Volkswagen Amarok Aventura 2019 UK first drive

Potentially, this is the ultimate Volkswagen Amarok. Or at least we hope it will be, given this one within striking distance of £47,000 - excluding the VAT discount that attracts so many business users to pick-up trucks.

That’s not an overwhelming shock, but it’s a bit rich given VW’s Nissan Navara rival starts at £30k with a lightly detuned version of the same 3.0-litre V6 diesel engine. It’s also more expensive than a top-spec Mercedes X-Class with its diesel V6.

But let’s gloss over the price for a bit and look at what you get. The Aventura is Volkswagen’s riposte to the creeping gentrification of pick-ups that the X-Class rapidly accelerated. Exterior upgrades include 20-inch wheels, chromed side steps with LED floodlighting and a body-colour ‘sports bar’ sporting Aventura badging. There’s also some slightly tacky ‘4Motion’ graphics on the side of the load bed, which (thankfully) look like they can be removed without much effort.

Inside things are a bit less showy, with only a few trim upgrades. The main highlight is the softer Nappa leather seats, which are both 14-way adjustable and heated in the front.

With the venerable VW Group 3.0-litre V6 diesel turned up to 11 and putting out 254bhp (the middling 221bhp version has gone, but the base 201bhp tun remains) the Amarok Aventura is now officially the fastest-accelerating pick-up on sale in the UK, pipping the V6 X-Class by one-tenth of a second. Every little helps.

No amount of jazzy decals and posh badging is going to disguise the Volkswagen Amarok’s conception as a commercial vehicle. Let’s just get that on the record at the start.

These are vehicles built expressly for the purpose of carrying or towing heavy things, and everything else is secondary to that. You can throw as much equipment as you like at a pick-up, and generally speaking you’re still going to have something that’s inferior to a family SUV in terms of on-road capability, comfort and refinement.

With that bit of housekeeping out of the way, things are pretty positive Despite having been on sale since 2011, recent mid-life changes to the Amarok have re-established what was already a highly competitive truck.

The most welcome aspect of those updates was the adoption of the V6 diesel. It feels gutsy enough in base form, but with its full potential released in this spec it’s not just fast for an oil-burning pick-up, it’s fast full-stop.