2018 VW Atlas 3.6 4 Motion Reliability?

[supton]

Originally Posted by DuckRyder
Originally Posted by supton
VR6 is bulletproof? I have to question that--last I knew, they were known for timing chain problems--and being on the backside of the engine, reason enough to ditch the car before the 150k mark when that problem came around...


The early 12V, took about 9 hours in my garage to change it and all the guides. Not a bad job, and certainly not worth "ditching" the car over, that is just crazy talk.

That's what I remember back in the day. I'm guessing that, for most average people, 150k is 10 years. Not far from most people's time to move on in general.

9 hours of shop time, plus parts, would not be a "cheap" repair for most people to accept. Plus that's the sort of thing you expect on a timing belt motor!

 

[GZRider]

Good info on the Honda, can't say I've been impressed with their in house gear boxes in the past either. Strange days, ZF's in Honda's, Aisin's in VW and FCA Trucks... What's next? Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria!?!

 

[GZRider]

Realistically 130-150,000 miles is where my buddy will probably want to get rid of this for something newer anyhow. I'm not a big VR6 fan personally but that's mostly because I think the 2GR-FSE and VQ37VHR are better versions of the same thing. The VR6 is more like the 2GR-FE in power and refinement but it lakes that "come on let's be bad, go fast, come do it you know you want to do it do it now" feeling you get from the Toyota and Nissan sport v6's. If I'm getting a German six cylinder, you can be sure all those cylinders will be in a single row.

 

[GZRider]

Personally if I'm ever gonna deal with the German car headaches it's gonna be for one that's all the fun when it is running like an N54 335i or B7 S4. But I wouldn't be planning to use it as a daily driver or try to have it as my only vehicle.

 

[edyvw]

Originally Posted by PWMDMD
Originally Posted by edyvw
....only problem can come from Aisin transmission as it is known for issues. So far it seems VW is not that affected by those issues as Toyota is.
It is much better executed than Highlander or Pilot.



For the record, the Pilot has either a Honda 6-speed or ZF 9-speed.

I was referring to Toypta. I know Pilot is not Aisin.

 

[edyvw]

Originally Posted by GZRider
Good info on the Honda, can't say I've been impressed with their in house gear boxes in the past either. Strange days, ZF's in Honda's, Aisin's in VW and FCA Trucks... What's next? Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria!?!

Aisin is in VW for a long time. ZF in Honda had some issues around programing though not as bad or catastrophic as Aisin 8 speed in Toyota AWD vehicles. FCA trucks are using ZF 8 speed, and no Aisin can hold candle to that transmission, or any transmission can.

 

[edyvw]

Originally Posted by supton
VR6 is bulletproof? I have to question that--last I knew, they were known for timing chain problems--and being on the backside of the engine, reason enough to ditch the car before the 150k mark when that problem came around.

I thoroughly enjoyed my VW, and when I bought it I knew I would have to drive a bit in order to get competent work done on it by a good mechanic. I'd drive 2-3 hours to him to get it repaired. But eventually I got tired of that, found a local mechanic--but when he closed shop I got tired of it all together. I guess that is true of all other brands, heck for all I know they are all hard to debug today, and good mechanics are probably still hard to find. But I got tired of it and went for dull & boring route as I figure it has to be easier to repair. At some point it gets easy enough for even me to work on.

But my VW experience was back when people were like "gas powered VW? why bother?"

3.6ltr proved to be bulletproof. Issues that had was in 2007 when it appeared in Q7.

 

[wemay]

I had three VR6 equipped VWs from 95-04. They all leaked oil from the rear main seal. Back then it didn't bother me.

One was an A2 1990 GTi 8v with a VR6 engine swap, so I know it really doesn't count. The other two were a 98 Jetta GLX and an 04 GTi.

But I still love that engine. In my experience, t's up there with the Nissan VQ.

 

[BMWTurboDzl]

Originally Posted by wag123
Originally Posted by madRiver
Originally Posted by macarose
Look at other Volkswagens

http://www.dashboard-light.com/reports/Volkswagen.html


The site data collection method is quite interesting, AUCTIONS? interesting read http://www.dashboard-light.com/click-here-first/
Auto auctions are an excellent place to collect data on vehicle defects. On vehicles that are out of warranty, a fairly large percentage of people will trade-off a vehicle if they have a problem (or problems) with it. When the dealer who took the vehicle in on trade uncovers the problem (or problems), some dealers will fix the problem, some will take the vehicle to auction, and some unscrupulous dealers will go ahead and retail the vehicle as-is. Now that the auto auctions are auctioning such a high percentage of their vehicles on the Internet, someone has to evaluate the vehicle for the auction listing before it is put up for auction. If there are undisclosed problems with a vehicle, the auction of that vehicle can/will be voided. The biggest reasons for why this is such a good indicator of long-term quality is because of the reliability of the data, the huge amount of it, the lack of bias (they don't care who built the vehicle), and the checks and balances built into the auction system rules.


It's actually a poor indicator of reliability because of the unknown maintenance and user history. IMO that site is a lagging indicator with regards to the cost to maintain and repair rather than reliability in general. After all some makes will be driven more aggressively and possibly abused by the prototypical owner. Take a VW Golf GTI as an example. Initial owner is a lease who tunes the [censored] out of it, and then the dealer sells it CPO to another individual who does the same. After 100k miles the vehicle is played out.

 

[dareo]

Probably good to very good reliability combined with the long warranty makes it very worth looking at. Your friend might even get a good enough discount to fit brand new in his price range.

 

[Coastie05]

I have personally had 2 bad experiences with VW products and have sworn them off. However, they drove like a dream but they just don't last very long without major issues but that has been my experience. I do stick to Honda's now because they have literally given me no issues at all. However, I will say the Atlas is one nice looking vehicle.