When Californian soft rockers The Eagles penned Life in the Fast Lane, I’m not sure a Volkswagen light commercial was on their minds. The Amarok Life though, looks ready to accelerate VW sales.
The Life is the starting point for the new generation Amarok range and Volkswagen has taken a very different approach to what we have seen before. This is in line with the fact that Amarok is a different approach to double cab diesel utility vehicles built as a joint venture.
Volkswagen has developed an ultra-modern, bold, and striking design which differentiates the Amarok from every other ute on the market, including its JV dance partner.
Volkswagen has created a highly specified, star performing, great looking and feeling ‘entry-level’ ute which has retained a level of Volkswagen quality and DNA no amount of referencing the other JV partner is going to take away.
This was discussed at great length during the launch of the second-generation Amarok and having shared some of the drivetime of this vehicle with the editor of our sister publication NZ4WD magazine (who was not at the launch), we’ve decided this is not sales hyperbole, as he said the same thing without any cues or prompting from NZ Company Vehicle.
The most significant visual difference separating the Life from the Style, PanAmericana and the Aventura is the side steps – or lack of, in the case of the Life.
Wait, wait, back the ute up … lack of side steps? Yep, the Life doesn’t have ‘em, but that’s not to its detriment. In fact, without those steps, the Amarok Life looks tough, rugged, and big.
We – NZ Company Vehicle and NZ4WD – love the look and (NZCV really) acknowledge the lack of side steps is no great loss for the Life. Neither is the lack of four cogs in the automatic.
The Life is the only Amarok with a six-speed shift but then working trucks like the Life only really need six, so long as they are well set up and of course, being Volkswagen, they are.
And so, for that matter, is the two-litre turbo diesel, which is slightly down on its power and torque compared to its stablemates, but still more than capable of hauling 3500kg of towed weight and take a 944kg payload in the Euro pallet capable tray.
As to everything else the Life has onboard, it starts with a massive list of safety features.
This is not just the front, centre, side, curtain and knee airbags, anti-spin regulation, seatbelt reminder, electronic stability control, and adaptive cruise control, all of which you could reasonably expect a modern ute to have, there are features which are perhaps not as expected.
Features like a multi-collision braking system, speed sign recognition, forward collision warning front assist with autonomous emergency braking, junction assist, lane keep assist, blind spot monitoring and rear cross traffic alert, front and rear parking distance control, rear view camera and tyre pressure monitoring for instance. Pretty darned impressive, and ANCAP thought so too, hence the Amarok’s across-the-range five-star rating.
The Amarok Life comes with a massive 12-inch multimedia colour touchscreen giving access to climate control functions, the six-speaker audio system, Android Auto and Apple CarPlay connectivity and of course, the camera screen.
These are the main functions and being a multimedia screen, the portrait-oriented tablet can also display maps or other app information from a smartphone.
On that note, the Life also – surprisingly – supports wireless charging as well as having a variety of charge port types throughout the cabin.
This is a well laid out space with plenty of room for all five occupants and plenty of seat adjustability, despite the Life’s seating being fully manually adjustable, just like the 4WD system.
Like all gen II Amarok’s, the Life offers 4MOTION 4WD as a part time system, meaning drivers can select between 2H (two-wheel drive, rear wheel bias) for on-road travel, 4H for road speed off-roading with a 50/50 power split and 4L for low speed off road work and again, a 50/50 power split.
4H and 4L also allow the Amarok’s mechanical rear differential (standard across the range) to be used to provide additional traction with the rear wheels being locked to rotate at the same speed.
The rear differential is activated electronically from a switch bank which activates hill descent control and disengaging traction control as needed off road.
And we fully expect to see Amarok Lifes off road. They are after all, very capable, the most customisable and the most affordable, making the Amarok Life a very good fleet fit utility boasting Volkswagen durability and driveability.
