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The Volkswagen Atlas reviewed: A people’s wagon for the American people

Volkswagen embraces America’s love for large SUVs with the Atlas.

Eric Bangeman – Apr 12, 2018 7:15 am | 117

Credit: Eric Bangeman

Like many Gen Xers, my first car was a Volkswagen—a 1973 Beetle, to be exact. Back then, VW was known primarily for making quirky, fun cars like the Beetle, the Thing, the Bus, and the Karmann Ghia. You could get behind the wheel of a Rabbit or Jetta for a more conventional driving experience, but that was not VW’s strong spot a few decades ago.

Times have changed. Volkswagen is now one of the three largest car companies in the world, and its lineup reflects that reality. And as of the 2018 model year, VW’s vehicle lineup includes a three-row SUV, the Atlas. Even though it has been on the market for only a year, the Atlas had become VW’s second-most-popular car in the German automaker’s lineup in March 2018, showing that the American car-buying public’s thirst for crossovers and SUVs remains unslaked. (The small crossover Tiguan topped VW’s sales charts.)

Marketed as a “family SUV,” the Atlas starts at $30,750 and comes in five trim levels. As is the norm for press cars, the Atlas I drove was the SEL Premium with 4MOTION, the highest trim level with all the bells and whistles for $49,415. VW offers two engine options: a standard four-cylinder, 2.0L turbocharged direct injection engine that gives you 235hp (175kW) and 258lb-ft (350nM) of torque that comes standard, and a 3.6L V6 engine that generates 276 horsepower (206kW) and 266lb⋅ft (361Nm) of torque. Both are available across the Atlas, except for the Premium, which excludes the 2.0L power plant. All told, the Atlas weighs in at 4,728lb (2,144kg) with the V6 and AWD.

In the Atlas, the engine of your choice is paired with an eight-speed automatic transmission and front-wheel drive, although AWD is an option with the V6 engine and is standard on the SEL Premium. Also included with the SEL Premium package are LED taillights, leather seats, parking-assist, adaptive cruise control, lane-keep assist, an eight-inch touch display, and VW’s Digital Cockpit. More on the Digital Cockpit below. By way of comparison, the base model S gets a backup camera, bog-standard cruise control, a 6.5-inch touch display, LED headlights, and bench seating in the second row.

Das SUV

There’s little doubt what the Atlas is all about when you look at it. It has the classic SUV look with high seating, a very angular body, good clearance, and a massive silver grille. It’s a very familiar design, one that wouldn’t look out of place with a Ford or GMC badge on it. Volkswagen apparently did not want to rock the design boat with its first three-row SUV, and it shows. Visibility is decent from the driver’s seat, with good sight lines for an SUV.

On the inside, the Atlas is spacious. The heated and vented 10-way adjustable driver’s seat is comfortable and supportive, and its seems like it would be ideal for a cross-country jaunt. The second row seats three and folds down in a 60-40 configuration. Unlike many of the other cars I have tested, whoever ends up sitting in the middle seat of the second row will not automatically hate being there. The second row seats can also move forward and backward for increased leg room, with the second option coming at the expense of the folks in the third row.

While most adults will find the second row comfortable, the two seats in the third row are better suited for kids and adults under six-feet tall. Access to the third row is made easier by seats that tilt forward to create a reasonable passage to the back. Also in the back seat are a pair of USB ports, a 115V outlet, heated seats, and climate controls. Adjustable shades on the rear windows can keep the sun out, while a gigantic panoramic sunroof will let in all the sun you want.

The liftgate action feels slightly cheap, but once it opens, there’s a good amount of space even with the third-row seats occupied. And when you fold the second and third rows down, you’ve got 96.8 cubic feet (2,741L) of storage space.

Design cues inside the Atlas are mixed. There are acres of molded plastic, most noticeably in the doors and the 17 cupholders. (Is it just me, or are 17 cupholders a bit much?) All of the plastic gives the Atlas a very utilitarian feel, at least in the back two rows. Up front, it feels more upscale. Those front seats are very comfortable, and the styling in the cockpit feels more upscale than the rest of the car. That is helped in part by VW’s Digital Cockpit and the eight-inch touchscreen, as well as little touches like the leather gaiter around the gear-shift lever.

VW’s Digital Cockpit is similar to Audi’s Virtual Cockpit, but it looks less polished. The speedometer and tachometer are displayed as analog dials, and you can configure the interior of the dials to show data such as mileage, distance traveled, and the like. The middle of the display is also customizable. If you select the map option, the dials shrink to show more of the map. The other options are just some variation of white text on a black background, and the combination of a blah UI and an inability to customize the display as much as on other cars in its class limits its utility.

I also found VW’s steering wheel controls to be poorly thought out. There are 18 controls on the front of the steering wheel, with the four buttons for controlling the radio split between the two sides. Some buttons serve multiple functions, like the ones in the center-left of the steering wheel, which either control the adaptive cruise-control speed or the following distance.

The infotainment display is better. Functionally, it works very well, although the UI is pretty basic, and the settings menus underneath the UI throughout reminded me of a decades-old Linux distro. VW has thrown in some nice touches, like an analog-looking radio tuner that’s controlled by a knob on the left of the display. Basic functions like navigation, radio, media, and phone are accessed via dedicated buttons on either side of the display. Climate-control settings can also be adjusted via the infotainment display. Best of all, the display is easily reachable from the driver’s seat without having to lean forward.

All that an SUV entails

Any doubts that I might have had about Volkswagen truly mastering the SUV disappeared the first time I got behind the wheel of the Atlas. I had that up-above-the-road SUV view as I pulled out, and I had the confidence of helming a vehicle the mere presence of which struck terror into the hearts of subcompact drivers. That’s what I told myself, anyway.

The V6 in the Atlas does the job, although it works hard when you put the pedal to the metal. Initial acceleration is OK, and there’s enough pickup to merge onto the highway or pass a slowpoke parked in the left lane, but you can tell that this is an SUV that is going to be hard-pressed to do zero-to-60 in fewer than eight seconds.

On the other hand, the steering is a joy. Despite the fact that I was piloting a car just shy of 2.5 tons, the steering felt precise and lightweight—absolutely fantastic work by VW there. It’s still an SUV, however. The Atlas can feel top-heavy when cornering, and—well, it handles exactly as you’d expect a three-row SUV to. There are no surprises on that account.

VW offers a handful of driving modes in the Atlas: comfort, sport, economy, snow, and offroad. Given the engine and weight of the car, sport really didn’t make a huge difference in terms of performance, and the ride was comfortable regardless. Given the fuel economy of the Atlas—Volkswagen claims 23mpg on the highway, 17mpg in the city, and 19mpg overall—you may want to camp out in economy mode if you’re feeling miserly with your gas. I saw 19.4mpg during my time with the Atlas.

I had the chance to take the Atlas offroad briefly. When you turn the dial to select offroad, you end up with center differential locking to better transfer the appropriate amount of oomph to each wheel and giving you more wheel-slip to negotiate sand, dirt, and the like. I ran down the same bit of abandoned, disintegrated road—a stretch that culminated in a couple of hundred yards of dirt and mud before a rickety-looking bridge that I dared not cross—in both offroad and sport modes. The difference was palpable, with the Atlas easily handling the uneven terrain and loose dirt in offroad mode.

The driver-assist tech in the Atlas is top-notch, as well. VW’s adaptive cruise control made a commute to downtown Chicago in heavy traffic tolerable. The car will come to a complete stop in stop-and-go traffic; all you need to do is hit the “RES” button on the steering wheel when the car in front of you starts moving again. Lane-keep assist is also very good, with subtle corrections that don’t result in your drifting into the other lane, even on slight curves. VW also seems to have a higher tolerance for drivers with their hands off the wheel: in one case, I wasn’t prompted to grab the wheel for a full 30 seconds after taking my hands off.

The Atlas’ parking cameras are great, too. You can change views via the touchscreen, so I was able to get a view of the right front tire as I made the tight turn into my garage from the alley.

Really, the only downside behind the wheel was a bit of wind noise at interstate-highway speeds. Other than that, the Atlas offers a reasonably quiet ride.

In its first year on the market, the Atlas has already become one of Volkswagen’s most popular models. That’s a testament not only to the American market’s burning desire to drive SUVs but to the solid job VW has done with the Atlas. It’s more comfortable and spacious than the Buick Enclave I reviewed a couple of months ago, and the in-car technology is solid at worst and fantastic at best. With the sliding second-row seats, the Atlas can legitimately seat seven adults. And with the back rows folded down, you have nearly 100 cubic feet of space to work with. If you’re in the market for a mid-size, three-row SUV, the Volkswagen Atlas deserves your strong consideration.

Listing image: Eric Bangeman

Eric Bangeman Managing Editor

Eric Bangeman is the Managing Editor of Ars Technica. In addition to overseeing the daily operations at Ars, Eric also manages story development for the Policy and Automotive sections. He lives in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, where he enjoys cycling and playing the bass.

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