Car_and_Driver_USA_July_2017

Three-Row Hero
Volkswagen’s Atlas has a lot riding on its burly shoulders.
_by K.C. Colwell
IT IS FITTING THAT THE ALL-NEW Volkswagen Atlas takes its
name from the Greek god condemned to keep the sky from falling
on mortals. VW needs this long-overdue three-row ute to lift the
hugely publicized diesel-emissions scandal that continues to hang
over the company [see page 050]. While sales for the people’s brand
are up through spring, they’re still down compared with prescandal
2015, and the recent sales gains are largely due to the
Legitimate
three-row
comfort, cushy
ride, thrones
suitable for a
long haul, tows
5000 pounds.
Could use
more power, no
rear entertainment
for fidgety
offspring.
arrival of the Golf Alltrack, a boomlet that
eventually could fizzle. Hence the need for
the Atlas to prop up the enterprise.
Riding on the same flexible architecture
that underpins the Golf, the Tennessee-built
Atlas is a medium-large
three-row SUV that fills a major gap in
VW’s portfolio. Not since the Routan, a
rebadged Dodge Grand Caravan that VW
last sold in 2013, has there been a Volkswagen
with more than five seatbelts. Buyers
have been forced to look elsewhere for
their family-hauling needs.
The Atlas’s outer dimensions skew
toward the burly end of the segment. Overall
length is within an inch of the Ford
Explorer and the Nissan Pathfinder, but the
VW has a longer wheelbase and makes
excellent use of its footprint. Seven passengers,
or six if buyers opt for the late-availability second-row captain’s
chairs, have 153 cubic feet of space to share. That matches the
Honda Pilot’s interior volume and eclipses that of the Mazda CX-9
by 18 cubes, although it’s just shy of the Explorer’s 155. With butts in
all the seats, the Atlas has 21 cubic feet of cargo space while most
competitors are in the teens.
Moving all that mass—up to an estimated 4550 pounds—is a
task shouldered by one of two engines: VW’s ubiquitous EA888
turbocharged 2.0-liter inline-four and a naturally aspirated 3.6-
liter V-6. In this application, the turbo four makes 235 horsepower
and 258 pound-feet of torque and feeds that output only to the
front wheels. The narrow-angle V-6 [see tech highlight] is good for
276 horsepower and is available with either front- or all-wheel
drive. Both engines get bolted to an eight-speed automatic transmission.
We didn’t have the opportunity to drive the four-cylinder,
but it shouldn’t be too terribly lazy around town. Its peak
torque is just 8 pound-feet shy of the V-6’s, and it arrives 1150 rpm
lower, at 1600 rpm. We expect the V-6 Atlas to hit 60 mph in about
094 . CAR AND DRIVER . JUL/2017