We really are a truck nation, aren’t we?
Volkswagen has been known as a maker of several types of vehicles, but not typically for its pick-up trucks. That changed a bit in 2009 when the German automaker introduced the Amarok in South America, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Russia and Europe. Basically anywhere but the U.S.
Why leave out the largest pick-up truck market in the world? Well, because all of the U.S.’s demand foments quite a lot of competition. Volkswagen would be competing with Chevrolet, Ford and all the other automakers Jason Aldean sings about. To borrow a line from a Pirates of the Caribbean, “It’s a fool’s errand, Jack.”
This might be changing this week, however, as VW North America CEO Michael Horn got cozy with Autoblog and whispered those sweet, sweet nothings that always sound a bit ridiculous when you look at them on paper: “It’s a question mark, but it starts to be discussed. Let’s put it this way: we start to discuss it again and whether it’s attractive for us.”
Pressed to be a bit more—we don’t know, DIRECT—Horn said, “The Amarok is too small for the U.S.”
As we keep trying to tell Michael, we know that we Americans have a reputation for being all about size, but really, we truly don’t care if the Amarok is a little smaller than most trucks. It’s a great looking truck! A little like the Honda Ridgeline, maybe, but look at the versions VW Russia made for the trek across Siberia a to honor the Olympic games in Sochi. Those looked pretty big to us:
In any case, part of the problem that Horn might not have wanted to talk about was that of the five engines that have been offered on the Amarok, four of them have been diesel, and let’s face it: Americans have not historically been huge fans of diesel.
With the smashing success of RAM’s 1500 EcoDiesel this year, however, which has been selling in record speeds, this might be the time for a diesel VW truck. Pump it up in size if you must, but do you remember the Chevrolet S10? Not a big hauler, that.
What’s your opinion on the sizes of trucks? Is there one that hit the platonic medium in size? Let us know at comments@leithmail.com.