The Volkswagen Atlas: A Vehicle that Strikes a Balance Between Practicality and Performance

As I sat behind the wheel of the Volkswagen Atlas, I couldn't help but feel that it was a vehicle that reminded me a little bit of the old Honda Pilot. The induction noise it makes is quite similar to the J series found on the Pilot, adding something to an otherwise mostly vanilla driving experience.

One of the pros of the Atlas is its eight-speed automatic transmission. It's very soft and in a good way. Honestly, when you're in a mass transportation pod like this, you don't really need a gearbox that's going to interrupt your driving experience. You want it to feel ultra-sharp and crisp, but at the same time, you don't want to be distracted by any weird gear shifts or shock. The Atlas delivers on that front, with no noticeable gear shock or unusual shifting. It's seamless, and I found myself forgetting that I'm even driving a transmission.

Another pro of the Atlas is its remarkable quietness when you're on the road. Particularly for this class of non-luxury three-row SUVs, it's remarkably quiet. You can hear yourself think if you need to yell at your kids in the back seat - they'll be able to hear your booming voice, and it won't fatigue you on long drives. I've had the opportunity to drive other Atlas models in the past, and this was something that we both talked about. The Atlas seems to strike a great balance between quietness and practicality.

The Atlas's all-wheel-drive system is also worth mentioning. It's a four-motion system that does a good job of feeling mostly natural. Yes, it's essentially an on-demand system that only sends 50% of the available torque to the rear wheel when it detects slip. But it feels more natural and organic than some other systems out there, like those found in the Toyota Highlander. When I got to test drive one of the four-cylinder variants with the VR6 engine, I was surprised by how refined it was. As I mentioned before, this engine has been used in many other Volkswagen Group products, including the Porsche Macan and Audi Q5. It's clear that VW has put a lot of effort into making sure this engine can handle a wide range of applications.

Of course, with all its strengths come some weaknesses. One of the main drawbacks is that it's a fairly uninspiring driving vehicle. When I was behind the wheel, I found myself missing the connection to what the front of the vehicle was doing. The steering felt soft and lifeless, particularly in the SC model without Drive modes. It's not hard to drive this thing, but it doesn't exactly reward you for being aggressive or enthusiastic.

The Atlas also struggles with body control and torque vectoring diffs, which makes it feel like a big, floaty barge. When I tried to toss this thing around, I found that the suspension was too soft to really provide any meaningful feedback. But if you don't care about driving dynamics, then the Atlas is probably fine for what you need. It's still a quiet and comfortable vehicle, with plenty of space for passengers and cargo.

Finally, I have to mention the price point of the Atlas. If you can get one in the low to mid-40s, it's a bargain. The VR6 engine sounds unique and has a lot of character - if that's what matters most to you, then this could be the vehicle for you.

In conclusion, the Volkswagen Atlas is a tough segment to navigate. Nearly every manufacturer builds a front-wheel drive three-row SUV at this point, and the competition is fierce. But the Atlas manages to find its place in the middle ground between dynamic SUVs like the Honda Pilot and total appliances like the Toyota Highlander. It's not going to win any awards for driving dynamics or fuel economy, but it's still a solid choice if you need a vehicle that can handle your family's needs without breaking the bank.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enforeign Volkswagen Atlas because this is Savage geese we are absolutely the last people on planet Earth to do a video on this thing but before Volkswagen refreshes this in the 2024 model year they send this generation of Atlas Upstate to play on a farm we decided to visit this thing and explore why this has been such a sales success for Volkswagen here in the United States it's about 44 to 45 000 which makes it a relative bargain the SC trim level somewhere in the middle so it has many of the nice adhes you are expecting like a wireless charging pad Wireless Apple carplay heated seats a leather interior a power rear tailgate and some other premium features it doesn't break the bank and from an interior perspective that's really why you're buying this vehicle it is very large with all of the seats folded flat you're looking at almost 97 cubic feet of cargo capacity which means this thing is enormous when it comes to the rear passengers as well it's a very well packaged vehicle really the reason you're buying something like this hopefully is to carry as many things as possible and your spawn slash family this is a good kid hauler the second row in this SC trim level is a bench seat the seat behind the driver's side can adjust independently of the seat behind the passenger they work on all physical control so this can slide forward it can be pushed forward to get into the third row it can tilt in the back and all of the rear occupants have charging ports they are USBC Chargers in this vehicle the third row assuming you've positioned the middle row or second row in a advantageous position for someone with longer legs can fit full-size adults I can get behind myself in the second row in this vehicle and fit relatively comfortably the nice thing about this vehicle as well is all the hard plastics while they definitely don't make this feel particularly premium it does allow this thing to be cleaned easier and potentially hold up to the abuse that pets and kids are going to put on this thing it also has good vents in the third row so if you are going to carry dogs someone like Deb from any lab uses one of these vehicles to transport her to pooches it does a good job keeping them cool when it comes to the front seats of this vehicle it is typical Volkswagen Group which means there's excellent storage on the doors it fits a full-size Yeti bottle you have a very low belt line which means you have excellent visibility all the way around this car and you have the prior generation of Volkswagen controls and infotainment which means this car has not been ruined by their push for all haptic everything you have physical simplistic HVAC controls you have their last generation head unit which uses a mix of touch and physical control knobs and it has Wireless Apple carplay which works quite well the controls on the steering wheel are easy to use and they feel actually somewhat expensive there's a good clickiness in tactile feedback to them and the All Digital gauge cluster has good information and is easy to use passes out the last thing I'm going to talk about is the storage for the center armrest it is absolutely enormous you can fit basically a small person there so with all that said I think it's time for us to head into the shop foreign so what do you need to know well first off is price this thing starts at about thirty five thousand dollars in four cylinder front-wheel drive guys the version we're testing in this video is an SE and front-wheel drive of the VR6 engine that is in the low 40s when you fully equip one of these things with all-wheel drive in every package in the VR6 you're looking at in the fifty thousand dollar range which makes this basically priced with everything else in the segment and this segment is absolutely enormous technically this is built on Volkswagen's modular front-wheel drive architecture known as mqb this is the prior generation of mqb as this has already been refreshed I can imagine the next Atlas will be on the new platform with the aluminum front subframe and all the other fun stuff this is the biggest vehicle currently in mqb it's over 200 inches long they've done their best to utilize this architecture particularly for the rear so I talked about in the interior segment you have essentially a flat floor the seats have a lot of configurability and the rear doors open at essentially 90 degree this is a very good hauler for things and people this car comes with four different drivetrain setups you can either get this as all-wheel drive or front-wheel drive and with or without a four-cylinder or a VR6 the four cylinder is Volkswagen's EA Triple Eight it's a two liter direct injected turbocharged four-cylinder makes torque down low it's very refined it's refined because it's a basically corporate engine that's in Audi Porsche and Volkswagen products and it doesn't tow that much in the atlas it tows like two thousand pounds with an aftermarket tow hitch if you get the VR6 you can tow up to five thousand pounds that's because every single VR6 comes with a factory equipped hatch it returns worse fuel economy but due to the VR6 signature sound which is this warm warble it does sound very very good it's Unique in this segment it kind of reminds me of the J series induction noise found in the prior generation pilot which is a good thing it makes you want to accelerate hard in this thing there's one gearbox and that is an eight-speed automatic at least here in the United States when it comes to the all-wheel drive setup it is their four motion layout it's essentially a haldex it's front-wheel drive to needs to send power to the rear where it sends power to the rear through a pump and will set up to 50 of the torque it does not torque Vector but it should get you in and out of bad weather with relative ease the one thing I will bring up before we take this for a drive I'm going to be referencing both the four-cylinder all-wheel drive and front-wheel drive equipped Vehicles during our Drive segment because I've driven all of them I've driven this as a rental I've driven this numerous times as service Learners because I'm very familiar with my VW service department as I used to own a GTI that was broken all the time but that said let's go take this for a quick drive setting off for a quick drive in the Volkswagen Atlas and sadly Mark will not be joining me as he is at the Chicago Museum of ice cream that is no joke listen to that VR6 and from a driving perspective that's honestly the biggest highlight of this vehicle is the VR6 has unique warm resonance to it it has some great induction noise reminds me a little bit of the J series found on the old Honda Pilot and it adds something to an otherwise mostly vanilla Driving Experience let's talk about the pros first the eight-speed automatic it is very very soft and I mean that in a good and I mean that in a good way honestly in a mass transportation pod like this is just a transportation pod you don't really need a gearbox to feel Ultra sharp and crisp what you were probably looking for is a gearbox that doesn't interrupt your driving experience something you never think about and that's what this does you don't feel any of the gear shock no weird gear shifts it's seamless the other Pro of this vehicle is how quiet it is when you're on the road particularly for this class of non-luxury three-row SUV it's remarkably quiet space you can hear yourself think if you need to yell at your little bastards in the back seat you can do that they can hear your booming voice if you need to get loud and it doesn't fatigue you on long drives Mark and I have actually driven other atlases in the past and that's something we both talked about the other Pro of the atlas particularly compared to something like a Toyota Highlander and some of the other let's call it more mass Market three row SUVs is the all-wheel drive system this four motion system does a good job at feeling mostly natural yes it's essentially an on-demand system that only since 50 of the available torque in the rear it's doing it when it detects slip and it'll essentially torque Vector front and back accordingly but it does a good job it feels more natural and organic than something like the Highlanders e all-wheel drive system and their hybrid trim levels I imagine if you got the a Triple Eight as well if you got one of the four cylinder variants of this that engine is very refined you've seen or felt it in basically every other Volkswagen group product as I talked about in the shop segment one of the benefits of that engine is it has to serve a very broad bandwidth of products it has to fit both in Mass Market Vehicles like this on some more luxury products like the Porsche Macan and Audi Q5 so it has some extra refinement baked into it and it makes its way I imagine in this Atlas as well what are the cons well it's a fairly uninspiring driving vehicle and I imagine when this first came out in 2018 most of its competitors were the same way but now this segment is incredibly tough and if you really think about where it stands or it doesn't get the fuel economy of the Toyota Highlander and when you start to push this thing and you try to drive with any sort of Gusto it's this big floaty barge essentially doesn't have the body control or the torque vectoring diff of something like the all-new Honda Pilot and the steering particularly in this SC model without all of its Drive modes potentially lifeless it is incredibly soft which means you could essentially drive this with two broken arms but it has zero connection to what the front of the vehicle is doing and you combine that with a really soft floaty suspension with limited body control it feels just largely disconnected as I'm tossing this thing back and forth but if you don't care about any of that it's a soft vehicle it's a quiet vehicle and the V6 does give it a little bit of a special feeling when you're driving this thing past that though I think it's time for us to head in the final thoughts and wrap this video up oh foreign thoughts on the VW Atlas this is a very tough segment nearly every manufacturer builds a front-wheel drive three-row SUV at this point and the competition is very very tough the new Honda Pilot is excellent the cx-90 which I haven't driven yet I imagine is very good being a double Wishbone rear-wheel drive inline six which at its price is unbeatable that said there are some perks of the VW Atlas it is very cheap if you got one of these things in the low to mid 40s it's a bargain the VR6 sounds unique and has a lot of character and the interior space is very very usable it finds itself sort of in the Middle Ground between Dynamic SUVs like the pilot and I imagine the cx90 and total appliances like the Toyota Highlander that said things like the Toyota Highlander with the Hybrid drivetrain setup are bomb proof will liable and get tremendous fuel economy this does not so again it's sort of that middle ground product but if you like what the interior has to offer and I've talked to people like Deb from Andy the lab who said the interior offered exactly what they wanted for their dog carrying needs particularly in the third row with powerful AC Vents and an interior that's very easy to clean you might find this vehicle well suited for your needs with that thanks for watching hope to see you soon thank you\n"