They Are Brothers: Volkswagen Touareg, AUDI Q7 and Porche Cayenne - Vol.351
Once upon a time in Germany there was a power couple who had no children. So they went to work on the problem, hired experts, and committed resources and time to having one. It worked! Boy, it worked well indeed. They ended up having a triplet.
That German power couple is Volkswagen Group ? a marriage of powerful brands like Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, and more. The project was called the Volkswagen Group PL71 platform.The triplet was their first ever sports utility vehicles (SUV). They were christened Volkswagen Touareg, Audi Q7 and Porsche Cayenne.
The three brothers are based on the same platform or gene pool but they are not identical twins. They grew up to be quite different in appearance and behavior. Q7 is the biggest but very elegant and never imposing. Cayenne is the fastest, and that's not because he's the smallest. He's simply from a heritage of awe-inspiring sports cars and has a turbocharged option that can leave not just his brothers but any SUV in the dust. And Touareg? He's under the main Volkswagen brand because he's papa and mama's boy.
Name the Three Brothers
Touareg was named after the Touareg people (pronounced "Twa-reg") of North Africa interspersed through the Sahara Desert across multiple countries. Some people thought Cayenne was named after the city of Cayenne in French Guiana but he's actually named after cayenne pepper ? because he's hot, especially when he put on the Turbo S with 570 horses. Nobody knows for sure how Q7 got his name. Some think he's named after a robot, others think he's so big that he can cut the queue, so Q7.
As for looks, there is more resemblance between Touareg and Q7 than the two of them vis-a-vis Cayenne. That's mainly because of Cayenne's distinctive headlights that are shaped to resemble the legendary Porsche 911 series. When you look at all three of them from the side, you'll start to believe that they're related. Cayenne used to be smallish but he's grown quite a bit. Size is no longer a very convincing complaint against hot Cayenne. And the ladies agreed when they said, "Size is not everything."
Let's Go Places with Them
All three of them handle more like a car than a truck or SUV. Cayenne has the best suspensions and is the most nimble. Touareg is not far behind. He is agile and responsive. Q7 can be sluggish at times in the standard configuration. If you have to have the size of Q7 with three rows of seats, you should consider opting for the award-winning Audi 3.0 TFSI engine rather than the base model's 2.0 TFSI.
Now that we know how the three brothers look and behave, we need to look at what's inside them (in case any of the three brothers wish to join The Bachelor show or something).
With three rows of bucket seats to seat 7 people comfortably, Q7 looks as big on the inside than the outside. The Q7 interior is elegant and nicely fitted, somewhere between beginning and intermediate levels of luxury. Touareg's interior is just as nice. Neither of them compares to Cayenne's interior though. Cayenne's bucket seats are form-fitting with higher grade leather surfaces. Cayenne's steering wheel looks and feels as proud as the rest of him.
Needless to say ,Cayenne's performance and distinctive looks come at a price. He is what you'd call the high maintenance type. Q7 is the biggest Audi but it's at the lower end of Audi luxury. On the other hand, Touareg is the biggest and nicest of all Volkswagen cars.