car of the week- 2018 Volkswagen atlas
5 min read
Volkswagen, at last, has a serious midsize SUV player: The new Chattanooga, Tennessee-built Atlas has learned the lessons of the two generations of the still-very-European Touareg; more importantly, it’s an all-new SUV designed from the ground up for American tastes and notions of size and price, one that arrives right in time for an unexpected SUV boom.
The long and wide VW Atlas is designed to offer plenty of space for seven while saving just enough room for basic cargo. When it goes on sale this spring, the Atlas will be offered with a choice of a 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine producing 235 hp or a 3.6-liter V6 good for 276 hp. Full specs for the two units have not been revealed yet, but both will be coupled to an eight-speed automatic transmission. With the smaller engine, Volkswagen’s 4Motion all-wheel-drive system is an option; the V6-equipped Atlas will have AWD standard.
Speaking of 4Motion all-wheel drive: The fifth-gen system is far smarter than the old version of Audi’s Quattro tech. 4Motion now stays in front-wheel-drive mode to save fuel until all-wheel drive is truly needed, then engages clutches that bring the rear axles into action. This is a system that debuted in the latest generation of the Golf, with the Atlas being the second VW to receive it. Along with 4Motion, the Atlas will offer four distinct driving modes: onroad, snow, offroad, and a custom mode controlled via rotary dial behind the automatic gear selector. Within the default onroad mode, the Atlas will offer eco, normal, sport and individual modes, which can be selected by the driver.
The dimensions of the Atlas are close to that of the Ford Explorer, even though it looks larger.
There’s no hiding the Atlas is a big, hulking SUV, so it offers the latest suite of safety and driver-assistance tech including lane assist, which actively steers the vehicle back into its lane if inadvertent drift is detected. There’s also autonomous emergency braking and adaptive cruise control with pedestrian detection. The newest bit of helpful parking lot tech is active self-parking, which will automatically pull the SUV into a perpendicular parking spot selected by the driver. There are also premium features like LED headlights and daytime running lights, an optional 12-speaker Fender sound system and VW’s version of Audi’s virtual cockpit.
Fuel-economy figures and prices have not been announced yet — we got an early taste of the Atlas in the frozen Canadian north, where snowmobiles are normal commuting means — but VW expects the five trim levels of the Atlas to range from $30,000 to $48,000, roughly paralleling popular competitors like the Ford Explorer and Toyota Highlander.
Unlike the Touareg, the Atlas remembers it’s a Volkswagen rather than a Porsche wearing a VW badge at Audi prices. This is a big SUV with an imposing front fascia design that’s close in dimensions to the current Ford Explorer, but it appears longer and wider that the Explorer in person and behind the wheel.The dash and the cockpit, meanwhile, have the appearance and feel of a Passat interior that grew in size by about 50 percent — by no means a bad thing. The look of the interior is still very businesslike — those who have been buying VW sedans will feel right at home despite the obscene size difference, and it doesn’t try to overwhelm the eyes with blinding chrome details, 1990s-style rosewood office furniture, or nonsensical bits of interior architecture meant to impress.
On the very frozen paved and unpaved roads upon which we drove our V6 Atlas, it impressed us with its docile nature and ease of use, as well as grip helped in no small part by studded winter tires. We blasted along roads banked by several feet of snow and ice — a scaled up version of a luge track with a giant Volkswagen instead of those knife-like sleds — with the six-cylinder engine providing an entertaining but muted exhaust note. The Atlas has the feel of a very large station wagon rather than the slightly scary body-on-frame experience of SUVs of decades past. The 276 horses this six pumps out were more than enough to propel the Atlas down the luge track at inadvisable speeds, but despite our best efforts it took serious intent to set the tail just a little loose, with the Atlas staying firmly attached to the snow and ice. If an SUV this big can play the role of a sled helmed by crazed journalists, it will do fine on the school run.
Speaking of the school run: The Atlas’ neatest trick is the sliding middle row of seats which allows laughably easy access to the generous back bench. In some of the Atlas’ competitors the third row of seats appear most accessible by climbing over the seatbacks from the trunk — a particularly inelegant maneuver — but here it’s as easy to get into as a far larger minivan. The mechanism also doesn’t rob the middle row of seats of legroom, which is excellent.
The interior of the Atlas is still very sober and German, but if you’ve been driving big American SUVs for the past few years you’ll feel right at home.
The Verdict
A roomy SUV with VW pricing is something Volkswagen has needed for a long time, and the Atlas ticks all the right boxes and more. With a starting price in the low $30,000 range, it seems too good to be true for those used to car-based German station wagons and jacked-up hatches (we’re looking at you, Mercedes GLA-Class) at twice this price. The knee-jerk reaction some will have is, “Where’s my twin-turbo V8 and napa leather interior?” Answer: At the Porsche dealership where it belongs.
We’ve yet to experience the Atlas in all weather and road conditions, from twisty back roads to miles and miles of sun-baked interstates. But this SUV already feels like one of the most promising Volkswagens in years.
