At the same time, Di Si, who now heads Volkswagen America, said a restyling of the original Amarok would take place as part of a $250-million investment into the Pacheco plant that also produces the Toas for all of South America.
“The redesign has already been defined and I can tell you that it is very balanced: neither very aggressive nor not very aggressive,” Di Si told motor1.com Argentina at the time.
‘Ours is superior’
In a more strongly worded response to why the second generation Amarok won’t be sold in Argentina or indeed South America, Pecchia said, “The second generation of the Amarok arose from an alliance between the parent companies of Volkswagen and Ford. The agreement was to contribute to the development of electric cars and commercial vehicles.
“It was an alliance that was defined looking at the global market, where the percentage of participation of the medium pickup segment is not as relevant as here in Argentina.
“In our country, this segment has a 20% share in sales and even more in automotive production. We, having been the founders of this product, decided not to join this global alliance and kept our pick-up that we had been manufacturing since 2010”.
Facelift Amarok has been revealed in Argentina. Image: Volkswagen Argentina
He added, “We did not want to lose 14 years of work and development on this pick-up that became a benchmark in our market.
“The idea was to continue working on this vehicle, which had already earned its reputation in Argentina and throughout South America. That is why we decided to keep our own vehicle, where all the decisions are ours, without depending on an alliance”.
Asked whether he had driven the new Amarok, Pecchia said, “It does not have the level of ride comfort, dynamic behaviour or off-road performance of our Amarok. Our pick-up has a better suspension, which allows it to offer superior dynamic behaviour and greater comfort.
“Then there is our V6 engine, which is also superior in terms of performance. In addition, in this new Amarok. we are adding a lot of things that were missing. These are elements of technology, design and safety that deserved to be added to its offer”.
Like for like
Spanning seven models initially, six powered by the mentioned 3.0 TDI V6 that develops 190kW/580Nm, the former increasing to 200 kW for short spells, the restyled Amarok carries a directly converted price tag of between R748 933 to R1 303 093 in Argentina where only double cab are offered.
Excluding the single cab, South African market pricing for the Ranger-based Amarok ranges from R660 700 for the unbadged base model, to R1 228 100 for the top-spec Aventura powered by the same 184kW/600Nm 3.0-litre turbodiesel V6 as the Ranger Wildtrak.
NOW READ: New production facility beckons for next generation Volkswagen Amarok
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Publish date : 2024-08-08 01:44:00
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