Motoring: The pick of pick-ups

Cliveden House, that great architectural confection above the Thames in Berkshire, is best known as the seat of the Astors and for the start of the Profumo scandal in the 1960s. The Astors were a political and financial dynasty who colonised Cliveden in the middle of the 19th century and by early in the 20th had made it an epicentre of high society. When told it was to be turned into a hotel, Prime Minister Harold Macmillan remarked, ‘It always has been.’

I was there last week, though not, alas, as an ornament of high society or target of seduction. It may seem an unlikely location for the last of VW’s recent nationwide roadshows, particularly one majoring on a utilitarian commercial vehicle, but it worked well. Plenty of room for the cars, enchanting drives through Chiltern beechwoods, lunch in the splendid imported French dining room, the Thames glinting far below and even an off-road course for the principal actor.

This was VW’s new double-cab pick-up, competing head-on with those big Nissans, Isuzus, Mitsubishis, Toyotas and Fords beloved by builders and all manner of blokes. It’s called the Amarok, which in this country will probably be read as Anorak. But maybe the cultural significance of that is peculiar to Britain and, anyway, what matters to the blokes is what it costs and what it does.

That, at least, is what VW thinks — but I suspect it may have underestimated the Amarok. For all its utilitarian intentions, this is a vehicle that could take a slice of the lifestyle market, appealing to the bosses (and their spouses) as much as to the blokes.

First impression is that you sit high and safe, indifferent to the minnows scattering before your great snout of a bonnet.