VW Amarok: Auto makes a beaut ute

Volkswagen's Amarok Canyon. Photo / Supplied

Volkswagen New Zealand's successful ute, the Amarok, finally gains an automatic transmission - giving more power, lower fuel consumption and greater towing capacity.

To go on sale in New Zealand this year, the Amarok will beat its main competitors, the Ford Ranger and the Mazda BT50, when it comes to class-leading six-speed auto transmission.

The Argentinian-built utility has a ZF-supplied eight-speed auto gearbox with Sport and manual modes, making it the first vehicle of its type to have such a high number of gear ratios.

The manual's torque output of 400Nm from 1500-2000rpm stays the same, but the automatic version will deliver 420Nm at 1750rpm.

It has a braked towing capacity of 3200kg (up from 2800kg in the TDI manual), will hit 179km/h in seventh gear and achieve combined fuel consumption of 7.6 litres per 100 kilometres and CO2 emissions of 199g a kilometre against the TDI400 4x4 manual's 7.9L/100km and 209g/km - in its most frugal state of tune.

The improved efficiency is a result of idle-stop technology included in the Bluemotion Technologies package, which also includes regenerative braking and low rolling-resistance tyres.

Also helping economy is the greater spread of transmission ratios between first and top gear.

Top is geared as an overdrive with reduced engine speed for less noise intrusion into the cabin as well as greater efficiency.

Website goauto was impressed with the drive of the automatic VW ute, launched in Spain this week.

On the road, the Amarok TDI420 automatic in up-spec Ultimate Dual Cab guise was "nothing short of an eye-opener for this sort of vehicle, offering smooth and intuitive gear changes pretty much across the whole driving spectrum", said the website.

Over some of south-eastern Spain's hillier terrain the new 132kW/420Nm 2.0-litre bi-turbo four-cylinder unit did keep itself busy switching from gear to gear, but the response times made the automatic Amarok more pleasurable to drive than the already civilised manual version.

On twisty mountain roads, the website said, "this feels more like a well-sorted SUV than a separate chassis pick-up truck".