The 2024 Volkswagen Atlas: The Car Mom's Family Car of the Year!

ATLASt, a family hauler designed with comfort, style and affordability in mind.

The 2024 Volkswagen Atlas is The Car Mom 2024 Car of the Year WINNER!

If you’re looking for a 6 to 7 passenger SUV that can comfortably fit adult passengers and young children alike – without sacrificing trunk space or your budget, look no further than the Volkswagen Atlas! (P.S. the car seat set-up is what dreams are made of!)

If you’re new here - welcome! I’m Kelly the Car Mom and I wear a lot of hats. As a certified child safety tech, mom of three, and just a huge car lover I take these reviews really seriously. By the end of this post, you’ll see everything the new 2024 Volkswagen Atlas has to offer, and most importantly why I think it's the 2024 “Car of the Year”.

We’ll dive into comfort (and trunk space) safety ratings and awards, technology, the car seat capabilities and the Atlas’ value below. 

Before you dive in and start car shopping, make sure you’re fully prepared to tackle today’s market with confidence. To learn everything from dealership prep to a complete negotiations strategy, check out my Car Buying Course!

Comfort

Let’s talk about comfort features! The Atlas is the roomiest mid-size SUV for both front seat and rear row passengers. If you’re worried about legroom for tall passengers or multiple rear-facing car seats, don’t be with this vehicle! The knee clearance in the second and third rows is impressive for even taller passengers. With head restraints in every seating position you can not only ride comfortably no matter where you sit, but safely too. Passenger comfort is a 10/10 with respect to the size and shape of the seats and the knee clearance. 

Let’s talk about what comfort and convenience features you’ll find row by row: 

Starting with the front seat you’ll find luxe feeling leatherette seats and steering wheel accents. New for 24, heated and ventilated front seats come standard too! There’s (only) two large cup holders in the center console area, but worry not, the door cubby can hold a Stanley and a grande coffee cup simultaneously! (So that’s enough space for four of the driver’s drinks and leaves two spaces in the passenger door cubby for any other front seat rider - or yesterday’s coffees.) Next you’ll find a generous sized center console that can easily fit a diaper’s bag worth of belongings and more. New for 24 there’s also a cubby-pass-though instead of wasted space! Lastly you’ll find two USB-c chargers up front, next to a wireless charger, and then a third USB-c inside the center console.

Moving on to the second row comfort features:

The best feature has got to be the built-in sun shades! They do a good job of actually covering the window and drastically reducing the direct sunlight. The low point is the lack of ceiling vents… I cannot understand why a car specifically designed for the large North-American family is lacking something as basic as ceiling vents, but it is. Instead it’s located on the back of the center console. The Atlas’ saving grace here is that the AC system is shockingly powerful so the temperature, even for rear-facing kids, is comfortable. That said, actual airflow directed to the head/face of a child in a car seat makes a huge difference when it comes to comfort and reducing motion sickness. If your child falls into that category it’s something you want to be aware of. Some other second row features include heated seats, two USB-c ports and decent door-cubby-cup holders. You can fit one hot coffee and another smaller water bottle in each door at the same time, which is great when you’re buckling kids in the second row and haven’t made your way to the front of the car yet.

If you opted for captain’s chairs over a bench seat you’ll find a wider-than what I’d consider normal aisle to the third row. Alternatively you can utilize the car seat-friendly tilt to access the third row (available for the bench and captain’s chairs.)

Lastly third row comfort features: 

The third row boasts two comfortable seats to fit both (tall) adults and car seats alike. The AC vents are located on the side post of the car for great ventilation actually towards you. There are two USB-c ports located on the driver’s side and none on the passenger side for some reason. Lastly there are 2.5 oddly designed cup holders on both sides. I say 2.5 because they’re actually 3 interlocking circles, but much like the rear center seat in most mid-size SUVS - the center one is small and useless. You can fit a venti coffee in the cup holder, but no water bottles larger than a plastic bottle.

Exiting the third row requires lifting up on a handle on the second row seat, which is not complicated for adults, but is not as convenient as a button like some other vehicles have. I was able to teach my four-year-old how to exit from the third row this way, but he much prefers climbing over the seat.

Now for the comfort of what I’m hauling with me… the trunk!

Trunk Space

Trunk Space deserves its own category to discuss what this car can offer. There is 21 cubic feet of space behind the third row which can fit a variety of double strollers, but not much else besides a small grocery run. It is spacious enough to puzzle in a grocery store haul and still fit an umbrella stroller. Where this car really shines though is when you can keep the third row folded down and utilize all 56 cubic feet behind the second row!! Whatever you’re hauling, it’s fitting. You can fit large double strollers, stroller wagons, and a Costco haul all at once. This is one of the many reasons I love a bench seat, you can fit three rear passengers comfortably across and still fit all you could need and more in the trunk/folded third row. It also folds completely flat, giving you more usable space than some other SUVs. Lastly if you need to transport something large and want to fold down your second row, you will find almost 97 cubic feet behind the driver seat. There’s about 90 inches of space from front row to tailgate and you can haul quite a few large objects you might otherwise need a truck bed for. Drywall, plywood…the Atlas can haul it!

Now if you find that the 21 cubic feet of space isn’t enough for you, you can consider the slightly larger Chevy Traverse, but otherwise you’re going to want to narrow your search to full-size SUVs like the Ford Expedition or Chevy Tahoe.

Safety

Rest assured that in the Atlas you’re driving a vehicle that’s going to keep you and your family safe. For 2023 the IIHS (Insurance Institute for Highway Safety) awarded the 2024 Atlas with their highest award, the Top Safety Pick+. To be eligible for the award a vehicle must earn a good rating for both the driver and passenger-side small overlap front tests and original moderate overlap front test. It must also earn a good rating in the updated side crash test. The crash tests are rated from best to worst: good, acceptable, marginal and poor.

Additionally a vehicle must earn an advanced or superior rating for vehicle-to-pedestrian front crash prevention. Lastly, headlights must be rated acceptable or good as standard equipment. This last criteria, coupled with improved vehicle-pedestrian collision avoidance, is why the earlier model years of the Atlas did not earn the coveted Top Safety Pick+, but the 2024 MY does. 

A key safety feature of the Atlas is their Front Assist system. The car will issue a forward collision warning to alert the driver to a possible collision with another vehicle or pedestrian. It can help prepare the car for emergency braking, assist with braking and initiate automatic (emergency) braking. This system works utilizing sensors on the front of the vehicle that scan using radar to both alert the driver of hazards as well as help prevent collisions.

Technology

A welcomed update to 2024 is improved technology and convenience features! In previous model years the tech felt outdated and the infotainment system was not intuitive at all. The upgrade for 2024 is much needed and boasts features often found in luxury cars, like ambient lighting and heads-up-display! The ambient lighting package allows you to choose any color imaginable for your infotainment system, dashboard digital display and even some cabin accent lights!

The infotainment system refresh is reminiscent of Apple CarPlay with easy to see and use touchscreen buttons. That said, I would prefer climate control and volume buttons pulled out of the infotainment system, but the set up is still very user-friendly especially compared to other clunkier systems. 

You have the option of wireless Apple CarPlay, Android Auto or Bluetooth connectivity for hands-free commands. You’ll also find two USB-c ports and a wireless charger up front, with an additional 5 ports throughout the vehicle too. 

I want to include these trim-specific tech features here instead of under-safety since it’s not standard equipment. This tech includes: Lane Keep Assist (front cameras identify lane markings and can correct the steering wheel if you begin to drift out of your lane), a surround-view camera and parking sensors. We’ll dive into the trim levels below if you want to ensure you have this tech. 

A few other standard features include: keyless entry, push to start, dual-zone climate control and blind spot monitoring.

If you’re looking for hands-free power tailgate, remote start, parking sensors and a tri-zone climate control (driver, passenger and rear seats)  you’ll need the SE with Tech trim that starts at $41,000. This trim and the trim below have 4Motion (AWD) as an option and all the higher trim levels come with 4Motion standard. 

Moving up to the SEL trim you’ll find a gorgeous power panoramic sunroof, lane keep assist and built-in navigation (if that’s your thing.)

Jumping up a couple trims to the SEL Premium R-Line (and jumping up to $52,000) you’ll have a surround-view camera and parking assist technology.

If you’re looking for the trim that gets you the most bang-for your buck while still boasting what I’d call necessities (like a power tailgate!) I’d consider the SE with Tech trim.

Car Seat Capabilities

The VW Atlas absolutely shines when it comes to car seat configurations and third row access. Before diving into the details, I’ll tell you that the Atlas has a tether anchor in every single seating position(!!!) and lower anchors in every second row position, but none in the third row. The head restraints are also removable in every seating position, although I’ve found that in the second row they rarely interfere with a forward-facing car seat because they’re relatively flush to the seatback.

We’ll start with the second row:

Both the basic trim levels and the premium trim levels offer captain’s chairs or a bench seat. The captain’s chairs each have a set of lower anchors and a tether anchor. The bench option boasts three seats of lower anchors and three tether anchors. Let’s talk about this incredible bench - it is a three-across machine! If you need to fit three car seats, or a combination of car seats and passengers, this is probably my top choice for a mid-sized SUV. The bench seat is a 60/40 split, that means the seat behind the passenger takes up 40% of the bench and the center seat and seat behind the driver share the other 60%. Don’t be fooled, just because these two seats are sharing 60% of the space, doesn’t mean they share it evenly, 30/30. This is important when it comes to car seats. 

This is probably my biggest (only?) gripe about the car seat set-up here. The middle seat is narrow! Not narrow enough that an adult can’t comfortably fit there, you absolutely can, but narrow enough that your car seat selection is limited. The relatively narrow seat coupled with the rigid buckle stalk means a car seat must be thin enough so that it doesn’t rest on the buckle. You might be asking “Kelly, what’s a rigid buckle stalk?” Instead of a buckle that you can move up,down, or side to side, it's in a fixed, immovable position. In the Atlas it also happens to be nearly flush with the seat. If a car seat is too wide, it would sit on the buckle and cause damage to it. Most infant car seats fit in the center seating position without issue, the Graco SlimFit3 LX / True3Fit LX is a stellar option for this seat as are Clek’s lineup of car seats and so is Peg Perego’s Viaggo Flex booster seat. (This is not an exhaustive list, but these are some guaranteed fits!) I also want to reiterate that it very comfortably fits a passenger without a car seat too. 

Let’s talk about the outboard seats, well, they’re huge! You can fit a seat as wide as an Extend-2-Fit or a Nuna Rava here with a car seat in the center position too. The Atlas is a shining example that three across doesn’t necessarily mean you need three narrow car seats. You really only need one! 

Moving on to the third row: how do you move to the third row? Via the passenger or driver’s side because both sides of the bench (or captain’s chairs) offer a car seat friendly tilt! As a refresh, a car seat friendly tilt is a feature that lifts and tilts the entire vehicle seat without changing the angle of the vehicle seatback. So any car seat installed with LATCH works with this feature. Like I mentioned before, the Graco Extend-2-Fit fits nicely on these seats so you can feasibly use a LATCH installation up to 45 pounds to take advantage of the car seat tilt access! The second row is also on tracks that provide enough space for a small child to access the third row without using the car seat tilt. 

Back in the third row you do not have lower anchors, which really is such a missed opportunity here VW, but we do appreciate the tether anchors in both rear seating positions. There are two rear seats that actually fit an adult very comfortably. The head restraints are not flush like the second row, but they are easily removed to accommodate a FF car seat or high back booster seat. 

For most higher profile car seats you’ll need to push the second row up a bit to give a safe amount of legroom for the car seat rider, but the third row can definitely accommodate a forward facing seat behind a rear-facing seat in the second row. This may seem counterintuitive but an adult passenger actually needs less space in the third row than a car seat because of where the extra legroom is located, below the seat cushion (where a car seat isn’t reaching!) 

If you’re looking to fit 5 car seats in a mid-sized SUV with ease, the Atlas comes out on top! While the Chevy Traverse, for example, has more cubic feet of interior space, the car seat set up is (somewhat) tighter than in the Atlas. Both vehicles are great options for car seats, but there is more passenger space in the Atlas.

Value

Starting at $37,000 this family hauler is budget conscious without skimping on safety, technology or comfort. Volkswagen reworked the 6 trim levels, SE to SEL Premium R-Line so there is really something for every family at every budget. Being able to transport a family of 7 in a new vehicle under $40,000 is remarkable. 

Speaking of budget, averaging at just about 20mpg you can stretch your dollar at the gas pumps. City driving gets about 18mpg and highway is stated 24mpg. That said, I've been able to get quite a bit above 24mpg on long highway trips utilizing ACC (adaptive cruise control.)

If you’re looking for my 2024 Atlas tour, check it our here , or if you want to compare to an older model year Atlas, check out my 2021 tour here. If you’re looking for the other 3 finalists, check them out here.

What do you think?? Are you surprised? Let me know your thoughts below!