It should be able to cool down to roughly 30* below ambient air temp. Get a digital thermometer and stick it in the vent with max ac on and see if you're getting that temp (with outside air, recirculate would be cooler)
For me, it's auto at about 68 degrees. 72 would burn us out of the car because the fan just doesn't blow. At 68 it mixes cooler air enough to tolerate if we've finally got it chilled down enough from Max. Good question though! I should have specified what temp I maintained auto at.So auto at what temp setting? If you set it at 72 for instance and set the sync so all zones are set to 72, it will be at min. fan speed if the interior is hot? Ours does what you would expect....at start up and these settings it will blow full tilt until the temp reaches 72 and then back down. In auto, I see the fan speed b/c I set that using OBD11..nice to see what you are getting in terms of the fan speed.
Yeah, we figured something wasn't quite right which is why I'm eager to hear if OP gets any traction with his dealer.^^^almost sounds like the system's thermometer sensors aren't working correctly vs. the air being blow isn't cold enough. I did some testing last night with a thermometer in the vents. Auto/sync at 72, ambient at 85, running vehicle for ~10 min parked yielded air out the front registers of ~40 deg, second row ~50 deg, and third row ~60 deg. Have you tested yours? A basic kitchen/meat thermometer is all you need. (mine is digital). Keep in mind (I know folks shoudl know this but just to be sure) that the air out of the vents is whatever temp it is and the setting of the system is just the target for the system to reach so air out of vents at the system set to 60 is the same temp as it is when it's set to 72). Also, you can't be in "auto" and have it on recirc, auto is always outside air (as far as I have seen) so when you hit max or hit recirc it kicks it out of auto mode into manual and the fan will not blow at full speed unless you set it to. The manual says to not use recirc unless you really are trying to avoid outside odors.
May I suggest just using the "Auto" setting - just put it in auto, set the temp, and see how that works. Our SEL is more than adequate cooling for all 3 rows and I never move it off auto.I've noticed the same thing and it appears the A/C unit is not sufficient for the vehicle and interior space. I can leave it on Max/LO for a LONG time, driving down the highway/interstate, and it still is not cold in the vehicle. The dealer has tested it and just says it's putting out the correct temp and that's all they'll say or do. However, in comparison, I used to have a 2015 Chrysler Town & Country which has as large or larger space to cool and it was able to more than keep up and I could adjust the temp down after a reasonable period of cooling. I was also loaned a prior year Tiguan and that cooled very quickly. It seems like VW reused Tiguan parts for a much larger vehicle. I've also recently noticed when parking in a parking deck for the day and putting the A/C on Max when I start out, the vehicle does cool down faster and I can adjust the level down some. Again, going with the idea the unit is insufficient to cool a hot car down efficiently of that size. Granted I like a cool vehicle, but when comparing to other models, it clearly underperforms.
Atlas SEL 2018