Used test: Audi Q7 vs Lexus RX: interiors

Interiors

Driving position, visibility, build quality, practicality

There’s one major difference here: the Lexus RX has five seats whereas the Audi Q7 has seven. This distinction is likely to prove decisive for anyone with a large family, particularly because the Q7’s sixth and seventh seats are genuinely accommodating enough for adults and lanky teenagers; they’re not just occasional perches for small kids.

In fact, the Q7 is the more spacious car in almost every respect. It has more head and leg room in its front and second rows of seats and, with its third-row seats folded into the floor, it has the bigger boot by far. Whichever way you slice it, the Q7 is a much more practical family car.

Both of these SUVs have electric front seats that make it relatively easy to dial in a comfortable driving position. The Q7’s front seats are firmer but more supportive, particularly around the shoulder area, although there’s no memory function, so you have to manually reset everything when someone else has been driving. The RX, by contrast, can reposition the seats for you automatically.

These SUVs are both suitably upmarket inside. You won’t find any cheap-feeling bits of plastic trim in either, although the Q7's interior is finished with even more upmarket materials and its build quality shames most luxury limos. The Q7’s buttons, switches and dials all feel more solid than their equivalents in the RX, too; this makes interacting with the Q7 a more pleasant experience.

Both SUVs come with a sat-nav, a DAB radio, Bluetooth and punchy sound systems, but the Q7 has a more user-friendly infotainment system. You scroll through the on-screen menus using an intuitive rotary controller mounted just behind the gear selector; there’s even a touchpad that can decipher your handwriting to make it easier to punch addresses into the sat-nav. However, we’d recommend going for an example with the (optional from new) Virtual Cockpit. Conventional dials are replaced by a large digital display that brings more information, including the sat-nav map and list of radio stations, closer to your eyeline.

Navigating your way around the RX’s infotainment system is much harder work. You use a device that resembles a broken joystick to move a mouse pointer around the 12.3in screen, before pressing a button to make a selection. It takes a fair amount of concentration even when you’re parked up, let alone while you’re driving.

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