Aiming to convey elegance, dynamism, and robustness, Audi designed its new SUV to have what it calls the sportiest proportions in the luxo-ute class. Above the beltline, designers wanted the Q7 to be smooth and flowing. Below the beltline, the styling goal was to impart a more rugged and expressive appearance. Up front, Audi’s characteristic single-frame grille leaves no question as to which company makes this SUV, while at the rear the tapered roofline terminates in a lightweight aluminum hatch that is deftly integrated into the design with virtually no shut lines visible when viewed from the rear. Audi offers 10 paint colors from which to choose, six of which are shades of black, white, or gray.

Not surprisingly, Audi patterned the Q7’s cabin after its A6 and A8 luxury sedans. Inside, the Q7 oozes class and quality, abounding in muted colors, soft touch points, and tight panel gaps. Audi offers three kinds of wood trim: burr walnut, olive ash, or tamo (a Japanese dark wood). Optional aluminum inlays, decorative rings and strips on the controls and switches, and special LED interior lighting is optional. You can also decorate the air vents with aluminum-look trim, but we advise against this because it causes distracting reflections in the side windows, making it hard to view the mirrors. You can also dress your Q7 in Alcantara suede for the headliner and pillar trim, and Audi offers a choice of leather upgrades, including a heavily-grained pattern unfortunately named Cricket.

We think the 2007 Audi Q7 is a handsome machine, and the exterior captures exactly what stylists wanted when they set out with paper and pen. However, at one point during our drive, we assumed we had caught another group of journalists on the highway only to discover instead that we’d closed in on a Toyota Sienna minivan. Oops. The interior, like any Audi, is lavishly appointed and feels upscale even in a lightly equipped model, but we highly recommend you skip the fake aluminum trim for the dash vents. The reflections are quite irritating when checking mirrors for lane changes or when reversing.

Of course, Audi includes as standard equipment its Multi-Media Interface (MMI), which controls various climate, entertainment, communications, and navigation systems. Today’s vehicles, especially luxury models, have so much technology on board that it’s impossible to offer a hard key on the dashboard to operate individual functions, so we concede that systems like MMI, and BMW’s iDrive, and Mercedes-Benz’s COMAND, are necessities. However, as anyone with experience driving a high-end Lexus can tell you, a touch screen is superior to what the Germans insist on installing in their products.

Audi’s MMI might be more intuitive than others on the market, but it is unforgivable to place oft-used controls on the center console where they require the driver to look so far away from the road that traffic ahead isn’t even visible in his peripheral vision. In a Lexus, you get a big touch screen placed high in the dash, and a minimal number of hard keys on either side of it to access specific menus. As a result, your eyes are never far from the road. This wonderful touch screen is complemented by hard keys on the dashboard for critical stereo and climate functions, as well as satellite controls on the steering wheel. We’ve yet to find a system that works better than what Lexus supplies, and advise that every luxury automaker on the planet immediately purchase a Lexus GS and copy, or better yet, improve, the design. Simplistic, touch screen technology is not proprietary to Lexus.