RideLust

The VW Amarok Pickup. Photo: El Monty

I’m going to file this under “extremely doubtful”, but it’s my job to tell you about it anyway. If you live in South America, Australia or Europe, you already know that the Amarok is a mid-size pickup built by Volkswagen and available in a multitude of cab configurations and drivetrains. Buyers can opt for either gas or diesel motors, rear wheel drive or all wheel drive and single cab or double cab layouts. The Amarok is stylish, well built and from everything I’ve read, reasonably capable off road. So why don’t we get it on this side of the pond?

One reason: cost. In Germany, the base model with a 120 horsepower turbo-diesel four costs around $33,000. Load up an all wheel driver Amarok, and you could easily be looking at a sticker price of over $48,000. That makes the VW pickup a tough sell in a country where that kind of money buys you plenty of trucks that will haul more, tow more, get you to more places and probably last longer than the Amarok.

Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to see a viable turbo-diesel alternative in a mid-sized pickup truck, but VW needs to find a way to make the Amarok about 20% less expensive for the U.S. market. It’s not likely that VW can lower production costs significantly, since the Amarok is built in Argentina, which already has a very low production costs compared to other VW plants. On the other hand, VW may be able to reduce some costs (and enjoy a favorable currency exchange) if they build the Amarok in the U.S. Here’s hoping that’s the case.

Source: 4WheelsNews