Volkswagen Amarok Problems

Wear is only one aspect of braking a carmaker has to consider, there is also the performance and things such as the effect of the pad material used on the environment. You tell us that the non-genuine pads wear better than the factory ones, but you make no mention of the braking performance or the environmental suitability of the material. I agree that the brake pad life today is poor and it would be great of carmakers would do something about improving it.

It's disappointing that you have had so many problems, but at least it appears that VW has fixed them when they have occurred. As for the brake rotors, it seems that Europeans makes are more prone to brake wear than cars from some other parts of the world, and 60,000 from a set of rotors is not bad.

I'm not surprised that VW refused your request to meet and go for a ride in your car, but it's important to keep the company under pressure in an effort to keep them honest. It's now a stand-off. I would engage an automotive engineer to assess the lights to give you an expert opinion on their performance. Once you have that approach VW again. You could also try enlisting other Amarok owners in your cause.

I doubt very much that you would get the 90,000 km you claim you would out of a set of pads, and 50,000 km or so out of a set of rotors is not that shabby in today's world where rotors wear at a much faster rate than they once did. I really don't think you've got much of a complaint.

The best course of action is to try and create a groundswell of feedback to VW as you are doing. That way the message might get through.

The Ranger gets The Tick and is a clear winner from the Amarok. The all-new Navara is not even close. But we're expecting a new Mitsubishi Triton and Toyota HiLux in the first half of 2015, so check back nearer then.

Heavy brake wear is something owners of European cars regularly complain about, and yours seems to fit within the bounds of what we would expect to see. I doubt very much that you would get 90,000km out of a set of brake pads and wouldn't be fitting two sets of rotors to every set of pads.

The headlights of the early Amarok are clearly not up to the task, perhaps VW needs to have the engineers take a look at what is needed here in Australia and not rely on what is good enough for other more densely populated countries. You've also highlighted what we think is a problem for VW, and that is the quality of its dealer network. Think about contacting VW directly, they seem to have found their ears under the new management and appear to be listening to their customers.

It's too early for a reliability read on classy utes such as the Ford Ranger/Mazda BT50 and VW Amarok, which with their lusty turbo diesels are great for heavy work.

We put Ian's questions to VW and they responded by saying they would contact him and get his car in to check the headlight alignment, but to date nothing has happened. Given VW's apparent remorse over its handling of the complaints from customers about its products I would suggest Ian contact the company with his issues again, even contact John White, the company's Managing Director, who says in a recent newspaper advertisement that VW is there to help answer any questions a customer, or potential customer might have. Put him to the test.