The VW Amarok

By Katharina

Within the past few years, SUVs and pickup trucks became more and more fashionable in Germany. Before I associated them only with the U.S., especially the American West as a means of going back and forth between towns and being able to transport a lot of things because it is quite a long ride to town. Furthermore, every time I watched an American TV show or movie with the American West as its focus, pickup trucks, amongst others, were depicted almost every time. So those cars are something associated with the U.S., but not Germany.

After having spent a year on a farm or somewhere in the middle of nowhere in Montana, as others might refer to it, I knew that people living on farms needed big pickups for hunting, driving out onto the fields or simply in order to get to town, when a blizzard had hit your place and the “regular” car would not be able to manage the snow down in the reservoir or the icy roads. I was also aware of the fact, that people would not drive the pickup just for fun, as it has a bad gas milage and is simply too expensive to be the daily ride. Of course, there are exceptions, like young people who have gotten a car for their 16th birthday or some other occasion and enjoyed the power that comes with the car.

But pickups here in Germany?! I was not aware of them until I returned and saw more and more large pickups driving around town, like the Dodge Ram, of which I think it is simply over the top here in our urban areas. I know there are farms around my place and the farther away one is from the city, the more rural it gets. The interesting thing though is, that it is not the farmers driving around in those cars, but people living in the city.

The artifact I chose, is the VW Amarok and the commercial showing how the driver of the car imagines how he is driving around the desert and a mountain terrain even though he is only taking his son to basketball practice. The interesting aspect is that the car has a license plate sign for Hannover – a not so rural place to live in. Furthermore, the vehicle was not produced for the American market, but all other continents, including Australia – a place where it is better to have a larger car as well. But pickups to me are something that belong to rural areas, as small cars sometimes do not suffice anymore and larger wheels and a larger car in general are necessary. So it can be said that those large cars, not only the VW Amarok, but also the Audi Q7 or the BMW X6 are more fun cars in Germany for those with the extra cash that can be spend on whatever they desire.

The reason for choosing the car in general is the fascination of driving on an endless road found in the American West and enjoying the countryside while it might also be snowing along the way. It is just amazing to see the endlessness of the countryside which is something going through my mind when reading My Antonia and Jim‘s experience in the new country. Nowadays the country is something that one is able to reach faster by car than it used to be the case with only horse carriage or train available.

Maybe it is justified to say that in those big cars the longing and the idea of those large landscapes and big skies for which the American West is so famously known, is reflected for people living in Germany and other urban areas. A lot of commercials convey the image that it is possible to break free from everyday life – from the road into the open country. Just like the commercial of the VW Amarok which breaks out of the urban road network in Germany into the open one in the American West.