PHOTO: RICHARD BOSSELMAN ROAD TEST The Porsche is the sportiest, the Audi the most suave, with the added attraction of seven seats. The Volkswagen? Cost consciousness, pragmatism and everyman appeal are often parlayed. In reality, the VW Touareg, Audi Q7 and Porsche Cayenne represent as circles that converge more than occasionally.
They are, after all, close cousins, sharing the same underlying platform and much else besides. The Touareg is a more complex character than is often presented. The idea that it is last to get best kit is wrong; not only are air suspension, trick driving aids and four-wheel steer delivered to all three, but the VW, while the most diesel-committed, has had some spectacular engines: Most latterly a V8, but also in the past a V10 and (though just for Europe, and only briefly) a W12.
And now? Three editions, everything being in V6 seems a sign of downsizing times, but in reality the 3.0-litre in the new flagship is altogether quite different to the mill delivered to cheaper choices. Being a petrol is a Touareg first.
Being a petrol-electric, ditto. PHOTO: RICHARD BOSSELMAN Getting that pace from a large SUV asks for enormous outputs of 340kW and 700Nm. The kilowatt count is not just the biggest for a Touareg, but also makes it the most powerful VW selling here.
Torque-wise, it is the biggest twister of the existing family, though a little less muscular than past family heroes. So give and take. But the key appeal VW proposes is that this new engine is .