2024 Volkswagen Atlas - Counterpoint Review - Details Loom Large

BORROW ONE: A 1966 Volkswagen Bus ad used one of the brand’s advertising tropes:  side-by-side images.  On the left, you see the Bus in front of a circa-1930s one-car garage.  On the right, a thinly disguised Chrysler station wagon in an identical setting. The caption playfully reinterpreted Packard’s legendary line: “Ask the Man Who Owns One.”  Now, it’s “Ask the Man Who Borrows One.”

VW’s copy claimed its thrifty compact Bus had twice the cargo capacity of a thirsty full-size station wagon.  The copywriter confessed the Volkswagen didn’t have twice the style of that era's wagon, though the wagon owner had to concede utility bragging rights to their quirky Bus driving neighbor.

Volkswagen of America sent this automotive journalist its living-large 2024 Atlas SEL Premium 4Motion crossover for a week. All VW had to do was sweat the details for a mid cycle update to their Made in Chattanooga three-row SUV.  Exterior changes (previously witnessed on the two-row Atlas Cross Sport) are confined to front and rear lighting and fascia work. Bigger news is under the bonnet and between the doors.

UNDER THE HOOD of the 2024 VW Atlas, lies the fourth-generation of the EA-888 turbocharged four-cylinder engine as sole motivator. It’s 269 horsepower rating is earned on a regular unleaded fuel diet.  The 2024 Atlas is no burden on the ears: road and wind noise is amply filtered. Beyond a slightly gritty idle in gear, the engine note varies by from muted sewing machine to a Soundaktor audio system induced Golf GTI pocket rocket distant rumble.

The tidy turbo four-pot powerplant, mounted east to west, clears up room in a VW bay previously oft stuffed with narrow angle 3.6L V-6. That is where makes peace with a eight-speed automatic transaxle.  Steering wheel dorsal paddle shifters only cautiously vary the level of haste, as Sport mode is designed to avoid the eighth gear unless cruise control has been engaged. Competing non-hybrid three row crossover SUVs are predominantly V-6 powered, but the turbo inline four Atlas matches on towing and exceeds on fuel economy. For reference there was a time when a full-size Ford LTD Country Squire 460 c.i. V-8 wagon could tow about the same but would struggle to break double digit fuel economy.

• 19 EPA city / 25 EPA highway / 21 observed combined miles per gallon
• 5000 pounds trailer towing

BEYOND THE COMPREHENSIVE STANDARD I.Q. DRIVE, the 2024 Atlas R-Line includes available Travel Assist, which supplements standard adaptive cruise control and lane keep assistance with posted limits and road conditions speed control and lane change assistance. Departure warning tends to be over-sensitive within more poorly marked lanes, but the system is defeatable via the turn signal stalk tip and steering wheel spoke buttons.

WISHING FOR MORE GTI -NESS happens after whiling away the miles in the 2024 Volkswagen Atlas . This big SUV places more emphasis on the Utility rather than the Sport designation. The steering wheel with wide adjustment range goes as far as resembling the hot hatchback's. Helm action effort emits low resistance. When the pavement buckles, the R-Line 21" inch alloy rollers bound in low-profile rubber pranced no less than a Marx Big Wheel plastic tricycle. The Atlas R-Line tends to start steering wide on cloverleafs. Excessive forward and lateral movement can result from abrupt driver inputs.  Those imposing Bridgestone Alenza tires, though, work quietly.

CABIN LEBENSRAUM is where the 2024 Volkswagen Atlas should continue to impress families of seven (or six). Shifting to a shift-by-wire center console toggle lever has now made way for a handbag fitting floating center console. Three seating rows are continue to be cavernous for grown adults. Entering that VW Atlas third row couldn't be easier, with wide opening second row doors and seating which fold and slide with child safety seats attached. Seating cushions run typical VW thin but the front keep bodies in place.

Volkswagen has made strides in replacing coarse hard cabin panels with contrast stitched plush ones in the 2024 Atlas. SEL Premium R-Line trim brings splashy quilted pattern seat inserts, open pore woodgrain and piano gloss dash and door card appliques, brushed aluminum housed door handle and metal integrated speaker grilles, and aluminum trimmed pedals.

LIGHTS MEANS ACTION in the 2024 Atlas, which newly enhances illuminated stimulation inside and out. During the day, custom or drive mode varying hue ambient LED strips inhabit the dash and door cards surround the interior. The passenger side dashboard adds shooting star specks. It all glows more brightly at night filling the center & overhead consoles and door armrests / pockets. Overhead lighting is cleverly activated by touching zones along the housing. Once the sun has set, onlooking traffic is treated to full span front and rear lateral light bars, with the front VW logo broadcast in matching bright white and the rear badge glowing in ditto red.

CARGO -ING IN THE ATLAS. Strap and lever folding second and third row seatbacks fully flat create a versatile jumbo cargo carrier capable of swallowing an dorm room suited extra long twin mattress and box spring. Loaders need remember to deactivate the driver's easy access seat retraction prior to loading.

Like a Motel 6 marquis promise, a driver's approach with key fob activates bright cabin illumination. Loading luggage at night is made convenient with proximity cargo bay illumination and leg kick power liftgate actuation.

A NEW UX in the 2024 Volkswagen Atlas demonstrates the Wolfsburg automaker's forward IT thinking at the risk of distracting operators. Despite complaints about its first North American market implementation in the Mk. 8 Golf GTI / R models, a refined MIB 3.0 infotainment user interface, shared with the Atlas Cross Sport, possesses enormous versatility and capability.

The Discover tablet style 12.0" mid dash touch LCD is attractive, boasting a customizable triple window home display and a clever left and right margin shortcut icons. An Apple style square icon calls up the app page. Gesture swiping laterally and vertically within the app widget screen is confusing, with many basic functions accessible only through applications. Successfully activating the desired app while in motion is an act of faith, with instrument panel brightness being a stark example.

The 2024 Atlas has wisely renounced VW's latest haptic swipe panels in favor of good old fashioned button switches. However, since not every new dog can be taught all the old tricks, swipe touch audio volume and climate temperature panels at the infotainment display base are not backlit for viable night operation. Fortunately, there is a workaround with a robust MIB 3.0 has voice command system for many operations.

Notwithstanding a fine sounding Harman / Kardon sound system, the new Volkswagen Atlas follows the current trend of relegating terrestrial [AM/FM] radio tuning to the obscure - read more complicated than necessary.  There is the rigmarole of opening the app menu to call up a tuner display features. If one hasn't created radio presets, the steering wheel preset buttons will auto tune to news channels.

The $54,895 as tested price of the 2024 Volkswagen Atlas R-Line comes close to being scorched by the prestige Audi Q7 45 Quattro. Greater attention to detail earns high marks, with demerits for a more capable, though less streamlined, operating UX. Efficiency has improved with no loss to performance stats, even given the longing for more enthused control. Where the '24 VW Atlas earns its keep is by retaining the truly versatile capaciousness, which first endeared it to America in 2018. Ask the man who borrowed one.

2024 Volkswagen Atlas Cross Sport: Glam SUV Coupe Counter-Point Review

The launch of the Volkswagen Atlas Cross Sport in 2020, pitched the vehicle as glam volume antidote to conspicuous luxury sport activity coupe consumption. A television advertisement depicted an accountant, worried about his client’s spendthrift ways. Once he discovered his charge’s more sensible new car purchase he expressed relief.

RoadBlazingCliff Leppke