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Carsales Staff14 Sept 2013
NEWS

Simpson Desert no barrier to VW Amarok

Amarok attack completes 500-plus kilometre Simpson Desert crossing without fuel stops

Volkswagen’s Amarok workhorse ute has jus gained a bit of outback credibility with a group of vehicles completing a one-tank crossing of the Simpson Desert.

Driven by a group of motoring journalists, the Amaroks were all 4WD diesel auto transmission dual-cab Trendline utes. The desert crossing traversed 1100 sand dunes over a distance of more than 500km via the French Line from Mount Dare in South Australia to Birdsville in Queensland.

All the vehicles carried emergency jerry cans but these were not put to use. The best performance came from an Amarok that used just 67.3 litres of fuel over a distance of 513km. Volkswagen Australia said temperatures reached more than 40 degrees during the crossing.

According to the director of Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles Philip Clark: "The Simpson Desert can make or break a vehicle, and the Amarok has shown it is well equipped to handle these conditions."

He said the vehicles not only covered the distance comfortably, "but were so efficient they could have kept going beyond Birdsville".

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