Three-row SUV ‘ideal’ for families
Less is more when it comes to the 2020 Volkswagen Atlas Cross Sport.
Brand new for the model year, the Atlas Cross Sport is based on VW’s three-row Atlas SUV. With surgical precision, designers kept the wheelbase of the Atlas, but truncated front and rear overhangs on the Cross Sport.
Using a hot-rodding expression, they chopped the top and then raked the roof line over the cargo area. Shortening the vehicle meant removing the third-row seat, making the Cross Sport a five-seater SUV.
“I think VW tried to make the Cross Sport as sporty as they could, considering where they started with the Atlas,” says Calgary driver Barry Lister. “I liked the fin on the back, and I also liked the wheels.”
Lister spent a week in an Aurora Red Chroma-painted Cross Sport Execline, complete with cinnamon and black leather interior. No options were fitted, and the SUV, with pre-delivery inspection but prior to taxes, cost $55,280. An R-Line package is available, and it replaces the 20-inch Capricorn alloy wheels with a set of 21-inch Braselton alloy rims and adds a number of R-Line design features.
Powertrain for the Cross Sport is the same as that found in the Atlas, either a 2.0-litre four-cylinder or 3.6L V6, depending on whether one opts for the base Trendline, Comfortline or Execline. All Cross Sports sold in Canada are equipped with VW’s 4Motion all-wheel drive system and an eight-speed automatic transmission.
“The way the headlights tie in and flow with the grille was a nice design touch,” Lister adds, and continues, “There was some depth to the red paint, and the colour really helps highlight the shape of the body panels.”
At six-feet tall, Lister had no trouble getting into the Cross Sport. He did comment, however, on the sport bucket seat. Found only in the Execline trim, the sport seat had a very stiff outer bolster and Lister wondered how well that area of the chair would wear. Once in the eight-way adjustable leather covered seat, Lister quickly found a comfortable driving position.
“The two-tone interior looked sharp, and there was some faux carbon fibre trim on areas of the doors and dash,” Lister explains. “The steering wheel is flat across the bottom, and from driving it I don’t get the point, but it’s a feature that sure captures your eye.”
Although he’s never personally owned a VW, Lister has spent time as a passenger in 1980s-era Golfs and Jettas.
That’s enough experience for him, though, to say, “I’ve always thought of Volkswagen as a car company that puts a lot of thought and detail into their controls, and an example of that is something as simple as the turn signal stalk — in this Cross Sport it’s sculpted out a bit at the back, so your finger holds the lever really nicely.”
Another example Lister cited was the location of the start/stop button. It’s on the centre console, near the shift lever, and that’s a spot where he says a driver instinctively places their hand.
“You don’t get in and rest your hand on the dash,” he says. “At first, I thought it was a bit different, but by the end of the week it just seemed to the be the right place to put the start/stop button.”
Volkswagen has placed its digital cockpit in the Cross Sport, and this customizable 12.3-inch screen replaces the traditional dash with a highresolution display and digital gauges including speedometer, tachometer, compass, navigation and altimeter.
“Oh my gosh, the dash was so cool,” Lister says of the digital cockpit. “You really need to spend some driveway time in this to discover all of the many different features. There are so many ways to configure the information displayed, and there was never a point in time where glare or anything like that obscured the view.”
With its 3.6L V6, Lister says he was impressed by the punchy off-the-line performance of the Cross Sport but was disappointed with its mid-range responsiveness.
“When you’re traveling at 60 or 70 km/h and you want to get to 110, it just doesn’t have that same zip,” he says. Even in Sport drive mode, Lister says there wasn’t a tremendous amount of throttle response when traveling at speed. He did tinker with the Tiptronic self-shift feature, but for the most part, he let the Cross Sport take care of shifting the eight-speed transmission — a chore he says it does very well.
For the size of the vehicle, Lister felt the Cross Sport handled well in all situations, including parking lots, where the steering was light while on the highway, the wheel became slightly tauter.
“It’s got Goldilocks suspension,” he laughs, saying it wasn’t too soft or too hard, but just right.
Lister folded the rear seats forward and loaded the Cross Sport with gear for a weekend at the cabin. With ease, he says the VW swallowed two sets of golf clubs, coolers and luggage — and the power hatch made accessing the cargo area a breeze.
“It’s 100 per cent an ideal vehicle for a family,” Lister says. “The built-in rear sunshades would be great to use when a child is napping, or for keeping it cooler back there.”
With two teenagers in the house, he says the Cross Sport would work well for his family and figures it’s a vehicle that has as much capacity as the minivan he drove when they were younger. He concludes, “It was a real treat to try something that technologically advanced, but even with all of that tech, it was really, really an easy vehicle to get used to driving.”