Their brand isn’t tainted in the US at all. You’ll see the Atlas everywhere - 160,000 sold in the last 2 years. That’s about half of Ford Explorer sales and about the same as Chevy Tahoe.
It's not tainted in Europe either. Sales are healthy and you see cars from the full range (Skoda, Seat, VW, Audi) aplenty. The overlap between car buyers and outrage bubble subscribers might be limited.
if you want a 3 row suv, the atlas is like 8-10k cheaper for the same amount of car than the others. and it doesn’t look bad. they needed something bigger than the toureg and it works
Can confirm, I bought a Tiguan 1 year ago, love it.