So the car is off my sons list and he is now focusing on an Amerok !

Has anyone got any guidance on the VW Amerok please ?

phew well played, wipes brow, guiding sons where cars are concerned is a full time job :-)

I know nothing about Amaroks save the 2.0 litre Diesel is possibly one that suffered balance shaft issues in other models, but that's only from my memory and might be completely wrong.

I'm a fan of picks ups, not least for the reasonable commercial VED rates and dual cabs with 4x4 qualify as dual purpose vehicles so benefit from car speed limits (not sure if Amarok is light enough so please check), only slight fly in the ointment is insurance companies don't usually allow driving other's cars on third party cover should that be an issue.

Look out for chassis rust on 4x4's as ladder chassis generally arn't well painted, might be interesting to see if VW took more care over that aspect, most of them look to be in decent nick generally and surprisingly rapid considering the smallish engine.

One pick up off my list is the 3.2 5 pot Ford Ranger, apparently at oil change time you have to work quickly because if the sump is drained for more than (i think) 15 minutes the variable speed (eh?) oil pump can't self prime, saw this on the Aussie bloke's youtube channel, never heard anything so ridiculous on a commercial vehicle which are supposed by design to be rough tough and durable, not as fragile as a formula race car.

The thing to remember with picks ups is that usually they are selectable 4WD, being RWD for normal road use, and lighter at the back end, this means the vehicle can be tail happy and tyre choice is doubly important, the Hilux we had sported a limited slip rear diff now you might think this would aid wet handling but the opposiite was the case, the limited slip wasn't far off a locked diff in friction required to 'slip' so with the live rear axle where a normal diff would allow one wheel to spin with the other keeping the vehicle on course, with that Hilux a tail slide was increadibly easy to provoke as both wheels would spin, this proved to be the case especially on the OE Pirelli tyres which i removed at 1000 miles and sold on, the replacement General UHP (now superceeded) proved brilliant for wet grip and Vredestein Wintracs on seperate wheels proved unshakeable on winter roads.

Not trying to put you off pick ups, just they are different beasts to simialr sized 4WD like RR and Landcruisers which are normally full time 4WD and usually more balanced weight front to rear.

One other thing, try and find a vehicle with heated mirrors, you depend on the mirrors with a pick up and nothing worse than in winter with condensation on them suddenly blinding your rear vision early morning.

Edited by gordonbennet on 07/05/2020 at 08:44