New to the Market and Change Talks have Begun

01.20.17 - Volkswagen Atlas

01.20.17 - Volkswagen Atlas

The newest model from Volkswagen is the full size Atlas. This is a three row SUV that provides the power and performance we’ve longed for from the German brand we love the most. This new SUV is big, it’s brawny and it makes a difference when it shows up on the road. This is a large vehicle that can easily offer us the ride that we’ve lacked on the market from Volkswagen for a few years as it comes in with the right build and the performance that will let us have a VW SUV that is great to drive.

Like I said, this new VW SUV puts itself in part of the market that wasn’t being used by VW at all. With the addition of the Atlas to the market there has already been talk of what might come next for this brand and this vehicle. Is there something more that could be had from the Atlas? Will VW figure out what they could do to enter an area of the market they’ve not been in before with this big brute of a vehicle on the road? The whispers have already begun toward something else from the Atlas.

Let’s take a look at what Honda did for a minute first. The original Honda Ridgeline, which is a unibody pickup truck, was built off the Honda Pilot platform. The Pilot has long been the largest Honda SUV on the market and it gives us the right vehicle to build a truck from. This is where the talks have taken us for the new Volkswagen Atlas as well. The expectation is there just might be a new pickup truck in the future that’s built off the Atlas platform to bring us the performance we want and the size we need.

Do we need more pickup trucks on the market? Of course we do. The market for a midsized pickup is perfect for something built off the Atlas SUV platform. There is plenty of room for a vehicle that offers the loading and hauling ability a pickup can bring while being fuel efficient enough to drive on a daily basis and not waste a ton of fuel. We love these types of vehicles and find them fascinating to take out in the wilderness to see how they can perform on the trails that we have around us.

Will there be something larger such as a full size truck built off this platform? Volkswagen has already ruled out this possibility. They have stated that the midsized truck realm with a unibody construction would be best. They also mentioned the fact that Ford, GM and Ram seem to have the market cornered for the body on frame trucks that we see on the market today. These automakers aren’t about to give up some of their dominance to see a newcomer added to the mix and take over some of their space in the marketplace.

Is there reason to believe Volkswagen can pull this off? Right now we don’t have any history in the US to tell us this is possible, but Volkswagen does offer the Amarok as an overseas midsized pickup truck which makes us think an Atlas based model could be in the cards. Imagine a German engineered pickup that sells well on the US market, this could be a serious competitor when we’re looking at the performance we could expect. For now though, let’s enjoy the Atlas for what it is and leave the speculation to the rumor mill as we watch this new large VW SUV and see how our market will respond to it.

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