Can we have these please?

Diseasal 4-door VW pickup.

http://www.autoblog.com/2009/12/01/officially-official-volkswagen-amarok-pickup-makes-the-scene/

we never seem to get the good stuff.. how come VWoA can't get their heads out of their asses?

YES! Hopefully diesel too.

I'm not a fan of VWs but that looks nice.

I recently looked at all brands of PUs looking for something smaller than a full sized but with a nice back seat so it could be used in place of a car. I ended up with a full sized Ford.

I'd have rather had something slightly smaller so it would have been easier to park.

To be successful here it would need to be well appointed and at a nice price point. At $40k like the Honda it'll never do much.

Knowing VW, it will be nicely appointed, with a sweet diesel option and cost somewhere upwards of $60k... and you will be on a first name basis with the service rep at you local dealership. At least twice in the first 6mos you will need to call another friend with a pick-up to come and retrieve your payload from the side of the highway after the tow truck leaves.

carguy123 wrote: ...I ended up with a full sized Ford. I'd have rather had something slightly smaller so it would have been easier to park.

Why not a Ranger?

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: Knowing VW, it will be nicely appointed, with a sweet diesel option and cost somewhere upwards of $60k... and you will be on a first name basis with the service rep at you local dealership. At least twice in the first 6mos you will need to call another friend with a pick-up to come and retrieve your payload from the side of the highway after the tow truck leaves.

what he said

Rumours abound that the 4.5L duramax may be being put on the assembly line for the 1/2 ton... I won't hold my breathe though 300hp and 450ftpnds of torque with better gas mileage than a 5.3L? Sign me up!

I keep hearing similar rumors that ford is going to put a V6 diesel in the F-150, but nothing solid or from trusted sources.

Ford had announced they were putting a 4.4L V8 diesel into the F150s, scheduled for mid 2010, but cancelled it before getting too far along. The price increase of the 4.4L would have been too much to make it feasible. Using the Ecoboost V6 will allow 5.4L V8 levels of torque (not even close to the diesel though) and better mileage than the gasoline V8.

The 4.4L V8 is an updated 3.6L Range Rover "Lion" engine and in the RR will have 308hp and 516 lb-ft of torque.

GM was looking at putting the 4.5L into the 1/2 tons, but that got cancelled before they went into bankrupcy. I don't think it's been restarted. I'll see if I can get any more info next time I hang out with my ex-coworkers.

RR Diesel News Source

Bob

Using the Ecoboost V6 will allow 5.4L V8 levels of torque (not even close to the diesel though)

400 lb ft is good enough, really.

mad_machine wrote: we never seem to get the good stuff.. how come VWoA can't get their heads out of their asses?

Chicken Tax Probably

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_tax

Wonder what the towing load would be

all midrange diesel engine programs from the big three were cancelled. There is a vacant plant built in Columbus indiana ready to go with a v6 an v8 light duty cummins for the Ram 1500. Machines are in, lines are set... No customer.

We coulda had these:

but AIMI (Isuzu's North American importer) was 51% owned by GM and they killed it, along with the 'real' Trooper replacement (called the Sportivo overseas, available with diesel and gas engines) which over here wound up being that damn rebadged Trailblazer called the Ascender.

You gotta admit, if you have to drive an SUV this ain't bad.

jstein77 wrote:

carguy123 wrote: ...I ended up with a full sized Ford. I'd have rather had something slightly smaller so it would have been easier to park.

Why not a Ranger?

The Ranger has a truck back seat, not a car back seat. I had an Explorer Sport Trac and wanted another, just with a bigger engine, but even the base model Sport Trac was almost $7,000 more than the F150.

I also wanted the Honda but it was $19k more than a Ford that had more equipment. That's insane!!

Anybody else pick up on Autoblog's Clarkson-ism - A smaller diesel motor with 122 hp and 250 torques will be an option. I hope they were just trying to be funny .

On topic, I'm not sure how well it will sell over here in Australia. It'll be competing with a myriad of similar choices from Holden, Ford, Nissan, Toyota, Mitsubishi....all very likely to be cheaper.

Looks cool, but all the reliability of a VW + even more parts (assuming it's a 4x4) = even more time with your vehicle at the dealer getting fixed than with a Jetta.

What about

GTwannaB wrote:

mad_machine wrote: we never seem to get the good stuff.. how come VWoA can't get their heads out of their asses?

Chicken Tax Probably http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_tax

I thought the chicken tax only applied to 2 door trucks? That is why you do not see 2 door foreign SUVs anymore.

and I am not only talking about that car with VWoA. I am talking cars lik the new scirocco that they do not want to bring over because it might steal sales from the GTI

mad_machine wrote: . I am talking cars lik the new scirocco that they do not want to bring over because it might steal sales from the GTI

I've never really understood this argument anyhow. If the Scirocco steals sales from the GTI, VW is still selling the same number of cars overall. So charge a bit more for the Scirocco so it has a higher sales margin = win.

But the Scirocco would also steal sales from the Civic Si, WRX, Genesis Coupe, 370z, and others - so it would be a net overall sales increase for VW.

Meanwhile, if you don't bring it over, alot of people who might buy it (but don't want a GTI), will indeed be buing that Genesis Coupe or 370z or some other brand - meaning net loss of VW.