2016 Audi Q7 vs Porsche Cayenne

What's the difference?

The 200kW Q7 is a brilliant car and the 160kW is little different. It’s hard to make the economic case for spending less, though, as options will quickly land you in 200kW price territory unless, of course, you’ve stretched yourself for the $96,300 in the first place.

If you have stretched, you’re getting an even better overall car than the excellent BMW X5. The fundamentals of the Q7 are such that you could almost whack the 2.0 TFSI from the A3 in it and it would still be just fine.

Porsche's push into the mainstream with Cayenne to take on compatriots Mercedes, BMW and Audi has been hugely successful and the Cayenne was the car that started it all. It's priced well (a BMW X5 M50d is $4000 more), has plenty of equipment and a stack of space but is also mighty handy in the bendy stuff.

It may not be a jacked-up 911 but it's certainly a Porsche. Seven out of ten Porsche customers think so too.

Click here for more 2016 Porsche Cayenne S Diesel price and spec info

The new Q7 is, thankfully, a lot less imposing than the first generation. That car really did loom and as time went by it became ever more covered in bling. The restraint of the new car is admirable (and good business sense – there’s bound to be a bigger Q8 before long) and looks more like a jacked-up wagon than a full-on SUV.

As is Audi’s wont, there’s lots of aluminium, particularly in the MQB Evo chassis itself (shared with some pretty posh things like the Bentley Bentayga) as well as doors and bonnet.

Despite being smaller, there are still seven seats in the Q7, with a reasonably accessible pair of rear pews providing you’re at least four years old and in possession of two working legs. That third row gets its own air-conditioning vents, cupholders (there are six in total) and somewhere to store your ration of Smarties.

The middle row of seats can be slid fore and aft through about 15cm to liberate or rob the third row of space. The middle rear seat passenger does have to contend with a fairly solid transmission tunnel, however.

Storage is well scattered around the cabin, with four bottle holders, a shallow bin under the centre armrest and a few cubby holes here and there to supplement the good-sized glove box. Audi says the minimum boot volume is 770L with the third row of seats down and 1955 with both rows folded away. With the third row up, an educated guess says somewhere in the region of 300L is still available. There's also ISOFIX child seat mounts for all five rear seats.

The driver gets a clean, clear dashboard with two big dials flanking the central info screen and, as usual, everything is spot-on ergonomically. The dash is considerably less visually weighty than the old car, with full width air-con vents, the middle section blowing diffuse air so you’re not in a windtunnel from a 1980s music video clip.

There's no getting away from it, the Cayenne looks like a big car because it is. With big wheels and a big gaping grille, the Cayenne has street presence few cars can match. It still not the looker one would expect of the Porsche, but this second-generation version is much better resolved than the earlier cars and is less bloated looking.

Inside is very Porsche, and that includes Stuttgart's very unfortunate obsession with a button for everything. If you think the Macan has lots of buttons, the Cayenne matches the price differential by supplying even more buttons for your buck. This sort of thing makes car journalists squeal because when you've only got a week to learn what they all do, it's a race against time that's difficult to win. Standing back and thinking about it, most owners will be perfectly happy after a week or two.

As for the rest of the interior, it's a lovely place to be. Our brown interior with extra brown overlaid with mahogany (brown) may not be to everyone's taste, but it was certainly luxurious. Everyone gets a comfortable seat and plenty of room in which to enjoy it.

With the added light from the panoramic glass, it's an extremely agreeable cabin, with a great view out. The high console in the front makes you feel like you're sitting low in the chassis (you're not) and the whopping big Porsche steering wheel leaves you in no doubt you're in Porsche.

The Cayenne Diesel S kicks off at a startlingly reasonable (hey, it's all relative) $144,800. Perhaps against type, there's a lot of stuff packed into the Cayenne and you could cheerfully go without ticking a single box on the breathtakingly long options list.

The standard car carries a 14-speaker stereo, 20-inch alloys, power everything including steering column, dual-zone climate control, front and rear parking sensors and reversing camera, keyless entry, electronic dampers, hill descent control, cruise control, cooled glovebox, satnav, bi-xenon active headlights, auto lights and wipers, partial leather seats, sunroof, air suspension and tyre pressure monitoring.

On top of the standard features, ours had a full leather interior ($7690), Yachting Mahogany Interior ($6590 and is what it sounds like), Yacht Mahogany heated wood steering wheel ($1450, ditto), 21-inch wheels ($5610), soft close doors ($1790), black roof rails ($1390), panoramic glass roof ($1190), saddle brown seat belts ($1090), compass ($760), Porsche logos on the headrests ($450) and monochrome black exterior package ($450). This made a grand total of $173,300.

A purely subjective opinion: the mahogany you can probably do without, along with the brown seat belts. That's not a comment on the quality, either – in isolation, it's very pretty wood.

Porsche calls its entertainment system "Porsche Communication Management". Nestled between the air-con outlets, Porsche claims that it's a high resolution system, but it is starting to look its age (the second-gen Cayenne launched in 2010). The screen is good enough, though, and responds quickly to the touch. The 14-speaker stereo is a belter, with tons of power and good bass filling the big cabin and the Bluetooth performance is above average.

The 160kW is the same basic unit as the 200kW, just with the lower power figure and 500Nm of torque (down from 600Nm) to push its 2135kg frame to 100km/h in 7.3 seconds.

Fuel economy, courtesy of the ZF eight speed automatic and stop-start, is a claimed 5.8L/100km and, it must be said, a fairly unlikely figure to achieve. We saw 9.2L/100km on the dash display, which is still pretty impressive for such a large vehicle.

The Q7 is also rated to tow 3500kg with trailer brakes.

The Diesel S packs a 4.1-litre V8 twin-turbo diesel producing an impressive 283kW and a mind-boggling 850Nm of torque. This will whisk all 2.2 tonnes plus passengers to 100km/h in 5.4 seconds and a claimed fuel usage of 8.3L/100km on the combined cycle.

You won't be astonished to learn we were using fuel at a higher rate than that, but with mostly city plus a good highway blast, we saw 11.3L/100km. Driving all four wheels is an eight-speed automatic transmission which has the added fuel-saving of stop-start.

It might be down 40kW and 100Nm of torque, but the Q7 still feels pretty nimble for what is a very heavy car, despite its average weight loss of 325kg. The mid-range is very strong, meaning effortless overtaking from rarely more than a toe on the throttle pedal. When your car is this big, the last thing you want to be worrying about is whether it will trip over itself when you’re in the cut and thrust of the school pick up or daily commute.

This is the first Q7 I’ve driven without the air suspension and it was a pleasant surprise. It rode and handled almost as well and you’d have to wonder whether it’s worth the extra outlay. When a press fleet has nothing but air-suspended cars, it makes journalists suspicious; I’m pleased to say there was no need. The only real difference is more noticeable body roll when you’re getting a bit ambitious in the corners. Not really a Q7’s core business.

The steering is quite light but weights up nicely in dynamic mode. It’s tidy in the bends and excels in the wet or dry; its stay with us coincided with some truly apocalyptic rain, which the car simply shrugged off. Needless to say, the cabin is extremely quiet, with just a slight rustle around the wing mirrors and a distant growl from the engine.

Obviously, badge, output and heritage promise a great deal, which the Cayenne does its level-best to deliver. It's clearly not meant to be a high-riding 911 and those who are disappointed to read that should probably pop off and study physics for a bit.

For all its heresy, the diesel engine is a cracker, sending the Cayenne off the line with a hearty shove and very little racket. The 850Nm figure means the SUV will mince just about anything in the gears. Not even V12 Ferraris have this kind of torque.

With all-wheel drive and air suspension, the Cayenne corners mostly flat but also rides beautifully. It's an impressively comfortable car in all conditions and with the lazy diesel V8, you can drive it anyway you like.

For the most part, it just needs a toe waved towards the throttle. Get serious, though, and the huge rubber will keep you ripping along all but the tightest of bends. Couple that with a dynamic driving mode that speeds up the shifts, adds sensible weight to the steering and gives you a bit of rear-wheel drive playfulness, the Cayenne is impressively agile.

The Cayenne's safety features include six airbags, ABS, electronic brake differential, stability and traction controls, trailer sway control. There is no EuroNCAP or ANCAP star score for the Cayenne.