Now those of you that know me, realise my daily driver an Amarok V6 makes me extremely biased for this task! I’ll do my best to be objective!
The inside is certainly a comfortable environment as far as a bakkie is concerned, dashboard does have a fairly luxurious feel to it! If it was not for that double sided stuck on ipad, I would have been very happy!
The seats are comfortable by bakkie standards, but certainly not as plush as I would expect from Merc, it reminds me of the B-class, certainly not E or S-class!
The back is typically double cab cramped, but adequate for small kids on long journeys!
My biggest bug bear is getting in and out and maybe because of my own awkward build, but it is on par with the SLS
The outside is uninspired but functional, to my bias it seems as if the clay prototype was left in the sun for too long and the Merc identity sagged a bit.
As for the drive, it is bakkie, with rear coil springs and disc brakes, nothing more, nothing less! I did note that the stance of the nose is inspiring, but the rear appears to sag in comparison, my own experience dictates that it is more difficult to fine tune coils compared to blades. I do think this is an area where aftermarket can play a role.
Getting back to the ipad stuck on dash, its a radio, I expected it to do rocket science to the internals or even do something mundane as navigating or even answer the phone, maybe the demo were not equipped with these extras!
Comparing the auto gearbox of the Amarok would be unfair, it is on par with the d4d Fortuner and yes there are button activated lowrange, sadly no opportunity to test this!
In conclusion; a very nice double cab bakkie with not one single thing that sets it apart from the rest other than its price tag and for now novelty, hopefully the 6 pot will add some flare to this!
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