Volkswagen Amarok test drive since 2010 pickup

A full -fledged offer. Volkswagen Amarok Test with "Automat"

Volkswagen Amarok is a bright representative of the new wave pickups. With a normal interior, passenger efforts on controls and a decent level of comfort. But Amarok is not perfect. Among its main shortcomings: a concerned all -wheel drive (a great opportunity to tickle the nerves in winter), weak craving on the bottoms, tight adhesion, unreliability of a mechanical gearbox in the early series. Do you feel that in common between all of the above?


That's right, all the troubles of Amarok from his transmission. The six -speed mechanics did not allow you to confidently move along the snowy routes, required certain skills in management, and also was not distinguished by the best health on the machines of the first years of production. The automatic Amarok devoid of these shortcomings has already been sold in Europe with might and main. Now the time has come for the Russian premiere.


The 8-speed zf unit with a double damper of steep fluctuations was designed specifically for the Amarok model

Updating Amarok's units is the very case when it is not professional boring to tell about the work of the box, but a fascinating necessity. So, customers of Volkswagen automatic pickups will receive cars with an eight -speed unit for the production of ZF. This node should not be confused with the Tuareg box with the same number of steps by Aisin. The first transmission of this transmission is ultra -short, and the eighth is already super -long and is designed to help Amarok to drive passenger hybrids into the paint when calculating eaten fuel.


Amarok with an automatic gearbox is available only in a version with a double cabin and with the most powerful diesel engine

Another box automatically entails a change of type of drive. No, Amarok did not become a front -wheel drive, but the principle of distribution of torque has changed. Now the Volkswagen pickup is equipped not to be connected, but by constant all -wheel drive. In the automatic version, Torsen C, the same as the Volkswagen Touareg or Audi Q7 SUVs, distributes the Torsen Torsen Cure. What should the owner of the version with an automaton in the end? I counted four main advantages: light touch, convenience of off -road in the absence of off -road driving skills, better economy and safer driving in winter.


Distribution of torque of differential Torsen C 40 to 60

There is another news is a modernized engine for cars of the 2013 model year. Engineers raised a two -liter four with a pair of superchargers of turbocharged and received a small but pleasant increase in power and burden: now the motor gives 180 power forces and 420 N ∙ m of torque at the previous indicators of 163/400. By the way, in mechanical machines, traction remained at the same level, this is due to the more modest capabilities of the manual box to digest torque.

The test drive took place in the vicinity of Sochi, so he allowed us to evaluate not only the abilities of the car on the highway and in the mountains, but also its behavior in the city crowding. After all, the coming Olympics turned the resort into a large -scale copy of Moscow: all the same construction sites and the same traffic jams. In the city of Amarok, it touches exclusively on the second gear, and this is not surprisingly the first here replaces the lowering. A large number of steps does not force the car to get confused in them, and switching occurs so imperceptibly that pushing in a traffic jam is many times more pleasant than on a mechanical version. Moreover, the car is completely completely absent from the diesel traction below, now this is not the care of a driver, but a gearbox.


A large number of steps requires the machine gun special smoothness and the speed of their sprout. The first order, with the second, is also almost everything, especially with the adjustment to the fact that this is a pickupu, not a sportkup

The increase in the eighth step is already turned on somewhere at a speed of about 80 km/h and allows you to move quite comfortably even in the suburbs with a torn series of accelerations and slowdown. Such an early transition to the upper gear in the name of savings. The fuel consumption of Amarok with an automaton is declared at the level of 7.6 liters of diesel fuel per 100 km. Although I have not seen anything like it on the screen of the on -board computer. But this is not because the Germans decided to impudently lie to us, just on the off -road consumption of fuel can be multiplied by two, and on the highway the driver pickup simply does not let the gas pedal let go!


The maximum speed of 177 km/h is reached in the seventh gear

Yes, Driver pickup! Between off -road mountain dopes, we moved along a slightly broken, but still incendiary Sochi serpentines. Amarok is just Lotus among pickups! To hell with elevator complexes and mud tires I want an underestimated pendant and sports tires! And ... steering wheel petals. Jokes jokes, and the behavior of Amarok on the asphalt is really impressive: you do not work behind the wheel of this truck, but you rest, and with pleasure. The three-spoke leather steering wheel with an almost passenger force clearly talks about what is happening under the wheels, and the 180-horsepower diesel pulls perfectly, you just have to step on the right pedal. At the wheel of the same Ford Ranger or Chevrolet Colorado, you can’t get such pleasure on the asphalt.


There is in this transmission and sports, which is turned on with a convenient unfixed click of the selector against the move. True, I didn't see a big sense in this control program

But still, the element of such a machine is located where sharp stones, mountain rivers and slopes are under the wheels. After all, all -wheel drive is everywhere and always. We stop in the middle of a protracted climb ... Now, and now we’ll check the pseudo pseudo-ponyyk! But it is not the fate in the windshield only the sky, but it still touches with the second. I was even inconvenient for the car for overcoming such a load in second gear. But Amaroka knows better. The first stage of the pickup is only when the loose soil, large stones or when the upward movement begins to resemble completely vertical under the wheels.

But during the congress from the mountain, there is no sense in the first gear: it will not work to use a reduced step instead of the system control system, as on the same Chevrolet Colorado. Well, Amarok does not need perfectly configured electronics, and the descent speed is smoothly set by gas and brake pedals. By the way, in the process of a test drive, not only me, but also my colleagues had the feeling that the transmission is adaptive: depending on the mode of movement in the previous section, the same Amarok lifts take either in the first or second gear. But, unfortunately, the official confirmation of the adaptive abilities of the transmission could not be found.


The new machine allowed Amarok to pull a heavier trailer: now it is 3200 kg instead of 2800. But Ranger or Colorado will still drag more: 3350 and 3500 kg, respectively

In any case, the machine for this machine is an unconditional blessing, unless you use Amarok in an off -road trophy, where a rigid blocking of the center and a full -fledged reducing range are of critical importance. By the way, an optional rear differential blocking is also available for the automatic version, which allows it to almost not lose points in the conditions of dirt in comparison with a mechanical modification (the option applies to it). Otherwise, Amarok remained the same capable of a rogue that exceeds the skills of the middle driver: the clearance is 230 mm, and the angles of the entry and congress of 28 degrees. Of the fresh competitors, Ford Ranger has exactly the same indicators. And only in the deep ford, Amarok will give in to the rainer: the depth of overcoming is 500 mm versus 800 for the Ford Truck.


There are other news related to Volkswagen Amarok. Firstly, in April, the production of this model started in German Hanover, which means that difficulties with the terms for the supply of vehicles to Russian customers will disappear. And secondly, the configuration in the framework of the general trend in Picapo Building has become even more friendly to ordinary drivers a little improved. So, in standard equipment, there was a backlight by means of anti -boiled headlights, and among the options, a package of light and a review (rain sensor, an autumn of the salon mirror, a darkness sensor and the function of turning the light when unlocking and locking the car), the front parking sensors and the rear view (will be available will be available. since spring). The rear side was modernized: the closing force decreased due to the installation of a more powerful spring, and a castle appeared in the locking mechanism, standard for almost all executions of the model.


With the acquisition in the Russian market of automatic transmission, Amarok is quite capable of surviving second youth and not to give in to the onslaught of more fresh competitors. After all, now it has become easier to control the pickup both on the asphalt and outside the roads (especially in winter). But mechanical versions should not be written off from accounts: they are cheaper and better suited for those who love dirt. Speaking of prices. The most affordable automatic Amarok costs from 1,343,300 rubles, which is 86,200 rubles more than the same machine with mechanics. And the most sophisticated Amarok Highline will cost 1,512,900 rubles. This is approximately at the level of the cost of comparable modifications of the fresh Ford Ranger. The appearance of automatic amarok in Russia means, first of all, two things: Amarok finally became a full -fledged offer in the market, and the market of civilian pickups itself is actively growing in breadth. We are waiting for Colorado and the new Mazda BT-50!

Dmitry Laskov
Photo by the author
 

Source: Auto.mail.ru