Reaction to the new Amarok has been mixed following the announcing of it using the Ranger's platform and mechanicals. Picture: Volkswagen
Volkswagen’s Product and Sales Manager for Argentina has branded the second generation Amarok as lacking the comfort and power of the original produced at the General Pacheco plant for the local and Latin American markets.
Based on the T6.2 generation Ford Ranger, the Amarok originates solely from the Blue Oval’s Silverton Plant outside Pretoria, and forms part of a partnership signed in 2020 between Wolfsburg and Dearborn for a line-up of commercial vehicles and EVs.
So far, the venture has resulted in the Amarok riding on the same platform as the Ranger, the Explorer EV utilising the MEB platform from the Volkswagen ID.4, the Transit and Tourneo Connect spun-off of the Caddy and earlier this month, the reimagined Capri also based on the MEB architecture.
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In addition, the all-new Transporter and Caravelle will use the platform and mechanicals from the Transit Custom and Tourneo Custom when it debuts within the coming months.
An agreement not without criticism, in particular, directed at the Amarok following up to and after its global reveal in Cape Town two years ago, Francesco Pecchia has voiced a similar response in relation to Volkswagen Argentina’s decision to extend the lifecycle of the original 14-year old Amarok rather than importing the second generation.
In an extensive interview with motor1.com Argentina after the facelift model’s reveal on Wednesday evening (7 August), Pecchia said Argentina had been in the running to produce the second generation, but opted to end talks following Ford Argentina’s backtracking of the venture under the Project Cyclone programme.
As such, production approval went to Silverton former Volkswagen President for Latin America, Pablo Di Si, confirmed weeks after the Amarok’s reveal would be assembled in South Africa and nowhere else.
Prior to this, production of the Amarok – Volkswagen’s first independent bakkie since the ill-fated European-only Toyota Hilux-based Taro ended production after eight years in 1997 – had been happening in Argentina, Ecuador and the commercial vehicle focused plant in Hannover, Germany.
At the same time, Di Si, who now heads Volkswagen America, said a restyling of the original Amarok would take place as part of a $250-million investment into the Pacheco plant that also produces the Toas for all of South America.
“The redesign has already been defined and I can tell you that it is very balanced: neither very aggressive nor not very aggressive,” Di Si told motor1.com Argentina at the time.
In a more strongly worded response to why the second generation Amarok won’t be sold in Argentina, Pecchia said, “The second generation of the Amarok arose from an alliance between the parent companies of Volkswagen and Ford. The agreement was to contribute to the development of electric cars and commercial vehicles.
“It was an alliance that was defined looking at the global market, where the percentage of participation of the medium pickup segment is not as relevant as here in Argentina.
“In our country, this segment has a 20% share in sales and even more in automotive production. We, having been the founders of this product, decided not to join this global alliance and kept our pick-up that we had been manufacturing since 2010”.
He added, “We did not want to lose 14 years of work and development on this pick-up that has become a benchmark in our market.
“The idea was to continue working on this vehicle, which had already earned its reputation in Argentina and throughout South America. That is why we decided to keep our own vehicle, where all the decisions are ours, without depending on an alliance”.
Asked whether he had driven the new Amarok, Pecchia said, “It does not have the level of ride comfort, dynamic behaviour or off-road performance of our Amarok. Our pick-up has a better suspension, which allows it to offer superior dynamic behaviour and greater comfort.
“Then there is our V6 engine, which is also superior in terms of performance. In addition, in this new Amarok. we are adding a lot of things that were missing. These are elements of technology, design and safety that deserved to be added to its offer”.
Spanning seven models initially, six powered by the mentioned 3.0 TDI V6 that develops 190kW/580Nm, the former increasing to 200 kW for short spells, the restyled Amarok carries a directly converted price tag of between R748 933 to R1 303 093 in Argentina where only double cabs are offered.
Excluding the single cab, South African market pricing for the Ranger-based Amarok ranges from R660 700 for the unbadged base model, to R1 228 100 for the top-spec Aventura powered by the same 184kW/600Nm 3.0-litre turbodiesel V6 as the Ranger Wildtrak.
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