GTP Cool Wall: 2010+ Volkswagen Amarok

  • Thread starter Thread starter White & Nerdy
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2010+ Volkswagen Amarok

  • Total voters
    96
  • Poll closed .
White & Nerdy

White & Nerdy

Messages
4,209
United States
Wasilla, AK
2010+ Volkswagen Amarok nominated by Doog

Volkswagen-Amarok.jpg


Stats:
Production: 2010+
Style: 2-door pickup truck, 4-door pickup truck
Engine: 120 ci/1,968 cc turbodiesel DOHC inline 4 (rated 121 HP & 250 lb-ft), 120 ci/1,968 cc turbodiesel DOHC inline 4 (rated 138 HP & 250 lb-ft), 121 ci/1,984 turbocharged DOHC inline 4 (rated 158 HP & 220 lb-ft), 120 ci/1,968 cc twin-turbodiesel DOHC inline 4 (rated 161 HP & 300 lb-ft), 120 ci/1,968 cc twin-turbodiesel DOHC inline 4 (rated 177 HP & 310 lb-ft)
Transmission: 6-speed manual, 8-speed automatic
Layout: Front-engine, rear- or all-wheel-drive​

My take? As a body-on-frame compact truck, pretty cool to start. Few problems though: no true PT 4WD, no six-cylinder option (the Chevy Colorado even had a V8 at one point), and it's not really compact anymore. The late-90's, early-00's American compact trucks, before we completely gave up, were about the perfect size for a compact truck. From the pictures, this looks almost full-size... and for what?

In all, it's about as utilitarian and the F-250 a few days ago, but nicer, more "manicured", and probably a lot more bloated, therefore less cool. I don't know where that leaves it.
 
Cool. Makes more sense than most trucks one can see in US.. Good MPG, better quality. No need for V6 motors as the diesels can provide sufficient torque. And US never gave up on compact truck. They were outlawed because import trucks were selling more for less than the domestic manufacturers, who started lobbying.. Hence the chicken tax.
 
Z-Man makes 110% sense in the gun thread, but absolutely none in these cool wall threads. Tacoma-ended Golf's hilarious though. :lol:👍

I like compact truck in general, and I like the looks of this one. Cool.
 
This truck is named after a wolf in Inuit mythology, yet it isn't sold in North America.

Irony is a bitch isn't it?
 
It'd be really nice to have a back view to come with.

*uses Google*

Okay.. Like what's happening with most BMWs and Fords, Volkswagen straps on a more general look to a different car type. A compact pickup?

Let's begin with another thing from me: I love VW, but not for the things of their past (that Samba Bus or the Rabbit), but of what they're trending with today. The benchmark of the 'performance' compact car is the Golf GTI. Some of my favorite everyday vehicles would be the Touareg and the current iteration of the Beetle. It owns the many faces of our cars today, but that's just going too far.

But.. what? It's useful, yes, but i want to see some style points into it. My little search through the web has it with a pickup cab cover reminds me of the rather cliche Chevy Suburban, plus the rather ugly back lights.. Yuck. And.. while a utility, i don't think we can use this to go offroading the deserts cause of the power it carries. Minus points..

I see some nice things here, though.. It's not that bland on how it looks, and having options to save fuel by changing its drive train? Not bad.. not bad.

I'll end at uncool, because I'd still pick another VW over it. Also, I'd consider the other, more brash American car companies for a pickup anyday.
 
White & Nerdy
this looks almost full-size...
Click to expand...
I'd always assumed the Amarok was a bit smaller - like the Mitsubishi L200 sold over here and a few others, but surprisingly you aren't far off, it's pretty large. Even trucks in Europe have been growing over the last few years it seems.

A quick wiki suggests it's 206.9 inches long, 76.5 wide and 72.2 tall. The outgoing F-150 is, at a minimum, half a foot longer, but only a few inches wider and taller. That said, that's comparing the crew cab Amarok to the single-cab F-150, but it's still closer than I thought it might be.

(By the way - you've marked "uncool" down as "cool" in the poll)

---

All that aside, I'm going uncool on this one. Aside from a brief spell in the late 90s when trucks like this became fashionable in the UK because they had several tax breaks applied to them, pickups are resolutely working vehicles and therefore as cool as a Transit van. Which is to say, not very.

I could see it being a little cooler in the U.S. (if it's sold there?) because it's a little different from the norm. And it may well creep into cool if they sold it as a diesel over there, for being useful without costing a bomb to fuel. But since I'm assuming they don't, it remains uncool.
 
homeforsummer
(By the way - you've marked "uncool" down as "cool" in the poll)
Click to expand...
Superliminal messages? :D
homeforsummer
pickups are resolutely working vehicles and therefore as cool as a Transit van. Which is to say, not very.
Click to expand...
More to the point, pickups - like Transits - are the vehicle of choice for a certain sector of society. That sector being the one that will tow caravans behind their pickups and co-opt tracts of land which they then fill with rubbish, discarded needles and excrement from their many, many dags.

That's not a great scene to buy into.
 
It is a meh for me its Probably doesnt have a 4WD Capabilities of a toyota hilux or a nissan pickup nor it isnt reliable as them But its a good step for VW
 
A german pickup!? Sounds great- I always wanted these to come to the U.S. But I didn't realize how little power they had. Meh.
 
JMoney689
I didn't realize how little power they had
Click to expand...
I just want to check...

To you, a pickup with a 2.0 turbodiesel producing 121hp & 250lbft = meh, not enough power
To several of your countrymen, a pickup with a 4.1 V6 producing 85hp & 154lbft = sub-zero, it's not about the power, they're tuned for low-down torque

Huh?
 
Famine
I just want to check...

To you, a pickup with a 2.0 turbodiesel producing 121hp & 250lbft = meh, not enough power
To several of your countrymen, a pickup with a 4.1 V6 producing 85hp & 154lbft = sub-zero, it's not about the power, they're tuned for low-down torque

Huh?
Click to expand...

The thing is the amarok has more torque


How ironic eh
 
I'll give it a solid cool. I'm a big fan of trucks and diesels, not too keen on the styling of this one but the engine and tranny make up for that.
 
I tried to like this thing. Just about perfect size, but that's where it ends.

Low power, no real 4wd system, and it's a VW which around here have sketchy reliability and somewhat high repair costs.

Low end of uncool.
 
Hmmm... the automatic model gets a torsen center diff (meh)... but apparently it gets a mechanical rear differential locker and electronic differential locking.

The rear locker and a crawler gear in the 8-speed auto more than makes up for the lack of a traditional low-range box. Most competitors use a Torsen LSD or something similar, which isn't quite as useful.

Of course, like most of these new "compact-midsized" trucks, the Amarok is a bit too long and low for real off-roading, in stock.

But none of this really matters for coolness. The Amarok is just too new and unfamiliar for me to vote on, so I'll pass.
 
Amarok. Cool name.

The vehicle itself sits at the other end of the scale though. Even if it's a fairly capable pickup from a part of the world that isn't well renowned for producing such vehicles. I can't think of anything else that's remotely cool about it.
 
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Has good power and even better torque figures, looks great, it's reliable... It's very, very Cool for me... 👍
 
Went with a mild uncool here, was tempted with cool because in North America the average person who doesn't know cars would think a VW truck is cool, and I'm a fan of VW diesels, but the reality is as Zenith mentioned it looks like a VW Tacoma and would be way more expensive than a Tacoma in the first place which is uncool.
 
Midsized trucks have always been stupid, even before the efforts made in the past couple of years to make full size trucks more efficient. A utility vehicle by Volkswagen, of all companies, just plunges the needle further.
 
I don't think the badge has any baring on how cool or not a utility vehicle is. A Merc Sprinter is no more or less cooler than a Ford Transit. There's nothing aspirational about a van or a truck.
 
A low-level Uncool.

It's a ute that is decently capable at all ute-y business and it's a refreshing change to the Hiluxes, Navaras, Rangers and the like that all the tradies flock to generally. However, while it doesn't have a DSG option, the Volkswagen marque has recently brewed a storm of unreliability-based hatred towards itself in Australia (not that it didn't really have a bad rep before, it just wasn't as public as it was in 2013) and it is Uncool for this reason.

Also, Mazda and Ford with their BT-50 (even with its "interesting" front end) and Ranger, respectively, are arguably the cream of the crop in the ute segment, and in terms of its capability the Amarok doesn't quite meet the mark.
 

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