2018 VW Atlas

17 CUPHOLDERS! VW FINALLY GETS AMERICA

- Michael Febbo

My refrigerator holds all my food, keeps it perfectly chilled, and has never broken down—I still don’t love my refrigerator. I have that exact thought every time someone tells me they love their Ford Explorer or Toyota Sienna. I get it, you like the utility and the reliability, you probably even love the memories you’ve had in the thing, but you don’t actually love that big transportation appliance, do you? That’s the question I have about Volkswagen’s jump into the three-row family-hauler segment. Is the Atlas something you can love like other VWs, or is it just another family hauler?

As you may remember, I drove the Atlas in Canada a few months back on snow-covered forest roads to get a brief impression, mostly of the interior and overall livability. For a real taste of the driving experience, I traveled to Texas to put a few hundred miles on the VR6-powered version and get an idea of what daily life would be like with the American-built, yet still-somewhat-German-by-nature SUV.