The ute market remains strong in the Australian market with Toyota, Ford and Holden often having their models in the top 10 of all vehicles sold. But today we have news that the Volkswagen Amarok V6 has the Australian market cornered globally outside of South America.
According to Volkswagen more than 83 per cent of the class-leading V6 or 9290 Amarok’s were sold during 2018, easily the greatest percentage of any market. Also 7739 entry level V6’s were sold.
Brazil, being a far bigger market, sold a similar number of Amarok V6s. A total of 7540 of the 17,741 Amarok’s sold in Brazil last year came from the V6 range.
Volkswagen Australia Director of Commercial Vehicles Ryan Davies said “All Amarok V6 variants, but especially the higher grades, have been embraced by owners who want uncompromised performance married to what critics have universally called the best-handling in the ute space,” Mr Davies said.
“Amarok was already a Volkswagen Australia brand pillar before the V6 cam online and changed the ute game up. With due respect to some excellent rivals from other brands, Amarok V6 is still the benchmark for drivers.”
Mr Davies said additional V6 variants – the Canyon and the limited Black Edition – were due in August and that while these too would be automatics “we have not forgotten the promised manual V6”.
“Australia is the only market calling out for this and we’re hopeful of bringing it home. That said the Amarok four-cylinder range remains crucial. Not everyone wants or needs to get to 100km/h in such a hurry. These remain a favourite of the off-road community. The 1551 four-cylinder Amaroks sold in 2018 place them among the more important variants in the entire Volkswagen Australia range.”
Just goes to show Aussies love a bit of grunt still when it comes to their utes. The Amarok offers 165kW and 190kW or even 200kW on overboost depending on what model you elect for.