VW Atlas has three rows of seats, and much more

A menu of Mark Glover’s AutoGlo car reviews can be seen on the Business page of The Sacramento Bee’s website – www.sacbee.com/news/business/article4005306.html

Sacramento, California – Get this: It’s a Volkswagen sport-utility vehicle, and it has THREE rows of seating.

It’s a 2018 Volkswagen Atlas – the V6 SE version with a special technology package in my case – and yes, it stacks up quite well in the segment of three-row transporters.

The exterior look is pretty standard, helped out by 18-inch alloy wheels wearing all-season tires.

Inside the tester, I found a wealth of comfort/convenience features, top-tier safety equipment and a blizzard of helpful technology.  Bottom line for all this was $38,015, actually a pretty attractive number in this age of the dime-a-dozen $40,000-and-up sport-ute.

At first, I felt a bit overwhelmed by all that was in the Atlas.  The surround-all air bags were there, but I also felt secure with the grippy disc brakes, backed up by an engine brake-assist system.

Heated front seats, plentiful seating/folding configurations for the second and third rows and three-zone climate control promised – and delivered – passenger comfort.  Getting folks in and out of the vehicle did not require an engineering degree or bending one’s spine into dangerous angles.

The touted technology package included adaptive cruise control, a lane-departure warning system, blind spot monitor, forward collision warning system and other state-of-the-art systems that seemingly make it impossible to dent the vehicle, even if you were trying to do just that.

On the move, my ride was responsive and agile with a 3.6-liter, narrow-angle V-6 (276 horsepower) doing the heavy lifting.  I expected the Atlas to struggle on uphill runs, but that did not happen.  It dug in well and held the line on slalom runs.

Fuel mileage is fair at 18 miles per gallon in the city and 25 mpg on the highway.

Overall, this Atlas shaped up as the perfect road trip cruiser, the kind of vehicle you actually enjoy taking on a long road journey, and get out of the SUV not feeling exhausted at the end of the day.

Likewise, with three rows of seating at the ready (or not), it’s great for transporting youngsters, groceries or whatever else you have in your life.

This Atlas makes Volkswagen a player in the larger SUV segment.