I check out the 2wd dual cab Amarok, for I am in the market to replace my VR Ute, the Amarok is nearly the same price as the Hilux, about $650.oo diff and so I took one for a spin for about 1hr ith a mate of mine...what suprised me was that it was easier to drive then the 4wd Hiluxs we have at work, and compared to the Colorado 2 wd Dual Cab Colorado I drive for, well its no contest...The 2wd Amarok blows it into the weeds.
It has better fuel economy, better power band starting at 1700rpm, feels more solid, better screwed together, better ride height at 265mm, more options it is just a better overall product.
Those were the good points.
Now for the deal breaker...which I am still shaking my head over...
The RRP is $33K + on roads etc, dealer wanted with Diff lock, on roads and such....$41,500....wanted to charge nearly $7000 for dealer delivery charges...$7000, talk about highway robbery!
Their excuse is that it costs that amount to bring them out to Australia...talk about thievery!
Spares and such, this will be a problem, if your stuck in say, in Alice, for the spares may have to come from the HQ in Sydney for the time being, plus dealers are far and few between North of Brisbane, but what is really bad, is that some of the dealers of VW are owned by the same company, so their is no competition between dealers..ie SE Qld.
So it will be difficult to get the best deal by playing one dealer off against another for the best price, which takes all the fun out of the chase.
This can not be said for Toyota, Holden, Nissan, Ford and such, there are heaps of dealers and they will bargin if pushed...
At preseent there is no real second hand market for the Amarok, which will take time to develop and time will tell if they hold their price.
Having said all that, I will wait for the single cab version to come out in early 2012, but in the mean time, if I can get a 2wd Amarok Dual Cab with rear diff lock and have a good change over deal for about $30k , I would plunk the hard earned down on one tommorrow.
