2005 Luxury SUV Interior, Engine & Brakes

Inside, Volkswagen's sense of style continues to impress. Tasteful glints of metal, gleaming wood trim, astutely coordinated leather and plastic--if only our apartments looked this good. Not surprisingly, the VW-sibling Cayenne is also high on interior eye candy, though the Porsche's cabin is more spare and ultimately less rich-looking than the Touareg's. One look at the Cayenne's big center-console grab handles (in total, there are 10 interior grab handles for five occupants!), and you know this SUV--heh-heh--wasn't designed for Home Depot duty.

The weather in the X5's cockpit is dry and overcast. The entire dash is a menacing slab of black plastic, with almost no brightwork to keep you from reaching for the Prozac. Yes, there's some wood in there, but it's dark, too. Perhaps such a severe interior will appeal to the Bang & Olufsen crowd, but we wonder why a luxury SUV interior has to look as relentlessly businesslike as an H&R Block office. Even the blocky, upright G55 cabin, which in fairness owes its shape to its army origins, has a few burled-wood accents--including a handsome wood-and-leather steering wheel.

The comfort quotient in each vehicle is high, with almost every imaginable power amenity built in (navigation is standard in the G55 and the Cayenne, optional in the other two). The Porsche helm is a particularly fine place to spend time; the driver's seat offers an excellent balance of support and comfort and seems to fit a wide range of driver sizes. The G55 is the least accommodating of the four. Though the Mercedes leads in head- and legroom, shoulder room is noticeably tight (indeed, the G is 2.4 inches narrower than the smaller X5). It's an unexpected sensation to feel the door against your side in such a massive machine. The G also suffers from the group's most trucklike ride (the Porsche and the VW offer driver-adjustable ride stiffness). That tanklike Benz body never quivers, though.

All four players sport full-time four-wheel drive, but only the X5 lacks a low range or locking differentials; BMW has clearly tailored the xDrive system for all-weather control, not hard-core off-roading. Both the Porsche and the Touareg, in contrast, offer a locking rear diff and an adjustable air suspension for clearing off-road obstacles. And all three of the G55's diffs (front, center, rear) can be locked by pushing a series of buttons. We'd take the Touareg, Cayenne, or G55 anywhere, on- and off-road, with confidence.

It's worth pointing out, however, that even the most traction-advanced 4x4 system can be brought to its knees by lack of grip--as we found out the hard way when, during a brief forest excursion, our vehicles broke through what we thought was hard-packed snow and buried themselves up to their axles. Without chains, the handling-biased tires spun uselessly against the white stuff, even with all our vehicles' various four-wheeling gizmos engaged. It took us four hours of digging, pushing, and tow-strapping to free our troop (see photo of hapless crew in "The Big Picture").