wheel articulation here as we come through this little hole.

22:44 There you go, no dramas there as well.

22:48 Yeah, nothing to report here.

22:50 It's all pretty straightforward.

22:51 It's doing it all nicely.

22:54 This looks nice and steep, so this should be a good test of not only rear diff lock,

22:58 but also just tractive efforts as we get up here.

23:02 This tyre is actually pretty good, the all-terrain, so it shouldn't have any dramas climbing this,

23:06 but we'll see how we go.

23:09 Yeah, nice.

23:10 Bring it into that.

23:13 Oh, piece of cake.

23:16 It is alarming how easy this is to drive, pretty much.

23:21 It is absolutely unreal.

23:23 Awesome.

23:24 Okay, so our terrain is getting a little rougher here.

23:26 We've got some exposed rocks and other bits and pieces.

23:30 Yeah, look, I'm pretty happy with how this is going.

23:34 And I like this screen ahead of the driver as well.

23:36 It gives you an idea of the angles that you're on and stuff like that.

23:38 So it's all pretty useful information, especially for an off-roading novice.

23:42 Yeah, look, I've got to be honest, the terrain here isn't overly difficult, so we will reserve

23:47 judgment on off-roading for when we get back to Australia.

23:51 But yeah, it looks so far so good.

23:53 I'm pretty impressed with how it's performing just straight out of the box here.

23:57 And look, to be honest, most people would probably just be doing this kind of driving

24:01 anyway.

24:02 We're not doing anything too crazy here.

24:03 So it's good to see that it does work for its intended purpose for the average person.

24:10 So, that has been your first look at the new Volkswagen Amarok.

24:15 I reckon they've differentiated this enough from the Ford Ranger.

24:18 And given that Volkswagen was involved in the process from very early on, they've done

24:22 enough here to make sure that this feels very much like an Amarok as opposed to just a derivation

24:27 of the Ford Ranger.

24:28 I am keen to test this on Australian roads because roads here in South Africa have actually

24:33 been really good.

24:34 So it's been fine for the 21-inch alloy wheels, but will it actually work in Australia?

24:38 That is yet to be seen.

24:39 Now, have you ordered an Amarok?

24:41 Let me know in the comments section below.

24:43 Have you put money down?

24:44 What have you gone for?

24:45 And what do you think about this blue colour as well?

24:47 I'm keen to see what you think.

24:48 If you did enjoy this video, please make sure you like it and you share it with your mates.

24:51 And if you haven't done so already, subscribe to our channel and press the bell icon.

24:54 But until next time, take it easy.

24:56 [Music]

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