The Volkswagen Amarok 3.0TDI V6 4Motion Canyon has been named bakkie {pick-up} of the Year by Leisure Wheels, a South African magazine.
The German pick-up, which is assembled and marketed in Nigeria by the Stallion Group, raced against nine other double-cab contenders for the crown, and scored 90.5 percent ahead of Ford’s Ranger Raptor (86.3 percent) and Toyota’s Hilux 2.8GD-6 Legend 50 (85.4 percent).
The competition focused on real-world issues such as fuel consumption, load carrying ability, towing, safety, handling, 4×4 ability, interior, long-term ownership and, counting 20 percent of the overall score, a subjective driving test score, as adjudged by five industry experts and professional drivers.
The Leisure Wheels team, supported by independent vehicle dynamics test experts, spent a week at the Gerotek Vehicle Test facility, putting the vehicle through a variety of dynamic tests, collecting comparable data. This data was incorporated in the different segments to ensure a more scientific approach to the results, instead of merely offering the opinion of a panel of judges.
To ensure an even more comprehensive approach, the pick-ups were subjected to a dynamometer test at Dastek Automotive Service City to determine actual horsepower at the wheels. This, combined with weighing each vehicle on Gerotek’s specialised scales, provided actual power-to-weight ratio results, which proved very interesting indeed.
Some of the results are bound to be controversial. For one, one of the pick-ups, a pre-event favourite, took some hard knocks in the long-term ownership segment, where its parts bin comparison result proved an eye-watering 322 percent more expensive than the most affordable competitor in this particular comparison, the Isuzu D-Max.
“Our aim with this test was to focus on real-world factors that affect real bakkie owners and to go the full nine yards establishing those results. For the fuel consumption test, conducted on Gerotek’s high-speed oval, we devised a set route that included stop-and-pull-off simulations, full-throttle overtaking simulations, as well as slow and high-speed laps. We also added 190kg to the bak, so the results are what consumers can realistically expect to achieve, on a daily basis,” explains Leisure Wheels’ Danie Botha.
The segments were created with real-world factors top of mind. Like the weight carrying ability segment, which comprised of several sub-segments. With a 500kg load on the bak, rear sagging was recorded. In-gear acceleration (80-120km/h) was measured, as was emergency braking (100-0km/h) – all with that half-a-ton load.