Volkswagen’s third best-selling SUV has gotten a makeover and while it looks largely the same, something big happened under the sheet metal. Under the skin of the 2024 Volkswagen Atlas and Atlas Cross Sport is a new, luxurious interior that reminds me of the final days of the Touareg. The biggest change is under the hood, where Volkswagen’s legendary VR6 will no longer sit, ending the fabled engine’s run in America.
Back in 2016, Volkswagen announced that it had a mid-size SUV in the works. Unlike the Touareg super SUV, this would be designed specifically for the American market with three rows of seating, a price lower than the Touareg, and still a decent 5,000-pound tow rating. Starting for the 2017 model year, Americans got to get behind the wheel of the Atlas. It was a smash hit, with the Atlas beating the Touareg’s best sales year in just its first year. The best the Touareg could do in a year was 18,050 units, and that was in 2005.
The Atlas? Volkswagen sold 27,119 of them in 2017 (according to their figures) and sales hit 81,508 units in 2019 before the pandemic hit. The price gulf was huge, too, as the Atlas was $30,500 at launch while the Touareg stickered at $20,000 more and came with two fewer seats. Americans voted with their wallets that they were willing to sacrifice some tow rating and off-road capability for more seats and a lower price. In 2017, Volkswagen discontinued the Touareg in America.
The Atlas was joined by the two-row coupe-style Atlas Cross Sport in 2020 and together, they dominate Volkswagen’s sales charts alongside the Tiguan and Taos. I’ve had the pleasure of playing with a 2022 Atlas Cross Sport SEL Premium R-Line in southern California and I felt that, while the SUV wasn’t quite as beastly as the Touareg it ultimately replaced, it was most of the way there for a whole lot less cash. It got about 23 mpg with me racing it around and I got to listen to the wonderful soundtrack of the Volkswagen VR6 engine. Plus, the vehicle’s adaptive cruise control made SoCal’s notorious traffic a cinch.
A New Face
The Atlas got a facelift in 2020 and now it’s getting another. And this one is pretty comprehensive.
On the exterior, the biggest changes come in the form of revised front and rear fascia. The Atlas siblings get a new face that features a prominent grille and a lightbar that spans the entire front of the vehicle. The lightbar is joined by an illuminated Volkswagen logo. I feel like the change to the lights give the Atlas a look that better fits the aesthetic used on vehicles like the ID.4. Volkswagen says that these lights are LED and adaptive, but base models won’t get the full lightbar experience.
It’s a similar story around back, where the biggest changes are in the lights and the exhaust tips. Once again, the lights now span the entire rear end and you get a lightbar. The lights may be a small change but I dig them. LED lighting has allowed automakers to have fun with lights so I like to see when an automaker experiments. This is subtle, but great!
The exhaust tips are also a very low-key upgrade. In the past, the Atlas had simulated exhaust tips, and they weren’t great at looking like exhaust tips. You could tell from a distance that they weren’t real. The simulated tips make a return, but they seem to do a better job at looking the part.
Upgraded Interior
Pop the doors and you’ll notice another change to the Atlas. When I tested the 2022 Atlas Cross Sport SEL Premium R-Line, I found the interior to be futuristic with its LED accent lighting and it was pretty cushy, too. At the same time, the seats and some interior plastics fell a little short of even an older Touareg. Volkswagen has decided to give the Atlas interior a makeover, which the automaker says includes premium materials.
The dashboard and center console are leatherette-trimmed and soft-touch with a similar treatment given to the doors.
The dashboard itself is now smoother and the 12-inch infotainment screen is now floating like a tablet as opposed to set into the dash like the last Atlas. In front of the driver is a 10.25-inch configurable Volkswagen Digital Cockpit Pro. Some other changes in the interior are more subtle. The LED accent lighting remains, but now it illuminates the decor including the model name.
In terms of equipment, the interior comes packed with six USB-C ports with the availability of eight total. These have a 45-watt fast-charging capability. A heated steering wheel, automatic climate control, voice control, ventilated front seats and a height-adjustable passenger seat are now standard. Leather seats make a return as well and Volkswagen says that they are now available in a lower trim level than before.
Meanwhile, top-of-the-line Atlas and Atlas Cross Sport models get quilted leather seats. After playing around with the interior, I think this fixes what I thought was largely missing from the Atlas. Now it has an interior befitting of a Volkswagen flagship crossover.
Other features of the Atlas remain unchanged for 2024. That means that you can still get a full suite of tech features like IQ.DRIVE, a level-II driver assistance system, which offers an adaptive cruise control that can keep itself in a lane and handle stop and go traffic, but you have to hold the wheel. In my experience, this system works really well, and makes traffic a breeze.
So Long, VR6
For me, the biggest shocker comes under the hood. Currently, the Atlas and Atlas Cross Sport have two engines. You could get a 2.0-liter turbo four from the EA888 family making 235 horsepower 5,400 rpm and 258 lb-ft torque. Or, you could get your Atlas with the last VR6 that Volkswagen is selling in America. The VR6 is a compact V-engine taking on some attributes from an inline. Its design allows two banks to share a common head.
Introduced in 1991 for the Passat B3 and the Corrado, the VR engine compacts a V6 into a package that can fit into smaller vehicles. A typical V6 might have a 60- or 90-degree angle between the cylinder banks, but a Volkswagen VR? You’re looking at just 15 degrees. The unit currently powering the Atlas is a 3.6-liter VR6 with a 10.6-degree angle, providing 276 horsepower and 266 lb-ft torque. After over 30 years of powering vehicles with VR6 engines in America, this will be the last. Volkswagen’s people tell me that the VR6 is dead in America. Unfortunately, in a world of ever-changing regulations, Volkswagen feels that the VR6 is a dinosaur and that smaller fours can do the same job with better efficiency.
The 2024 Atlas comes with just one engine option. You get a 2.0-liter turbo four making 269 horsepower and 273 lb-ft torque that hits at 1,500 RPM. Volkswagen says that this new engine will get better fuel economy than the VR6 and, despite the horsepower penalty, it’ll boogie the Atlas to 60 mph faster, too. The new AWD Atlas hits 60 mph in 7.5 seconds, while the old one did it in 8.3 seconds. FWD units hit 60 mph in 7.6 seconds where the old ones did it in 8.0 seconds.
All of this is great! And it does mean that all versions of the Atlas can now tow 5,000 pounds, but it’s still sad to see such a legendary engine discontinued. That will be a subject for another piece.
As for the 2024 Volkswagen Atlas and Atlas Cross Sport, the facelift looks to have the right recipe to extend the pair of crossovers out into the future. I’ve long thought that the Atlas had the right formula for most American buyers–and the sales seem to support that–but the interior wasn’t quite there. This facelift seems to fix that. In a way, the Atlas looks like it’s grown up, shed its raucous VR6, and put on a business suit.
When can you buy one? As of right now, Volkswagen says that these will start hitting the road in the third quarter of this year. Full specifications and pricing will be revealed at that time. The current Atlas starts at $35,150 with the Atlas Cross Sport coming in at $34,460 and I would not expect the facelift to change much about the price.
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Seems to me like VW doesn’t want to sell Atlases anymore. Getting rid of V6 will tank sales for sure. Most of the Atlases I see on the road – including mine 2019 are V6. Just ask and average American if they would trust a four banger in the vehicle of this size. I think this will be the last iteration of Atlas here. Sad.
VW are the masters of putting interesting lights in boring-ass housings. The lights themselves look pretty cool, but the housings are borderline Buick Rendezvous bad. I would love to hear one of your designers break down the reasoning behind that.
I’m on the edge of an urban area and as soon as I cross into the full-fledged ‘burbs it’s Atlases everywhere and I blend in my with my 2019 VR6 (not that I want to.)
I commented on the engine (sort of) in the VR6 post, so I’ll skip that.
I like a well crafted minimalist interior that’s quiet and comfortable. The 2019 Atlas as that – almost. It’s just that where they used cheap materials, it kinda breaks. My seat cracked. The plastic cover for the lever to move the second row seats out of the way pops off. It scratches easily.
Where are the simple yet durable interiors? Not only are they better for kids, but I carry live sound equipment in my Atlas with the seats flat and if they fancy it up, forget it. I don’t want to snap more stuff off with road cases. You know what? I don’t even want carpets.
My ideal car:
Minimum 8″ ground clearance.
AWD/4WD
Seats more than 5 with seats that fold flat/away/come out/whatever method works
Plug-in-Hybrid
Infotainment screen doesn’t stick out of the dash but is embedded in it (like the OG Atlas)
Quiet interior for long trips
No delicate fiddly bits
Someone please make that car. I want it.
That just sounds like an XC90 T8 with a lift kit, but I’m assuming you want reliability, too.
Yeah. I want it all, but why shouldn’t I?
This is just the way of the world. I do not feel like the turbo fours are actually that much more efficient on the road and certainly VW and really and Bavarian car with a turbo has plenty of bad history, but I am not surprised at all. I would say I am disappointed they did not offer an NA 4 or even better the old 2.5 L 5 Cylinder with a plug in Hybrid setup. 40-50 miles on a plug in charge with a reliable and relatively basic ice engine would seem to be more efficient than a highly tuned 4 banger with a hair dryer.
Not sure on the efficiency. I have managed 18mpg on a road trip in an Alltrack but I also managed 17 in a N/A 4-banger Outback that had wayyyyyy less aggressive tires and no aerodynamic travesty attached to the roof. In THEORY you are expanding the gasses through a turbine instead of the exit of the exhaust pipe but with modern engine cycles maybe that isn’t so much of a bonus.
And yes, a big family crossover is a great place to do a PHEV with the motor just driving the rear wheels.
“The simulated tips make a return, but they seem to do a better job at looking the part.”
I would say they look just as similarly fake as before. Why even bother at this point…
My second car was a 1997 Jetta GLX VR6, which had a 2.8-liter 12-valve VR6.
Pour one out for the narrow-angle VW engine. I’m sure the Bentley W12s and Bugatti W16s (enabled by the narrow-angle design) will soon also be gone.
Best selling model? This must be a regional thing. I can’t recall the last time I saw an Atlas around here. Perhaps they have blended in with every other box of the same shape.
I see plenty of Golfs and Golf Wagons that you can no longer buy and Jettas all over the place. I also barely see the latest Passats.
I’m guessing VW Canada is just out of step with it’s market by copying the US. Most of the Canadian market doesn’t look like the suburban mid or south west.
I also haven’t seen a latest GTI or ID4 in the wild, but based on the pictures I’ve seen, that might be a blessing.
Apparently VW has sold about 450,000 of these in America since 2017. The Tiguan is the #1 seller and the Taos has been holding onto second. The Atlas is third.
What’s probably most surprising about VW’s data is that a LOT of people still buy Jettas every year.
The Jetta is a FANTASTIC car for the money. IMO they blow their competitors out of the water everywhere but ownership costs. Interiors feel very quality for the price and VAG is great at building engines and transmissions. (from a functional standpoint, some versions of the 4.2 and the early EA888s had some massive faults)
I had a brand new Tiguan rental a couple of months ago (literally got it at 13 miles) and just had a rental Atlas with 4,000 miles on it – I like the improvements for this facelift but really VW is already doing this right especially for someone like me who avoids SUV’s if at all possible. The digital dash looks good on the new ones even if I am old enough to prefer “classic” gauges
I got a used Atlas VR6 4Motion a few months ago (after 2 GTI’s – sad to have to size up since it’s illegal to put so many kids into a GTI?) and it was not a hard choice to stick with VW. But I will be a tiny bit jealous of the interior upgrades of soft touch and the heated steering that I would probably never even use.
The General Public: “There’s no replacement for displacement.”
Auto Manufacturers: “Hold my beer…”
The Warranty of Cars with Forced Induction: “Hold my beer…”
Man, you would not believe the look on people’s faces when I explain that no, professional top end cleaning is extremely not deferrable or optional maintenance. You have DI? Turbo or not, unless it’s a Porsche or hybrid MPFI-DI, it’s in the shop every 35-50k for an actual top end cleaning. Period.
And no, not that ‘pour it in the tank’ shit. Not Seafoam snake oil. Not ‘injector cleaner.’ If it isn’t powerful solvent they literally won’t sell to you, or complete removal of the intake and media blasting, then it isn’t a top end cleaning. And it ain’t cheap. About $250-300 for chemical these days.
Which is why the manufacturers are more than happy to continue with it. They can ignore it until it’s out of warranty, average owner’s completely oblivious, and by the time the CEL’s on the valvetrain’s basically scrap.
+1 to all that. On a related note, I can’t help but think that the rise of leasing as a popular sales/ownership model has resulted in bad engineering getting greenlighted. It’s the same type of product dumbing down tied to the prevalence of revolving door ownership and subscriptions.
Hehe my DI engine with 190k miles just died (still don’t know why) and there was zero carbon buildup on the valves*.
*this may have had something to do with the quart of oil it was burning every 1000 miles
VW’s dreaded all haptic infotainment and steering wheel switches=no dice, now and forever. Stop it with this BS.
Still a bloated Golf.
Quite a change from a couple years ago, where VW wouldn’t even sell a 2.0T with 4motion. Most reviews clocked the two engines pretty close in acceleration so it should drive about the same, or better with the added power, but the 2.0T doesn’t seem like it would be enough motor for a full-tilt model that can tow 5,000 pounds.
What I’ve always heard was that the performance of the VR6 in the Atlas was never sufficiently better than the 2.0 to justify the price jump for most shoppers. Cool engine, though.
That would make more sense for them intentionally limiting it the first few years of production to gear up for more of them down the line. In a segment shifting to turbo 4s, sticking with a V6 seemed like it would be a draw for some buyers though.
The Tiguan has the 2.0T too though in a very low state of tune, now wondering if that’ll stick with that motor or move to something else to differentiate.
If I’m choosing between a V6 and a turbo-4 with nearly identical power, I’ll take the non-turbo motor every time. Less stressed engines last longer.
While the VR6 is an interesting engine, I’ve always felt that the layout hampered airflow on either the intake side or exhaust side. Half of the intake ports have to snake their way around the front cylinders to get to the back cylinders and half the exhaust ports have to do the same. Seems like one step removed from a Ford flathead V8. The hp/liter output seemed subpar.
I learned to drive on a VR6 Passat, sad to see that engine go.
Yeah, those VR6s are pleasantly dope engines! So much character and charisma they had. I’ve seen a couple of videos featuring some quality exhaust setups like Magnaflows on the 3.2L VR6s on the Touaregs, Passats, etc. in general and man did those kitties purr.
Even seeing Jason Cammisa from Hagerty on a revelations video about the Corrado VR6 just made me search the classifieds for one too! IMHO, VR6s are the only other 6 cylinder configuration (Alongside mainly Inline 6 engines) that prove that 6 cylinder engines do have that charm to them. It does sting. It also does help that they’re pretty darn reliable too. So, yeah, losing those engines isn’t anything normal, at least in my view. We both definitely aren’t the only ones.
I realize that my opinion of VW is probably lower than most, but the standards for an engine to be considered “legendary” seem to have slipped a bit…
In its defense the VR6 is most definitely a legend. Its compact design and exhaust note are really on a whole other level, and fitting V6’s into spots that typically only an I4 would normally go has always been the hallmark of this engine. Plus it has spawned all sorts of narrow angle variations from VR5’s to W16’s in Bugatti trim. I will admit I am biased, but since the first time I heard a Corrado pulling into my high school parking lot I have been in love. I have owned several of them and as long as you don’t wait till the timing chains start rattling to maintain them they are generally reliable, except for the W8 Passat. Audi and Porsche are still using it in their SUV’s at least the last time I checked so it isn’t completely dead yet.
Sadly you are correct. 2.5 VR6 engines remain in production for two Chinese market models, the Audi Q6 and Volkswagen Talagon. However, I’m told that the engine is living on borrowed time as VW moves towards smaller, more efficient engines.
With the exception of the V10 TDI, W12, and the Audi sourced 4.2 V8 I think I have owned just about all of the water cooled engines VW has made. If one day I can no longer find VR’s to stuff into my projects I will have to switch over to the 2.5 I5 engines. The later ones (after 08?) put out respectable power, fit into small spaces, and sound epic when straight piped. I also believe their architecture, in a very de-tuned state, was spawned by splitting the Lambo 5L V10. At least that is what VW told us to say when the Mk5’s first came on the scene back in 05.
The Cayenne, Q7 and Q8 all use a 3.0-liter V6, which isn’t a VR6. As a matter of fact, it’s a 90-degree V6–as most Audi V6s have been—and probably shares some of its architecture with the 4.0-liter V8.
The prior Q7 and gen. 1/2 Touareg did use the VR6, but the new ones do not.
” Golf vr6,
Pneus qui crissent,
Silence brisé par les sirènes de la police. “