I Look at a New VW Atlas, I’m Reminded of a ’71 Plymouth Road Runner.

I occasionally get a sense of deja vu when looking at new cars. It happened a while back coming up on a late-model Hyundai (or is it a Kia?) sedan in the dark; the cat’s-eyes rear lights evoked the lateral-finned splendor of a 1959 Chevy. While I feel confident that the German-led design team in South Korea wasn’t pining to get a piece of the Bowtie spirit into their subcompact sedan, once you see it, it’s hard to unsee.

And so it was the first time I saw a new Volkswagen Atlas SUV, which must be selling well enough that I’m seeing quite a few. Not much moves me on a modern SUV, from the style to the power to the pricing, but when I see one I don’t recognize, I clock the details.

”The flares drove the modelers crazy. The surface had to be just right or the reflections went to hell. Finally, [studio boss] Dick Macadam told me I had one last chance. Fortunately, it was enough.” And somehow, half a century later, the same squared-off wheel arches appear on a completely different vehicle. Oh, the Atlas’ character line is much higher up–much closer to the door handles than the rockers, unlike Plymouth’s approach. But holy cats, the shape is the same.

It is at this point that I must confess that the ’71-’72 Plymouth B-body is my favorite-shape American car, probably ever. Mr. Miele across the street had a Satellite Sebring until I was six years old, and even though his was green with hubcaps and a vinyl top, I thought it was a terrific shape. Everything else on the street looked hard-edged and clunky; his Plymouth looked taut despite its size.

None of the rest of the Plymouth translated onto the Atlas, and it shouldn’t. A five-door SUV is not a bitchin’ intermediate coupe. Nothing else would make sense: no lack of B-pillar, no monstrous C-pillar, no loop bumper, no optional aerodynamic winglets on the front fascia, and certainly neither an optional Hemi or a Hurst-shifted Pistol-Grip four-speed coming up out of the Atlas’ trans tunnel. Not even an outrageous color palette.

So maybe I’m just drawing a connection that isn’t there. Maybe I’m predisposed to seeing it. Who knows. I see it. Do you?

I wonder how the Atlas would look on a set of 15-inch Rallyes…