Volkswagen Amarok vs Ford F150

What's the difference?

The Amarok W600 is impressive when you get it onto a twisty road, and my hat goes off to Walkinshaw for turning a dual-cab into something that is genuinely fun to drive on twisty roads. I’m not kidding, the W600 is proper fun.

But it’s expensive, and despite the tough looks and on-road ability, it doesn’t have any more on-paper performance than its standard siblings. That and its ride is compromised by its new abilities.

Those who spend the cash on a W600 probably won’t be disappointed if they can handle a slightly stiff ride, but it’s possible VW is expecting people will be more into the idea of a corner-carving dual-cab than is the reality.

Note: CarsGuide attended this event as a guest of the manufacturer, with travel, accommodation and meals provided.

The Ford F-150 Platinum SWB is good but not great.

It has plenty of standard features onboard and some handy touches, it’s nice to drive on-road, and is adequately capable off-road but it lacks the overall plushness its price-tag promises.

The F-150’s smaller sibling, the Ranger Super Duty, does all of this F Truck’s jobs better, has more general appeal and all-round driveability, and it costs much less than the F-150.

Yet I can still see the appeal of the Ford F-150 Platinum SWB. As a potential purchase, it might make a lot more sense to you than me.

The Amarok W600 looks tough. In fact, it might even look a little too tough given the engine under its bonnet is unchanged from the regular V6 Amarok.

Walkinshaw has done an excellent job making the Amarok look like a properly fierce on-road performer, from the bespoke front bumper and new ‘W’ motif in the grille, to the lightbar across the front of the fascia connecting the lights and the aforementioned 20-inch Walkinshaw wheels.

The side-exit twin exhaust up the back of the ute looks excellent, and the fact that the sidesteps retract to tuck in below the doors gives the ute a sleeker vibe.

It’s a bit underwhelming in the cabin by comparison, with the Walkinshaw stitching in the headrests and the stainless steel pedals the biggest additions to the (admittedly already plush) Amarok interior.

It’s just a little more than a jazzed-up Ranger interior, but not by much.

The Ford F-150 Platinum SWB is 5908mm long (with a 3697mm wheelbase), 2089mm wide (excluding mirrors) and 1995mm high. It has a listed kerb weight of 2611kg.

It’s a chunky but stretched US-style ute with ample presence, but manages to look like it’s not trying too hard.

It doesn’t hurt this ute’s cause that its appearance now encompasses model year 2024 updates from the US, which include a facelifted exterior with a new front bumper, grille and headlights, as well as a new rear bumper, tail-lights, and gloss-black alloy wheels.

The wheel-and-tyre package (20-inch alloys and 275/60R20 Hankook Dynapro AT2 all-terrains) suit its style, but aren’t particularly great for off-roading – more about that later.

Inside, it’s a cool and practical space with leather-accented seats – those are underdone in terms of feeling posh – and there’s an overall roominess that’s difficult not to like.

In terms of design, this F-150 holds its own, inside and out, against the likes of the Ram, Silverado, and Tundra.

The Amarok starts from a solid base in terms of practicality, so the W600 inherits pretty much all of it, including a couple of its downsides.

The positives to start, the W600 uses the same handy multimedia system on a nice, clear vertical touchscreen with always-on climate controls and a few buttons for key shortcuts.

As much as a bespoke steering wheel would feel more special, the standard one from the Amarok has convenient buttons and is nice to hold.

The seats in the W600 are comfortable, and finding a naturally ergonomic position is easy with the 10-way electric adjustment, but as much as everything falls nicely to hand the cupholders are in an awkward position and there’s not a lot of easy storage space.

A little cubby above the glovebox and a small centre storage bin are a little hard to reach or access while driving, and the phone charger isn’t the best place to store items.

There’s decent space in the back, with doorcard bottle storage (as up front) and a centre armrest with cupholders.

Impressively, the Amarok W600 still has a 3500kg braked towing capacity, a 954kg payload, and no intrusion on the 1544mm long and 1224mm wide tray. There’s an optional roller cover for that, too.

All in all, the Ford F-150 Platinum’s cabin is a highly practical space.

The 12-way power-adjustable, heated and ventilated front seats (with a handy massage function and memory) recline to a fully flat position and the fold-down centre console work table is a nice touch as is the auto shifter, which stows away flush at the push of a nearby button.

Even though I prefer a vertically oriented screen nowadays, the F-150’s horizontal 12.0-inch LCD touchscreen is easy to use and offers clear, crisp colours so my old codger eyes can cope with the vast array of information and controls depicted onscreen.

The rest of the cabin is as roomy and as practical as can be expected in a dual-cab ute of this size. There are storage spaces and cupholders aplenty, as well as smart device charging points front and rear.

The 60/40 split rear seat even has a shallow lockable under-seat storage.

This F-150’s tub is 1700mm long, 1650mm wide, 543mm deep and measures 1285mm between the wheel arches so it will fit an Aussie pallet or a truckload of your camping equipment.

The tub has a tri-fold hard tonneau cover and the load space has a 12-volt outlet, load box lights, a durable-looking spray-in tub liner, as well as fixed tie-down points at each corner and four sidewall-mounted tie-down points as part of Ford’s BoxLink tie-down system.

The powered tailgate can be opened the usual boring drop-down way or you can use the 'Pro Access Swing Door' of the tailgate to open a side-hinged section as you would a door.

Bonus points for the raised ruler markings on the tailgate’s inner wall and the two G-clamp fitting positions at each side of the tailgate’s top edge.

The F-150 has a keyless entry system with a keypad on the exterior of the front passenger door. Punch in your permanent access code and – bingo – you’re in.

As practical as any of its rivals, the F-150 stays in the race here.

The new Ford F-150 Platinum SWB and long-wheelbase (LWB) body styles are priced from $163,950 (excluding on-road costs), making this top-spec F truck the most expensive yet.

In fact, it comes in at pricier than rivals Ram 1500 and Chevrolet Silverado, but not as much of a hit to the bank account as the Toyota Tundra is.

Also, the “new” F-150s now on offer in Australia are actually the model year 2024 versions of this vehicle.

Standard features onboard the Platinum include a 12.0-inch LCD portrait touchscreen, 12.0-inch digital instrument cluster, a 14-speaker Bang & Olufsen audio system, folding gear shifter, fold-out centre console, leather upholstery, 12-way power-adjustable heated and ventilated front seats (with memory and massage functions), and heated outboard rear seats.

It also gets power side steps, 20-inch alloy wheels, LED headlights and tail-lights, panoramic glass sunroof, spray-in bed-liner and a powered tailgate with a manual swing-door section.

Exterior paint choices include Agate Black, Iconic Silver, Rapid Red, Carbonised Grey, Star White, and Antimatter Blue.

This F-150 matches its rivals, such as the Ram 1500, Chevrolet Silverado, and even the more expensive Toyota Tundra, in terms of standard features.

Powering the W600 is the standard 3.0-litre twin-turbo-diesel V6 available in other Amaroks, with 184kW and 600Nm.

It’s mated to a 10-speed torque converted automatic and powers either the rear or all four wheels, depending on how you’ve set the all-wheel-drive system.

The Ford F-150 Platinum has a 3.5-litre twin-turbo V6 engine producing 298kW at 6000rpm and 678Nm at 3100rpm, and that’s matched to a 10-speed torque converter automatic transmission.

The base-spec XLT gets part-time 4WD but the Lariat and Platinum grades get Ford’s more advanced full-time 4WD system. This setup has selectable two-wheel drive (2H), four-wheel drive high-range (4H), four-wheel drive low-range (4L) and four-wheel drive automatic (4A = 4Auto) that sends drive to the front and rear axles as needed, and which can be safely used on high-traction surfaces, such as bitumen.

The Platinum has a variety of selectable drive modes – including Normal, Eco, Sport, Tow/Haul, Slippery, and Off-Road – and an electronic locking rear diff.

This is a proven engine-and-auto pairing and is more than a match for any of the F-150’s rivals’ powertrains.

The Amarok’s diesel V6 engine remains unchanged so the 8.4L/100km fuel consumption rate stands, but if you’re driving the W600 as intended, you’ll see that figure climb.

It’s fitted with an 80-litre fuel tank so theoretically a 950km trip would be possible in WLTP test conditions.

Official fuel consumption is listed as 13.4L/100km (combined).

On test I recorded 14.1L/100km, but that figure included a solid half-day of off-roading.

Based on my on-test figures, a full tank (136 litres) of unleaded petrol in this F-150 will get you a driving range of about 965km.

For a big ute, it exhibits reasonable fuel usage.

The first and most impressive thing to mention once you’re on the move in the Amarok W600 is that, once you sling the 2.4-tonne dual cab into a corner, you can tell there’s been some rigorous engineering work undertaken here.

The cornering and handling ability of the W600 belies its dual-cab nature to some extent, as it holds relatively flat and is far more confidence inspiring even on soaked roads than any ladder-frame ute I can recall. 

Of course, the tyres help on the cornering front too, with the PS4 SUV rubber being a fairly big trade-off in terms of sacrificing off-road ruggedness for asphalt grip.

Even the exhaust is a subtle reminder that you’re in something that’s had the once-over (or several times over) from a crew of engineers who know what they’re doing.

Sure, it’s not the same burble that used to roll out of the Walkinshaw sheds back in the Holden days, but it growls gently at certain revs or under the right load.

But the ride is firm, and it’s surprising the roads in the south and east of Tassie showed that given they were the test roads used to turn the W600 into the ‘ultimate driver’s ute’.

It’s noticeable enough that you’d probably get a bit tired of it on a long trip, which is a shame as that’s something VW is pretty sure its W600 customers are looking to use it for. That’s why it can still tow 3500kg and has that near-1000kg payload.

I should note that utes with some weight in the tray often feel a little more settled at the leaf-sprung rear, but we didn't test the W600 with any load onboard.

Its big wheels and low-profile rubber probably don’t help the 2.4-tonne ute on the comfort front, but hey, they look good.

The other main issue is it doesn’t feel as ‘special’ as it could in the power and performance department. 

The engine is great for a dual-cab, plenty torquey and doesn’t feel like it needs to work hard day-to-day, but something with a bit of mongrel about it would have been better.

VW not wanting Walkinshaw to detract from its towing and payload ability might have hindered this a little, but I can’t help but wonder if the Amarok W600 could have been more lively with the four-cylinder petrol engine than the diesel V6.

In the Amarok TSI452 variants, it feels peppy enough to be interesting, and there’s probably more scope for chassis balance than the twin-turbo diesel allows.

It’s also the engine used in Ford’s Mustang EcoBoost and the wicked Focus RS of a few years ago, so not bad pedigree.

From the get-go, this short-wheelbase F-150 is a smooth driving ute on road.

And the V6 offers a welcome low-level rumble as a soundtrack to your driving experience. Nice.

It’s a big vehicle with a steel ladder-frame chassis and a lengthy wheelbase, but it suits our conditions, especially with Aussie-tuned steering, impressive on-road ride and handling and its new continuously controlled adaptive dampers setup works in conjunction with the Terrain Management System and is claimed “to enhance vehicle control on every surface”, according to Ford Australia.

This system does iron out much of the jarring sharpness often felt in test vehicles along chopped-up back-country roads on the way to my unofficial 4WD proving ground.

F-150s are imported to Australia from the USA as left-hand-drive vehicles and reengineered to right-hand drive by Melbourne-based RMA Automotive, at the company’s production facility in Melbourne.

The utes undergo a comprehensive transformation – including changes to steering, driver displays, air-con, as well as software upgrades, to name but a few – aimed at making them capable of excelling in Aussie conditions.

And it does excel.

This F-150 is well controlled with a planted feel on sealed surfaces, the steering has a nice weight to it in all conditions, acceleration is smooth, and the 10-speed auto delivers clever management of this big ute.

It’s very quiet and comfortable in the cabin. You can just barely register the low-level rumble of the twin-turbocharged V6 as you truck along stretches of highway and rural back roads.

On-road, the F-150 is a near-perfect open-road touring vehicle. The bonus is, as a Platinum driver, you have access to a suite of driver-assist tech which includes modes aimed at making the task of 4WDing (Off-Road) and towing (Tow/Haul) safer, more controlled and, consequently, more enjoyable than it otherwise may be.

Much better suited to towing and hauling than 4WDing, the F-150 still makes a good fist of it, but it does have off-road limitations.

It has to be driven with consideration, and you have to understand and appreciate the off-road parameters in which this F-150 performs best. If you drive anything more severe than light-to-medium-duty off-roading, then you risk damage.

Otherwise, visibility is great, the driving position is commanding, steering at low speeds is well-weighted and precise, and throttle response is impressive.

Again, this is a big ute so it has off-road angles you’d expect for a vehicle this large: the approach angle is listed as 24.5 degrees, departure angle is 25.3 and ramp-over is 20 degrees.

Ground clearance is listed as 239mm and wading depth is 700mm. Bash plates do offer the front differential, transfer case and fuel tank some protection though.

The tyres – Hankook Dynapro AT2 all-terrains (275/60R20) – aren’t well suited to 4WDing, but more aggressive all-terrain tyres on an 18-inch rim and an aftermarket suspension lift would go some of the way to help sort out the F-150’s off-road issues with its less-than-ideal showroom-standard rubber, only adequate ground clearance and off-road angles.

For such a big ute, payload is an underwhelming 704kg. For reference, the Ram 1500 (878kg) and Chevrolet Silverado (757kg) offer more, and even mainstream dual-cab utes, such as the Ford Ranger – 966kg (kerb weight)/1010kg (min kerb weight) – offer better payloads.

If you’re looking for a decent towing platform, it’s likely an F Series is already on your shopping list. This F-150’s maximum unbraked towing capacity is 750kg and 4500kg (braked), Gross Vehicle Mass is 3315kg and Gross Combined Mass is 7365kg.

This F-150 remains on par with rivals in the 4WD stakes.

The Ford F-150 has not been fully tested by ANCAP, but the safety watchdog did award it a Platinum collision avoidance score of 81 per cent in 2025. This rating applies only to Lariat and Platinum grades, not the XLT.

Standard safety gear includes six airbags, front and rear parking sensors, blind-spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert, lane-keep assist, traffic sign recognition, a surround-view camera, auto emergency braking (AEB), adaptive cruise control and trailer sway control.

There are top-tether child-seat attachment points in the rear seat but no ISOFIX points.

In safety terms, the F-150 has a stack of gear onboard which keeps it competitive against rivals.

The W600 is backed by VW’s standard five-year, unlimited kilometre warranty.

Given most popular utes are covered by the same, that’s pretty standard, but longer warranties are creeping in.

Volkswagen says a five-year servicing plan covers the Amarok for just $3200, which averages to $640 a year. Service schedule is every 12 months or 15,000km.

The F-150 has a five-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty and that’s pretty much standard for vehicles in the Aussie market.

Servicing is scheduled for every 12 months or 15,000km, whichever occurs soonest and the F-150’s 12 months of free roadside assistance is extended when those schedules are followed.

Ford’s five-year pre-paid service package for this vehicle costs $1968, working at an average cost of $393.60 per service.

Ford Australia has about 180 dealerships.

In ownership terms, the F-150 remains competitive against its full-sized rivals.