VW Amarok ready to rock

The Volkswagen Amarok work ute seems poised to become as popular as the Golf GTI hot hatch once was.

A queue is already forming in Australia for Volkswagen's first ever utility vehicle – and global demand could see a six-month backlog of orders when the vehicle goes on sale this October.

When the Type 5 Golf GTI was released locally five years ago, customers had to wait up to six months to take delivery.

Against the advice of Volkswagen Australia, some VW dealers have unofficially been taking customer deposits before any details on the Amarok have been confirmed.

Volkswagen Australia is yet to receive confirmation from Germany on key information such as price, equipment and engine specifications.

Speaking at the launch of the new T5 Transporter range this week, the director of Volkswagen Australia's commercial division, Phil Clark, told the Carsales Network:

"We are not encouraging dealers to do this at all. We don't want dealers promising something that we don't know fully about yet. But we understand they want to collect solid leads for when the car finally arrives."

Hopefully, Clark said, Australia would be "near the top of the priority queue", given that we are the fourth biggest ute market in the world behind South America, South Africa and the rest of Asia.

In Australia, about 150,000 utes are sold annually -- representing about one in seven of all new vehicles.

"There is no doubt that getting the supply that we want will challenge us initially," Clark said. "We know already that global demand is strong and that could affect us."

Initially, the Amarok will only be available in Australia as a dual cab ute, likely powered by a 2.0-litre turbo diesel engine and six-speed manual transmission, although both are yet to be confirmed. An automatic (or DSG) gearbox is not due until 2012, a single cab ute is not due until 2011, and a petrol engine is yet to be disclosed.

The Amarok is set to be unveiled at the Sydney motor show in October, but this too is yet to be confirmed. "We won't know when the Amarok will launch until the first one goes down the production line in Argentina," Clark said.

Volkswagen Australia has big plans for the Amarok and expects it may overtake the Transporter as its biggest selling commercial vehicle locally "within three years".

"We're not going into this market just to sit on the outskirts with a high priced vehicle. We are going into the market to be competitive," Clark said, adding that a cab-chassis version was also on his wish list. "If you look at the local market, 90 per cent of the single cab [body-on-frame] ute market is cab-chassis."

It is likely that Volkswagen will have at least two versions of the Amarok when it goes on sale locally -- a low grade and a high grade -- but Clark expects both will come with a full complement of safety equipment such as front, side and curtain airbags, as well as stability control. "We will stick to our core values of safety," he said.

The Carsales Network understands that VW had an internal target to achieve a five star NCAP safety rating. If this becomes a reality, the Amarok would be the first body-on-frame ute in the world to be awarded a five-star crash safety rating.

At present, the top two NCAP-rated utes are the Toyota Hilux and Mitsubishi Triton, both of which earn four stars. The Triton was upgraded recently with the availability of stability control and curtain airbags.

In May this year, another top seller, the Nissan Navara, is also likely to gain side impact protection and stability control on some top models.

The Amarok is only the fourth model in the 60-year history of Volkswagen commercial vehicles after the Transporter, Crafter and Caddy vans.

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