

The Atlas Cross Sport does edge out the (nine-year-old) Jeep Grand Cherokee fitted with a 5.7-liter Hemi V8, so at least that’s something. That family carter earns 29 mpg combined with the base engine and 26 mpg combined with the turbo. Plus, eliminating the third-row opens up a few inches of extra legroom for the reclining second-row.Ĭompare the Atlas Cross Sport to another popular, spacious, mid-size five-seater: the Subaru Outback. The hood is a vast expanse that reminded me of driving a full-size pickup. Like the standard Atlas (and much of America), everything about the Atlas Cross Sport feels super-sized. Learn More: Here The Atlas Cross Sport is large and contains multitudes.

Judging from recent VW SUV sales performance, it’s probably the right bet. With the Atlas Cross Sport, Volkswagen is betting your friends, relatives, and acquaintances don’t care much about lackluster capability and uninspired driving dynamics. Plus, it’s affordable, with an MSRP starting just above $30,000. It looks upscale, can accommodate large people, and take on a lot of stuff. But already-German VW laser-focused on making a crossover that would tick every box for an American focus group. Other manufacturers have taken their SUVs in traditionally Teutonic directions, striving for elegance, precision and performance. Like the standard Atlas, the Atlas Cross Sport can seem like an anomaly. It loses the third-row seat, because its active buyers care not for carpool flexibility. It’s a sportier-looking, smaller-but-still-midsized version of the standard Atlas, with that coupe-like sloping back roofline that’s all the current rage. Out went much of the Golf family in, for 2020, comes the new Atlas Cross Sport. Naturally, VW is reacting to its new reality by altering its vehicle lineup, which was slanted 11-2 in favor of passenger cars in 2019. Two spacious American-built crossovers, the Tiguan and the Atlas, constituted more than 50 percent of VW’s American sales in 2019. Nowadays, though VW is an SUV company - especially Stateside. Once, we considered VW a small car company, producing cheap, practical and great-handling cars like the Golf. Volkswagen’s sales foundation has shifted over the past few years.
