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