drcollie

My 911 Carrera S Cab is in the shop getting a new top put on, and the seat bolster repaired, which is why I have a 2017 Macan S loaner all week. My wife has a 2014 Audi SQ5 with the 350 HP Supercharged Engines and I use a a 2015 BMW X4 with M Sport Package (3.5 L) as my daily driver. So I'm having fun comparing all three of these premium small German SUV's against one another.

I will say I have decided the Macan S is the best of the three. It has the refinement and great ride of the BMW X4, and the sportiness of the Audi SQ5. The steering and brake modulation on the Macan is superior to the Audi, however that Supercharged Engine is the SQ5 is killer and the twin turbos of the BMW and Porsche can't match it for responsiveness. Audi has stopped making that engine however, and the new SQ5s are twin turbos.

What I don't like about the Macan is all the switchgear, its over-the-top. That can be overlooked however, because the rest of the vehicle is so good. Carrying room is about that of the X4, there's not much of it in either. The Audi is larger in the back for hauling stuff.

PDK Trans in the Porsche (not an automatic). It's boring. I get that its fastest around the track, but I played with that in manual paddle-shift mode all day today and its a snoozer. An automatic is an automatic no matter how you dress it up. Long as my legs work, I have to have a three pedal car for my fun car - huge difference. Huge. Keep your PDK's, I'm an dinosaur that still loves the art of heel and toe.

The Macan S I have as a loaner has a $ 72K sticker, my X4 was $ 61K and the Audi SQ5 was $ 62K. They're all good, and its splitting hairs to call one a winner over and above the other. Once Porsche fixes all those fiddly buttons on the next gen Macan (like they have with the Panamera) I think that will really make it a winner. Might be my next ride when the X4 comes off lease....we'll see!

Adk46

Only one of your candidates says "PORSCHE" on the back. If we didn't care about making such statements, we'd be pretty happy with a Toyota Highlander.

If you like the feeling of piloting an airliner, all those buttons are cool. You almost need to go through a checklist as you start up, when you come into a landing at an exit, and when you enter the hanger. Some settings get memorized by the memory feature, depending on options; others do not. Yes, it is a bit dinosaur-like to enjoy working a clutch but not the myriad controls of the avionics.

I'd like one more button, big and green: "Freeze settings on all controls, damn it". Imagine, run into the bank, get back in the car, and nothing has changed! Just like a vintage car.

worf928

Almost identical switch gear and placement as in the 981, 991, last-gen Cayenne, and first-gen Pano.

Logically, it follows then, that you don't like the switch gear in any of those either?

drcollie

My 991S Carrera has FAR less buttons in it by far - yes, less is more.

skiahh

Well, as a retired tactical jet aviator, I kinda like all the buttons.

pprj

That compressed Audi V6 is really something else. And it is so easy to tune.

chuckbdc

Great review DR. But I have to say, I have grown to appreciate the ease of use of the button array in my Macan S, and am wondering if the glass touch screen will be as easy to use without looking down.

Mark in Baltimore

When Car & Driver or Sports Car Graphic (or whatever the hell they were called back in the day) did a review of the Ferrari 308 GTS, they basically said, in response to criticism that the F-car had too many switches, sliders and buttons, that if you couldn't connect with a car in less than a week, you should turn in your Enthusiast's License (the pre-PC label is "man card").

I still have the hardcopy magazine in my attack. Yep, I'm old.

DB_NC_95C2

I have had a Macan S (modifed with Sport Plus, RS Spyder wheels from stock 19s), Sport Exhaust, and lowered on H&R springs. Now I have a CPO GTS, loaded with all the goodies and it's much much better than the S.

I do not care for BMWs ever since my E46 M3 had the melting connecting rod bearing issue, and when I got the recall done, and asked the advisor what have they done to fix the oiling issues that burn up the bearings, the advisor pretty much said 'you have your new bearings, go away'. I went away straight to a Porsche store and never looked back. If you gave me a BMW I'd sell it. ANY BMW.

My girlfriend has a CPO Q3 it's a nice vehicle, but NO Audi is a Porsche, the fit and finish and overall quality and performance just isn't there, I'm sure a blown SQ5 is a very nice vehicle, but give me the GTS every day, and I LOVE the buttons ;-)

pprj

Well, Porsche didn't do much better with the 996 IMS issue.

They should have recalled all cars but instead they opted to screw the customers.

No?

DB_NC_95C2

I did not have my 2002 996 C4S long enough to experience the issue but I just read about the class action settlement. Bogus, I totally agree.

They should have handled it with a recall.

I bet if a similar scale problem arose in the 991 line that's how they would handle it. I feel they are a BIT better now than in the early 996 years.

K-A

I like the buttons too. Screens are interchangeable with each other, thus minus the software, there will be no tactile variations between how you feel the components of cars. Clicking a button and feeling how precisely weighted it is, how it sounds, tells a big story about how a car is built. Little aspects of quality hint to the bigger picture. If Porsche's buttons feel satisfying, i.e they put that much effort into them, it's a testament as to the bigger picture. It's a part of a cars character and how you connect with and literally "feel" it that is going wayside as cars become more homogenous.

Plus, it looks cool and has more of a warmth to it. The new Panamera feels so cold and sparse when it's off and all the pixels aren't glowing.

BigLou

Good comparison. My wife is thinking about getting a new SUV and the Macan is on her list...I might of had a little to do with that, lol.

cviles

Yeah I heard about that too. Enough that when I bought my 987 I immediately started asking questions about how to handle IMS failures and RMS leaks, etc. And I did have an IMS failure in my Boxster -- came out of a restaurant after a nice dinner to discover a lake of oil around my car. Porsche gave me a new crate motor even though they knew I'd tracked the car and had expensive repairs under warranty before. No mechanical product is perfect and they've treated me pretty well so that's why I'm driving my third new car from them. I like my Macan a lot so I'll keep it a while but I do see a #4 in my future.