First Drive: 2010 Volkswagen Touareg

Long before Porsche and Volkswagen became embroiled in a bewildering fight for the ownership rights to each other's brand, the manufacturers proved they could work together very effectively by co-developing an SUV platform.

For Porsche this would underpin the Cayenne – a car that became a sales phenomenon - but VW's Touareg SUV was a much quieter success – often overshadowed by its glamorous twin and the dynamically superior BMW X5.

The new Touareg aims to change all that. Volkswagen revealed the SUV at Geneva with the assurance the new model would be lighter, better looking, bigger, better to drive, more refined, more economical and quicker than the outgoing car. As well as sharing a new platform with the latest Cayenne, the Touareg also gets the same petrol-hybrid system that Porsche recently trumpeted as concrete evidence of their burgeoning green credentials. All of this looks very impressive on paper, and the new Touareg makes a good first impression in the metal too.