Bought a lovely 2019 Atlas in August 2020. Came to this forum and it has been helpful for the issues I have encountered in those 14 plus months since then. Have really wanted to love my Atlas but last week I sold it for $2K more than I paid for it and bought a 135000 mile 2009 Honda Odyssey for $8K. Atlas had 6K miles on it when I bought it and 23K miles when I sold it. I agree with many of the moderators of this forum and it is a solid car in many many respects and people do come to forums such as this to complain and share their anxieties etc. Quite simply put I wanted to share with others that I think the Atlas is a terrific car in so many ways and VW has and will continue to sell a lot of them.......but there are issues with them which will piss off a lot of people who know what VW should be (and are with other models in their range) and have been disappointed with their experience. Upon picking up the Odyssey, I noticed how smooth it is, none of the racket from torque converters (which dealers and others on this forum) say is normal. None of the steering rack issues, none of the constant blaring noise from the sensitive dash when you have the engine running and happen to want to open your door. None of it. For all the tech we have regressed in my opinion. The Ody just works. The most technical item I have is a multi-changer CD player. It purrs along the highway, is smooth as silk, no rattling sway bar links awaiting a second recall, no gas guzzling VR6 which has no reason to be so thirsty, no annoying start stop technology wether you can turn it off or not, no annoying ACC warnings and expensive calibrations, just butter smooth power delivery (I really don't care that the Atlas shares the same 8-9 speed transmission as Lexus as it always felt jerky) comfortable inside, cruise control just works and is simple, does not need calibration and ACC warnings etc. The Odyssey will run to over 250K miles no doubt with the right care. I installed a VCM muzzler immediately to bypass the Variable Cylinder Management system in the Honda and so I should not have the issues later in it's life. Anyway the very best of luck to you all with the Atlas - it's a great car in so many ways but not without it's flaws and I do happen to think that it is frankly unacceptable that these issues happen. There was a time when you bought a brand new car that you would not have many issues but sadly as a society we have now accepted that there will be problems even with new cars - why? Software for the most part and the almighty profit margin, rushed development, rushed engineering and lets get it rushed to the market place ASAP and then let's have the general public be the beta test for it. Unacceptable. For all the glamor of the looks of the Atlas, for all the flashy wheels and nice trim, it sat in the shop more than any vehicle I have ever owned - call that progress? Yes yes I am sure the Odyssey had it's teething problems back in the day too but I don't miss the Atlas one bit. Yes the Honda is not cool, yes it is a mini van and I can't go out in the snow but at least it just works and there is a reason so many old ones are still on the road today. So long guys!
