The 2023 Amarok – which is a result of a collaboration and co-development with Ford – is launching with five different trim grades, all of which are offered exclusively in the dual-cab body style in Australia.
In addition to being a double-cab offering only, the new-generation VW ute will appeal more broadly to buyers who require the maximum five-star ANCAP safety rating, having received that accolade recently based on 2022 testing.
It shares plenty with the Ford Ranger which also achieved a five-star rating, although there were some differences in the breakdown of criteria scores, according to the testing authority’s assessments.
Volkswagen Australia national manager for marketing and product, Nathan Johnson, said at the launch of the new Amarok that the inclusion of advanced safety and driver assistance technology was “hugely important to us on this particular vehicle”.
The new-generation Amarok has more appeal for fleet customers.
“There are 30 driver assistance systems in this car, and 20 of them are all-new to Amarok,” he said.“That was hugely important to us when it came to this car. We now have nine airbags throughout the cabin. We have AEB with pedestrian and cyclist monitoring, adaptive cruise control and for the first time in a VW Group Australia vehicle, we have traffic sign recognition.”
Mr Johnson pointed to the recent five-star score from Euro NCAP and ANCAP, which he said is a vital checkbox for many fleet customers across the country.
“This is huge for us for our local ambitions moving forward. Not just for our everyday customer, but also our ambitions in the fleet space,” he said.
The brand singled out the entry-level Core model as the primary example that will likely find favour on fleet shopping lists, with that version being offered with the TDI405 2.0-litre single-turbo-diesel engine and the choice of a six-speed manual or six-speed automatic transmission.
However, it will be four-wheel drive only, and will only come as a dual-cab pick-up at launch.
Unlike most other brands, VW won’t offer single- or extra-cab versions of the Amarok locally, despite those types of work-focused examples being set to be made available in other markets, including the place where the new Amarok is built – South Africa.
Volkswagen Australia’s Commercial Vehicles director, Ryan Davies, told GoAutoNews Premium that the brand is considering whether it may offer a cab-chassis variant of the new-generation Amarok, but ruled out a play against the likes of the Toyota HiLux, Isuzu D-Max, Mazda BT-50 and Mitsubishi Triton – all of which offer single-cab two-wheel-drive utes at the bottom-end of the market.
“Cab-chassis is something we’re still looking at. We know it has been a reasonable part of our historical sales, so that’s still a problem we’ve got to look at and solve,” said Mr Davies.
“But going [to a lower starting price] is probably not where we’re at, certainly not 4×2 or single-cab. We have played in there before and it just hasn’t been a successful hunting ground. So we’re going to stick to our knitting.
“If you look at the pick-up segment, whether it’s 4×2 or 4×4, it represents something like 200,000 vehicles now. Of that, 160,000 or there or thereabouts, are 4×4. That’s a pretty big market.
“The 4×2 market picks up the rest, and it’s single-cab, and it’s high-rider, and it’s all that sort of stuff.
“We just can’t play successfully there, just given the value propositions of some of our competitors. It’s not worth it for us. It’s never really worked for us in this market. It’s not sustainable, in terms of the cost and the return.”
However, Mr Davies suggested VW’s focus on improving the total cost of ownership was a vital step for the brand.
“Total cost of ownership is super important for our customers and it doesn’t matter whether you’re a retail customer or whether you’re a fleet customer. This is a high consideration for all ute considerers in our market,” he said.
The service costs for the first five maintenance visits are $329, $329, $414 (including brake fluid and air filter), $329 and $400, which adds up to an attractively low total of $1801 over the total period.
“That’s for intervals of 15,000 kilometres or 12 months – not six, 12 – very important. We will also have a five-year Care Package offering, and we will wrap that up with a nice little bow and offer it to our customers for $1800. That means they get this fixed pricing for a five-year period for this car.”
For context, the price of maintenance for a first-generation V6 Amarok under the Assured Price program was $4019 over five years.
“It is extremely attractive pricing, and when you consider we can also offer ServiceXpress for our valued customers (VW’s ‘60-minute service’ program that is offered at some participating dealerships), that means less time off the road and more time enjoying their car around our great country,” Mr Davies said.
By Matt Campbell
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