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With a starting price of $38,200, the Volkswagen Atlas undercuts the competition by at least $1,500. The Ford Explorer has a base MSRP of $39,755, which rises to $40,200 for the Honda Pilot. The least expensive Toyota Grand Highlander costs $40,860. Buyers looking for a top-end edition will find that the fully loaded Atlas SEL Premium R-Line still costs less than comparably equipped rivals.
Savvy car shoppers look beyond the selling price and consider how a vehicle’s operating costs affect their bank account. According to Edmunds’ five-year projected ownership costs (based on 15,000 miles per year), the Atlas is the clear winner. With an estimated ownership cost of $0.65 per mile, this VW is cheaper to drive than the Pilot and Explorer (which are projected to cost $0.70 per mile). Edmunds hasn’t yet projected these costs for the Grand Highlander.
Looking at the specifics, the Atlas has a five-year maintenance bill that will run $4,031, compared to $6,056 for the Pilot and $4,595 for the Explorer. Further, the projected $18,596 depreciation for the Atlas is substantially less than the five-year loss of value for the Pilot ($19,932) and the Explorer ($22,012).
Volkswagen packs great value into the Atlas, including luxury-grade features that cost extra on its competitors. Even the base Atlas SE has heated and ventilated front seats, an upgrade that requires paying for a more expensive trim on the others. For instance, the Grand Highlander Limited, which has standard heated and ventilated front seats, starts at $48,360. Similarly equipped Pilots and Explorers carry $52,000 price tags. In addition, the Atlas SE comes with Volkswagen’s premium V-Tex leatherette upholstery, while the competition covers their base trims’ seats with cloth. Meanwhile, wireless device charging is also standard with the most affordable Atlas, but this convenient feature only comes in higher trim packages of the Pilot and Explorer.
One advantage of buying a new car is the confidence you’ll feel knowing it’s covered long-term by a factory warranty. By offering four years/50,000 miles of bumper-to-bumper protection, Volkswagen extends this peace of mind for its customers while all of the aforementioned rivals fall short with basic warranties that last only three years or 36,000 miles.
All four three-row SUV models in this comparison come standard with advanced driver-assistance technologies such as automatic emergency braking, parking sensors, and blind-spot monitoring. That said, Volkswagen goes a step further by including Emergency Assist. This innovative technology can identify an incapacitated driver and autonomously bring the vehicle to a stop. The Pilot, Grand Highlander, and Explorer don’t offer this advanced – and potentially life-saving – system.
Although these crossovers fall in to the midsized category, they are larger vehicles. The four nameplates share similar key interior measurements like headroom and cargo space. Yet, families looking for maximum third-row comfort will find the Atlas to be the space champion. Its 33.7 inches of rear legroom edges out the Grand Highlander’s 33.5 inches. Further behind the comfort curve are the Pilot and Explorer, with 31.9 and 32.2 inches of third-row legroom, respectively.
