VOLKSWAGEN CAUSED a bit of a stir when it unveiled the masculine-looking Pickup Concept (pictured) last year, and for good reason.
The first of its kind from a European manufacturer, the Pickup represented a new direction for the company and showed that, on paper at least, VW could make a product capable of mixing it with the best utilities from Japan and the USA.
And now that product has a name. Volkswagen revealed today that its pickup will go to market wearing the ‘Amarok’ badge, a word that means “Wolf” in Inuit and “he loves stones” in some South American languages. We’re not so sure about the last one, but we can certainly dig Wolf.
The Amarok will make its debut in the fourth quarter of this year, with its first market launch to take place in South America and Central America in early 2010.
The European market will follow midway through next year, while Africa and Australia will being receiving their Amaroks in the second half of 2010.
It’s the first truly clean-slate design from VW in a long time, and the Amarok is built to be as tough as it name suggests. To be assembled at VW’s Argentinean plant, the Amarok will be available at launch as a 4×4 dual-cab. A single-cab version is planned to surface later.
High-efficiency turbodiesels will be the engines of choice, however exactly which engines will be chosen isn’t immediately apparent.
At this stage it’s unclear whether a 2×4 RWD version will be offered, but given the Amarok is designed to go head-to-head against the most popular one-tonners from Japan, it’s likely such a configuration will become available.
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its wonderful and modern double cab car , i like it
I just hope they have DSC and the side air bags as optional extras. Those plus DSG transmission and they will sell a ton of these to people looking for something close to a wagon 4WD but without the AUD70-80K ticket…
I’m a plumber and a single dad and i currently have 2 cars, a Nissan Navara for work and a FG Falcon for running the family around.
I don’t let the kids in the ute because ute’s are just so unsafe, like all the utes in Australia, no side airbags, no curtain airbags, no DSC, no EBD, no fulltime 4wd, no rigid passenger safety beams.
It’s like carmakers assume that tradie’s lives and tradie’s families lives aren’t as important as everyone elses lives.
So i have a second car i really can’t afford, but my kids safety is something i won’t compromise on.
I hope this new Amrok is everything a VW usually is, safe, well built……i hope they price it well and send all the other ute makers broke, they’ve taken advantage of us for too long.
I’m a plumber and a single dad and i currently have 2 cars, a Nissan Navara for work and a FG Falcon for running the family around.
I don’t let the kids in the ute because it’s just so unsafe, like all the utes in Australia, no side airbags, no curtain airbags, no DSC, no EBD, no fulltime 4wd, no rigid passenger safety beams.
It’s like carmakers assume that tradie’s lives and tradie’s families lives aren’t as important as everyone elses lives.
So i have a second car i really can’t afford, but my kids safety is something i won’t compromise on.
I hope this new Amrok is everything a VW usually is, safe, well built……i hope they price it well and send all the other ute makers broke, they’ve taken advantage of us for too long.