Battle of the Teutons

The point is that the Touareg steers around fantastically, you really have no need to try and shave that 0.2 seconds off the last bend. And that basically translates into appreciating a little more comfort and a plushier ride – exactly the elements which the Volkswagen can provide.

Interestingly, though, the Stuttgart Stallion had a much better turning radius, enabling drivers to get around tight corners despite its rather tricky dimensions.

Still, we were hard-pressed to find an answer to the great variation in price.

In fact, sitting inside the “Treg” you get a far more pleasant experience. Covered in brushed “Anthracite Metallic” inserts and “Burr Walnut” wood, it exuded class and some level of excitement, far more than the plain black leather-everything of the Cayenne.

Outside, the win still goes to the VW. Up in front, both new versions have been revised to give on-lookers an ominous glare, though the Cayenne displays more ferocity with its large, gaping air intakes. From the rear, the Porsche looks as if it is slightly wider, but only because of its larger tail lamps and bigger flared buttresses.

The two cousins are in fact equally wide at 1928 mm. The baffling bit is when you buy the Cayenne, the melodramatic experience one would expect to feel when being around the car isn’t quite substantial enough to make your hair stand. But that should be the good reason why anyone would want to pay so much more for something like that – because it excites you and stirs up emotions.

Yes, it does turn around corners significantly better than the Touareg, but it also rides harder. And at the end of the day, it still is just a Cayenne, not a Cayenne Turbo – something in an entirely different league, and much respect to the latter version.

But the Touareg would do the job just as brilliantly, if not, even better, at cruising around with the family comfortably seated inside in luxurious wood and brushed metal trim, and yet, riding around in its stateliness would still be uncompromised and unyielding to its cousin’s more up-market badge.

So back to the mystery at hand – why is Porsche selling their Cayenne for so much more than the Touareg, despite the both of them having ludicrously similar performance figures with slight variations in components used?

Well, simply because they know that it is, after all, a Porsche and it would still sell very, very well.

Credits: Text and Photos by Kaiser Wilhelm