VW Amarok: The drive with the wolf
A pickup like the VW Amarok is completely job and hobby suitable.
The first pickup that drove through my life, transported a baby elephant in the back. Poachers had shot his mother, and now National Park Rangers took him to a rearing station. That was 20 years ago in Kenya.
I had the pickup there in the name of the species protection association "Save the Elephants of Africa e.V." to hand over. It is still in use today, as battle-scarred as the specimen, with Clint Eastwood aka Robert Kincaid in? The Bridges on the River? Iowa rumbled. That was the second pickup that impressed me - because I could not have imagined another car that would have fitted so well with the unshaven charm of the nomad photographer.
Years later and a half continent further south then the third encounter. In Argentina, VW Commercial Vehicles presents its new VW Amarok, the slightly different pickup that is supposed to compete with mini-trucks from the USA and Japan. As best in class, so to speak: largest interior of the medium-sized pickups, a 1.62 meter wide and almost as long cargo area plus trailer hitch for 2.8 tons, a 163 hp engine that does not swallow even eight liters of diesel, plus a no frills picture-perfect body , quite robust, but still not macho and almost a little elegant.
The sophisticated design of the three different trim levels of the VW Amarok is the program. This pickup should not only work hard somewhere between the forest and the workshop, but also as a lifestyle variant in the leisure time what to do.
Group picture with VW Amarok: the "Scorpions" and ChroniquesDuVasteMonde editor Barbara Voigt
Camping equipment? Furniture auction? Golf bags, kiteboards, riding gear? Drums, bass and synthesizer for the next band performance? Always with it. The low tailgate makes it easy to store everything on the open bunk. Was baptized the good piece on the name "Amarok"? "Wolf" in the language of the Greenland Inuit, in Romansh translation also: "He loves the rock."
That fits. On the test track in Patagonia I manage in the VW Amarok with four-wheel drive itself a rise of 45 degrees, come through a knee-deep river without dropouts, pass so huge potholes that a wheel in the air, and on slippery gravel road takes over the fully automatic downhill assistant , gives gas and brakes by itself. Nail-biting? Not in this car that runs smoothly and comfortably like a Golf. Chapeau.
The first test of endurance for the VW Amarok was the Dakar Rally in 2010. Rudolf Schenker from the "Scorpions" had him there. as a support vehicle 1500 kilometers controlled by the pampas. I ask him about his impressions. He also thinks that the Amarok is by no means pure men's business. Because he offers what women like: "understatement with a lot of power - but with reasonable driving style only little consumption." In addition, according to the author of "Rock Your Life," women wanted one thing above all else: "Independence - that is exactly what is guaranteed in such a car, and if you want to stay unobserved with someone: With the VW Amarok you can go anywhere where others can not get there anymore. "
Wind of change? The pickup is still a relatively rare species, at least in Europe. But who would have thought that so many off-road SUVs would be on the road in perfectly paved neighborhoods? Why should not it be hip to drive on with an all-round talent like the VW Amarok? Also a contribution to biodiversity - even without elephants in the back.
INFO: The VW Amarok is a five-seat DoubleCab 5.25 meters long, 1.94 m wide and 1.83 m high. He has a 163 hp diesel engine; optionally with rear-wheel drive, with shiftable or permanent four-wheel drive. Its top speed is 180 km / h, it consumes depending on the model from 7.6 l / 100 km (CO2: from 199 g / km). Price: from about 29 000 euros.
