Volkswagen Amarok test drive since 2010 pickup

Test drive Volkswagen Amarok vs Toyota Hilux vs Mazda BT-50: Sandual Career Generals

Choosing a pickuper is more difficult than a sedan or crossover. Firstly, not every manufacturer has such cars. Secondly, not all hard workers are the same: some manufacturers make a bet on the price, others for equipment, and others for design. Kolesa.ru will help you figure out the specifics of choosing a pickupa using two new products: VW Amarok and Toyota Hilux, which will be a long-known Mazda BT-50.

The previous generation of Mazda pickup (known as B2500) set certain standards for cars of its class. Far from comfortable, with the appearance of a hard worker and a fantastic zeal to the matter; Reliable, uncontrollable by off -road and roomy in the back, it should be like that. And five to seven years (until 2005), few people encroached on such an idea.

The fact that the pickup is exclusively a workhorse in Russia was the first to refute Nissan marketers, who handed us a luxurious (against the background of ascetic Ford Ranger and Mitsubishi L200) Navaru. Automatic gearbox, equipping a business class, elements of beauty and grace that outside it turned out, that pickups are such

And now the line of not only professional machines with a separate body is very wide: from cheap Chinese trucks to fast, perfectly equipped and incredibly convenient.

So, Volkswagen Amarok First Volkswagen pickup in the recent history of the brand. And it was worth waiting: one of the most interesting pickups in terms of external and internal design, as well as controllability and equipment.

The minimum version is rear -wheel drive. Two options for turbodiesels: both 2.0-liter, 122- and 163-horsepower. The VW also promises to include automatic transmission in the list of options, but in reality cars with machine guns will appear no earlier than 2012 (then the appearance of 2.0-liter engines is also expected on the market). Two suspension options are offered to choose from a choice of more comfortable surcharge.
The base price of Volkswagen Amarok is 987 100 rubles.
With all -wheel drive 1 059 300 rubles.

Toyota appeared at the dealers at the end of last year, having a glorious story of several generations behind him. Hilux gained particular popularity thanks to the television screens and computers monitors to the plot of the British Top Gear. In it, Jeremy Clarkson's comrades tried to annihile the Toyota pickup, but even after falling from the skyscraper, the Japanese motor continued to work

The pickup is offered from two turbodiesel variant (2.5 144 hp and 3.0 170 hp), less powerful with mechanics, more powerful with automatic. Full -wheel drive is available in the basic configuration.
The base price of Toyota Hilux is 985,000 rubles.

When choosing Mazda, fundamental solutions need to be taken a little: the marketers of the Japanese company have already done this for you: BT-50 is only available with all-wheel drive, only with a mechanical checkpoint, only with one engine (turbodiesel, 2.5.l 145 hp), independent front suspension and springs from behind. From the lack of an alternative or not, but the basic value of the BT-50 is outside the reach of Amarok and Hilux. True, the minimum equipped version does not have air conditioning, an electric packet, central castle, radio, and heating the front seats. Most of all these options are in versions for 899,000 rubles, and air conditioning is even more expensive for 947,000.
The base price of Mazda BT -50 is 815,000 rubles.

We begin to get acquainted with combat baptism, since it is not necessary to go far over the off -road; All the suburbs are continuous, well, now it's not about that. The passage threshold was determined unexpectedly quickly.

Amarok was not lucky, and this is not the first time in our memory - he was the first to ride. The melted snow and ice crust under it did the job against Volkswagen nature put up a small slide, which we successfully stormed many times, on much less formidable cars. Right at her foot, Amarok began to slowly fall and 15 seconds tightly tied, sitting on both bridges.

But is this a problem? After all, we have two more cars with us that will pull anyone!

The joy was premature. No, there were no problems with the traction, the lousy cable torn in two places failed. Despite the luxurious view of the colors of the Russian tricolor, the dedicated words Made in China and the no less causing inscription of 5 tons, it turned out to be a perfect junk. It was equipped with Mazda BT-50. Other cars were not completed with cables at all.

And here (I understand that miracles are only in fairy tales, but here I will not sin against the truth). And here, faster than frozen hands, could dial the phone number of the evacuation service, a small tractor drove up to us. Together with a 16-horsepower engine and a metal cable, the problem was solved in a minute. We are going on.

But first, we will remove the shortcut from the VW not too passable. Yes, he was stuck on the slope, but his two competitors would not have coped with such a surface. Given the depth of snow and the civil status of tires, as soon as the cars climbed the slope, we began to fail, slip, and we, in order not to operate the far from a free tractor, simply reversed before the car was completely landed.

In general, Volkswagen was pleased even before the start: Amarok has a very stylish and comfortable salon. Large keys, a minor steering wheel with departure and height adjustments, the driver's seat is also adjusted up and down (though you need to get up), there is a two-zone climate control, quite high-quality audio system, stabilization system, heating seats, cruise control, system Continue the rear passengers?

Of particular joy is the absence of a leverage box; All switching are carried out by buttons up and down, from the rear -wheel drive of the high row, to all -wheel drive with a lowering gear and the ability to block the central and rear differentials.

No less richly equipped Toyota, especially pleases with a leather chair, not inferior in convenience of a similar office piece of furniture. True, it cannot be configured in height, as well as the steering wheel in depth of departure. The functional keys are less here than in the German, the information is read worse.

But in Khaylyuks, despite the machine, there is a lever of the hand -box. Everything is like in a real off -road pickup.

Mazda is cast from another dough, and its silver radio looks like a foreign body in a poor cabin. Here is the real interior of a pickupa for unpretentious and ordinary guys from Aiova or Aidaho. Music, air conditioning and electric windows, that's almost everything that sticks out of the hard salon plastic of the front panel of the BTC. The steering wheel is regulated only in height, and the convenient (and it seems orthopedically harmless) the chair cannot be configured vertically.

In motion, the most quiet engine is the Amarok engine. True, due to the Toyota acceleration machine, it is more convenient to control, and there is no need to twist the gears to medium. And the salon from extraneous noise seemed to be isolated in the Japanese. Mazda is thinner, although the sound of the engine does not annoy. And by the way, the programs in the BT-50 are more clearly than in Amarok, and the clutch pedal is more informative.

In terms of handling, despite similar pendants, Amarok is knocked out into the leaders. According to the behavior on the road, this is almost a passenger car. Hilux is more willing to rearrange and roll, and Mazda is something between Toyota and Volkswagen: not without rolls, but also you can sometimes control it allowing yourself a slight likeness of slalom.

The energy intensity of the pendants of all cars can be glad: at least if there was no sound that resembled a blow to the broken roads of the Krasnogvardeisky district, then you can be calm for the comfort of the driver and passenger. If you still call the most comfortable car with better smoothness, it will be Hilux.

As for the comfort of the rear passengers, it is better for them to choose another transport. No way? Then it is better in Amarok. Toyota is a little more high, practically, like in Mazda.

Yes, the current trend is that producers even pickups try to equip other classes to the envy of competitors and owners of cars. However, the issue of price here is no less important, so Mazda BT-50 can be considered the best pickup for work. On a construction site or in a quarry, the sound quality and the method of turning on all -wheel drive is important carrying capacity and price. In these parameters, BT is out of competition.

For the city is better than Amarok. He is the best of the three by the criterion in the parking lot at the restaurant, is perfectly controlled in the urban rhythm and is equipped with appropriate way.

As for Hilux, despite his mention, last, it was Toyota that seemed the best pickup for summer cottage-and-haired movement. And the main reason is the highest road clearance. They said their word and a comfortable suspension with a smooth move, and the machine, which is useful, standing in traffic jams for entry or exit from the city.


Author: Philip Berezin
Photo: Roman Ostanin
 

Source: Wheel magazine [April 2011]