Welcome Andrew and Leigh,
Enjoy the good times and the forum. I'm a relatively newbie too.
Would be very interested in how the VW has performed - what model, off road, fuel economy, likes, dislikes etc. Is one of my short listed vehicles.
Cheers
Ian
Hi Ian
We tow the camper with an Amarok, do the shopping & running around with a late model Golf & and the kids have a Polo & a Jetta. So we are a VW family.
The Amarok I believe is the best towing vehicle I have ever used, I have previously had Landcruisers, Land Rover Discovery, Holden Rodeo. So far taking everything into consideration the VW wins. It would be a close second between the Landcruiser & the Land Rover. The Discovery was great but lacked the reliability & the Toyota was extreamly reliable but used too much fuel.
The VW handles like a small car is very comfy & great on fuel. The only dislikes so far are the mirrors that do not make reversing all that easy as you get a distorted sense of distance. The only other drama so far is the need to get what VW call a load box which is needed if you intend to tow anything with LED tail lights this is basically fitted between the existing trailer plug & the trailer (Cost about $180.00).
I cant give you any fuel consumption figures as I have been pleased enough to never bother checking but feel its pretty good even when towing. A lot cheaper than some of my past tugs. When we had the 20 ft van the lad Rover & the Toyota needed a Weight distribution hitch, was not needed on the Amarok.
As for off road I have yet to really try it, The manual model has all the good stuff, traction control transfer case, low & high range etc & the auto is also very capable off road. I think the only thing that would stop it would be ground clearance, the standard tire's are not all that good for off road. There is plenty off good stuff showing them playing off road on U Tube.
Hope this helps if you need to know more let me know
Andrew
