Built for Canada
Roomy and comfortable seven-seater calm and responsive to drive, even on an icy lake in Quebec
SAINT-ALEXIS-DES-MONTS, QUE.— It has been an interesting few years for Volkswagen.
All the fuss over diesel engines, which in my view was 99-percent nonsense and deprives us of the most fuel-efficient and least environmentally damaging power plants available, because the most environmentally sensitive vehicle is the one you don’t have to replace.
I own and love my two VeeDub diesel wagons, which have 360,000 and 395,000 kilometres on them respectively.
Volkswagen led the charge of imported cars into North America but has languished here in recent years, achieving minuscule market shares in both Canada and the U.S. And yet, it is now the largest car company in the world. What does the rest of the world know that we don’t? Abig part of it is that VW builds intelligent cars, but there isn’t much call for that sort of thing here.
North Americans want vehicles that are too big, too heavy, too thirsty and too unsafe. What’s a car company to do? If you can’t beat ’em …
VW has toyed with SUVs in the past. Until its recent makeover, Tiguan was too small for most SUV intenders, while the nowdeparted-from-Canada Touareg was too pricey and not really big enough.
So now comes Atlas, a designed-and-built-in-North-America six/seven-seat mid-to-large-sized SUV that starts at $35,690.
The name is supposed to represent the mythical giant who held the world on his shoulders. But maybe it’s really just short for “at last.”
Atlas is based on the MQB platform, which isn’t really so much a platform as a set of structural components that can be sized up or down to build a wide variety of vehicles, from the big Atlas to the compact Golf. This concept saves engineering time and cost, and helps ensure that the oily and structural bits are well-tested and robust.
In this case, they are clothed in the body of a three-row SUV, which is either handsome or looks like all the rest — depending on your perspective.
For that $35,690 price tag, you get the “Trendline” trim, which brings a 285-horsepower 2.0litre four-cylinder turbo engine, driving the front wheels through an eight-speed Tipronic automatic transmission. I expect these will sell in single digits in Canada — an SUV that can get you stuck in your driveway during a light snow storm? Huh?
An extra $4,100 gets you the 3.6-litre V6 with 4Motion, which is VW-speak for fourwheel drive. It runs mostly as a front-driver to save fuel unless it detects front-wheel slippage, in which case it can send up to 50 per cent of available torque to the rear wheels.
The base vehicle gets reasonable equipment, including Bluetooth connectivity with smartphone integration for Android Auto, Apple CarPlay and MirrorLink, power heated sideview mirrors, rear-view camera, roof rails, rain-sensing wipers, snooze-and-cruise, engine stop-start, hill-hold control for easier restarting on steep grades, automatic post-collision braking and alloy wheels, sadly shod with all-season tires — they’re no good in summer or winter. Moving up one notch to “Comfortline” ($39,690 for four-cylinder FWD; $43,790 for V6 4WD) gets you fake leather seating surfaces with10way power adjustment for the driver, three-zone automatic climate control, leather-cov- ered steering wheel with heat, an upgraded eight-inch touchscreen radio with Sirius XM capability, adaptive snooze-andcruise with stop-and-go functionality, an alarm system, a push-button starter, remote start and a blind-spot warning system. The “Highline” trim ($48,990) makes the V6 4WD standard equipment. There’s an eight-inch touchscreen with SatNav, a massive sunroof, real leather seats with ventilation and a boatload of other luxury trim bits. This will probably be the most popular model.
The range-topping “Execline” ($52,540) ups the luxury quotient with 20-inch alloy wheels, VW’s Digital Cockpit electronic instrument cluster, Birch Brown trim bits that look better than they may sound, more cameras to show you where you are going and a 12-speakerplus-subwoofer sound system from Fender.
VW brought us to this lovely remote setting a couple of hours north by northeast of Montreal, where Johnny Depp stayed during the shooting of his 2004 flick Secret Window.
Stepping into Atlas, you see that this truck is spacious. The front seats felt supportive and comfortable. The middle row is decently sized for three adults. In the two higher grades, you can opt for two captain’s chairs in place of the three-seat bench.
The third row is easier to get into than most of its ilk. It will do for normal-sized people in a pinch, or for the kiddies and/or your Aussie sheepdogs.
On the road, Atlas seemed to shrink around us, handling anything we could throw at it with a calm demeanour.
In the up-level model we drove, we had the choice of several drive modes, including dry, snow and off-road, which set various driving characteristics to suit the conditions.
In Dry mode, you have the added choice of four options — Eco, Normal, Sport and Custom — which change various parameters such as throttle response (mild to save fuel; more aggressive to help you get out of your own way).
Custom lets you pick and choose among the parameter settings. You might find, as I did, that no matter what mode you are in, the steering is too light, so I just went into Custom and made it feel the way I wanted it to feel.
Quebec roads may be in even worse condition than ours, but Atlas soaked it all up quite well.
This engine, as it always does, responds well to even small throttle inputs — quick, but not too jerky. It is powerful enough to handle the cut-and-thrust of most traffic. The transmission shifts smoothly when left to its own devices. You can also massage the shift lever yourself.
We not only got to drive Atlas on some cool roads, but also on some hopefully cool-enough ice on Lac Sacacomie. We figured if it was thick enough to support the massive snowplows, it was thick enough for us. We ran the SUV through a big slalom course, kicking up snow just for the fun of it.
VW also laid on a bunch of their other vehicles for comparison, and that was actually quite interesting. The Golf R, for example, uses essentially the same four-wheel-drive system, but is programmed differently.
On the ice, we could hang the tail end of the Golf out at lurid angles; in Atlas, presumably to be driven more by families and less frequently by hooligan journalists, it was impossible to get the tail end out very much.
Atlas is one of the rare vehicles VW seems to have designed just for our market, although it is likely to get wider distribution.
Despite my carping about this genre of vehicle, I did own the granddaddy of all SUVs, a GMC Suburban, for many years. With four kids, I had no choice. So if you really need something this size, who am I to say “Nay nay?”
VW’s new Atlas will do the job and provide a better drive than most in this field.