Below its Volkswagen badge, the new Amarok is principally a brand new Ford Ranger. The Amarok and Ranger are not-so-distant cousins due to a partnership between VW and Ford, which agreed to construct the midsize truck for the German automaker. This makes the dearth of a single cab, stick-shift Ranger within the U.S. all of the extra painful as a result of it seems that Ford is making a sensible, easy Ranger for markets overseas, in line with the Drive.
The Amarok’s declare to fame (no less than round these components) is its widespread rail diesel engine and first rate off-road efficiency. The Amarok is simply one of many neat midsize vans we don’t get within the U.S., the place pickups aspire to be luxurious autos.
Vans as soon as embodied the ethos of “it’s simply me and all my shit” greater than some other automobile sort. For misanthropes like me — preferring driving in solitude ensconced in a tiny cabin — small vans have been the bee’s knees. Put a canine in that bench seat and also you had a contented household. However that’s not the case anymore now that vans are profitable and fashionable autos that sellers make large earnings on.
The small single cabs that propelled Toyota to the fore and made the Tacoma and Hilux legendary began out as workaday machines. And older examples stay endearing on account of their easy building. The Ford Ranger and the Chevy S10 — and, later, the Colorado — have been a reply from the American OEMs to their Japanese rivals.
The Ford Ranger is now an even bigger, extra refined truck that’ll be offered within the U.S. as a double cab with an automated transmission. The baton of the truck as we knew it’s now carried by the only cab Rangers that Ford will construct on the Silverton Meeting Plant in South Africa, a lot of which shall be rebadged as Amaroks.
The one cab VW Amarok has 44 % extra cargo room in its mattress than the double cab, in line with Automobile Gross sales AU. The 2-door Amarok is on the market with a 2.0-liter inline-four turbodiesel making 147 horsepower and 258 lb-ft of torque. That engine is mated to a five-speed handbook transmission. One other drivetrain with elective AWD can also be obtainable, and it makes 168 hp and 299 lb-ft of torque regardless of nonetheless being a 2.0-liter inline-four turbodiesel. This one’s mated to a six-speed stick. The truck is presently offered in its native South Africa, however it’s unclear if it’ll be offered in South America. Ford has one other Ranger meeting plant in Argentina, which VW may leverage for better gross sales of its new single cab truck.
