It’s official. VW’s facelifted Amarok – set to arrive here before the end of the year - will be powered by an all-new (to us anyway) 2967cc turbo-diesel V6 engine.

With an expected 165kWs of peak power and 550Nm of peak torque the V6 easily tops Ford’s current ‘King of the (ute) Hill’ the Ranger’s in-line five-cylinder turbo diesel (147kW/470Nm) and should go some way to silence local critics who reckoned the existing 2 litre four-cylinder powerplant was ‘too small.’

To read the full story in the July 2016 issue of NZ4WD go to Zinio.com (June 20) or purchase your own hard copy at the Adrenalin store.