2019 Audi Q5 vs Porsche Macan

What's the difference?

The Q5 50 TDI is good value, it’s practical and the 3.0-litre turbo-diesel V6 makes it the choice for those that need to tow, or who just want a tough, quick-accelerating, medium-sized luxury SUV. Small families will find the Q5 50 TDI a willing and helpful weapon in the suburban warfare that is daily life.

My reacquaintance with the Macan has certainly come at an opportune moment - the blink and you'll miss it update could have passed without mention or parade, but that would have meant I wouldn't have rediscovered just how good a car the Macan still is.

While the price is a bit stiff (plenty are happy to pay the premium for the Porsche crest), and total cost of ownership somewhat of a mystery, the Macan is a terrific all-rounder with a specific talent for making you smile.

My wife delivered the highest praise - "I could almost let you have one of these..."

The Q5 is arguably the best looking of the all Qs – not too big or too small, it appears to be the most perfectly proportioned of Audi’s SUVs. More of a dimensions type? The Q5 measures 4663mm end to end, 1893mm across and 1659mm tall.

Picking a 50 TDI from lower grades is tricky because the 40 TDI and 45 TFSI come with almost identical exterior features, and also the grey and matt aluminium silver grille.

The Q5 50 TDI isn’t as blingy as the Benz GLC or as sporty-styled as the BMW X3, but it has a solid, confident look and I adore the so-called Tornado Line, which twists itself over the wheel arches and traces an edge right around the car, through the tailgate and bonnet.

The cockpit is typically Audi: stylish and modern, but also restrained. While I admire the simplicity and quality of the build, with its outstanding fit and finish, I think Audi needs to make its cabins dazzle more. This isn’t just a Q5 thing, it’s across the board. 

The quickest way to pick the new Macan is to stare at its behind - the 992 911's (and Cayenne's) full-width light bar tells the tail (I am not sorry).

It looks tremendous at night and during the day looks like a sort of Jedi weapon in storage. Nifty. Apart from that, the new four-light headlight arrangement also seen on the Cayenne and the 992 is present and correct and most of the changes are details on the bumpers and sides.

The rest of the car looks pretty much the same, including vaguely cheap-looking standard alloys on this base-spec car. And that's a good thing (except the alloys), because it looks like a sporty car, not a 911 on stilts or a lowered SUV.

The interior is still the traditional Porsche button explosion, and it's not as clean as the new Cayenne's layout. The aforementioned 992 steering wheel has made its way into the Macan and, unlike editor Flynn, I'm not a huge fan - it looks good, but it takes ages to get used to the way it feels in the hand and the chamfered edges grate a bit with me. The new screen installation looks terrific, though, and adds a splash of high-tech to the traditional feel.

The previous Audi I reviewed was an Audi A3 35 TFSI Sedan and while I loved the look of that little four-door saloon, I deemed the car too small for somebody my size, or anyone with the demands of a young family.

Yep, at CarsGuide we test the cars in the real world with our families, which means one week you’re in a small A3 35 TFSI Sedan and the next it’s a Q5 50 TDI. Moving from one to the other immediately highlights what’s been missing.

Just installing a child seat can tell you a lot about practicality. In the A3 Sedan I had to kneel on the side of the road to install the child seat, but I hardly had to bend at all to put it into the 50 TDI. The tall back door openings, the seating height, the top-tether hook, which is accessed from the kick-open tailgate, all made life easy.

And yes, the kick-open tailgate is brilliant, and it can even be opened without having to unlock the rest of the car. The standard proximity key is also a Godsend. Then then there’s the load-height-lowering function, which comes with the optional air suspension and can make the Q5 50 TDI effectively kneel down for you, to make getting bags into the boot easier.

The cargo capacity of our 50 TDI was 550-610 litres – the reason for that range is because of the optional sliding second row.

There are only two rows of seating in a Q5 – this is a five-seater car only. If you need a third row you’ll have to step up to the Q7 to get seven seats.

Second-row room is excellent. Even at 191cm tall I can sit behind my driving position with about 50mm between my knees and the seatback, while headroom is great, too. Back passengers have air vents and climate control, two cupholders and big door pockets, while up front there’s a decent sized bin under the centre armrest and a deep storage area by the driver’s right leg – I could fit my shoe in it. Don’t ask.

Along with Qi wireless phone charger, you’ll find two USB ports and a 12V outlet up front, and two charging USB ports and 12V outlet in the second row.

As this is just a mid-life refresh, there isn't a lot of news for you. There are four cupholders and four bottle holders. There is nowhere to put your phone if you're using the cupholders, which is the sort of thing you'd think about fixing on your biggest-selling model. 

Rear-seat passengers will find things tight if they're approaching six feet tall. My 180cms just fit behind my driving position, my knees right on the hard plastic backing, so long trousers or knee guards would be in order. There is no other storage back, but the middle seat (which is uninhabitable due to the transmission tunnel and the Macan's slim hips) does fold down for boot access.

The boot starts at 500 litres and stretches to 1500 litres with the seats down.

Your 2020 Macan starts with a modest price rise to $82,200 and includes 19-inch alloys, a ten-speaker stereo, three-zone climate control, front, side and reversing cameras, remote central locking, front and rear parking sensors, cruise control, sat nav, LED headlights, powered everything including tailgate, auto headlights and wipers and a bright orange space-saver spare that looks too small.

Porsche's PCM media system is back and better than ever. The touchscreen is responsive and the sat nav is glorious when splayed out across the entire 10.9-inches. Annoyingly, Apple CarPlay in split screen isn't so great, making the targets a bit small to hit when you're driving.

My car had a few options; the $3790 panoramic roof, $1990 metallic paint, Entry&Drive (keyless entry and start), front seat heating ($990!), power steering plus ($650), standard leather interior ($550, and their name, not mine) and the aluminium exterior package ($450). All that took the price to $91,510. But I'd forgo a lot of this for a nicer set of wheels.

The 50 TDI may look just like the lower grades in the Q5 range, but its 3.0-litre V6 turbo-diesel is what really sets it apart. Its 210kW of power from 3750rpm and 620Nm of torque from 1500rpm not only make it the Q5 with the most grunt, but also the quickest accelerating, with a 0-100km/h time of 5.8s.

That low-end torque makes the 50 TDI the natural choice for those who tow, too. The braked towing capacity is 2000kg.

Shifting gears almost seamlessly is an eight-speed automatic, rather than the seven-speed dual clutch that does the honours in the lower grades.   

As with all Q5s, the 50 TDI is all-wheel drive.

The base model Macan loses two cylinders to the S, with a 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder. It's the same engine as the car it replaces, with peak power of 185kW at 5000rpm and 370Nm of torque between 1600-4500rpm. 

Power goes to all four wheels via the same seven-speed twin-clutch PDK transmission. It's still pretty quick, though, cracking the 100km/h sprint in 6.7 seconds. Not bad for a chunky, 1800kg car.

You can lop 0.2 seconds off the benchmark sprint with the optional Chrono Package. There is also an off-road button but I can't imagine too many buyers press it.

If you have a braked trailer, you can tow up to 2000kg.

Audi says that if you’re driving a combination of urban and open roads the 50 TDI will use 6.3L/100km. Our test car wasn’t too far off that claim, with an average of 7.6L/100km, measured from the trip computer.

The day that we shot the video above saw me driving continuously around the same hilly suburb for a couple of hours, and the mileage, according to the trip computer, afterwards was 14.2L/100km.

My time with the car delivered a very reasonable 9.2L/100km against the 7.4L/100km claimed combined cycle figure. I say it's impressive because the throttle pedal spent a lot of time in close proximity to the carpet.

The 50 TDI is one of those SUVs that feels like an Iron Man suit, in that it goes, turns and stops like you’re wearing it rather than driving it. Truly, it responds that well to whatever you ask of it.

Our test car had the optional adaptive air suspension and I recommend it if the roads you’ll be driving it on are as bad as the potholed streets of Sydney.

While the 50 TDI isn’t an SQ5, the handling is still excellent, with minimal body roll, and the steering is precise and well-weighted.

That 3.0-litre diesel V6 is a gem, providing great acceleration, and is well suited to towing, but if you’re not in the Dynamic drive mode, you’ll find that turbo lag rears its head occasionally. That issue can be solved almost instantly by shifting down a gear, using the steering-wheel paddles.

The V6 diesel is also quite loud from the outside, but you’ll be happy to know the excellent cabin insulation keeps most of the clatter out.

Sports SUVs are everywhere and even Hyundai is throwing its hat in the ring with an N-Line Tucson and Kona. Perhaps one of the weirdest things about the SUV craze is buyers suddenly wanting the kind of chassis wagons and sedans delivered for years.

There's no doubt that Porsche could easily have gotten away with just slapping a new body on parent VW Group's MQB platform, said "ta-da!", and the Macan would have streaked off showroom floors. But that's not what happened, at least not the first part. The Macan is a very, very well-engineered sports SUV.

Before I climbed in I checked the tyres because I thought they were Nexens from a distance and, it turns out, they are. It wasn't a promising start (the only other Nexens I can remember weren't good), but all was forgiven as soon as I gave Macan some stick.

The ultra-smooth 2.0-litre turbo is exactly as I remember it from the Audi A4 a few weeks ago - quiet and strong. I'd completely forgotten the base model was a four cylinder but was very pleased to find it was a smooth as the V6, if not as powerful.

The tyres, it turns out, are perfectly fine, hanging on for dear life around the corners without much in the way of protest. The all-wheel drive system is set for fun and delivers like pretty much nothing else at this price, and like absolutely nothing else in this segment that isn't either a lot more expensive and/or German.

The Macan rides remarkably well for its impressive abilities, too. Bombing around town I was expecting a bit of crash and bash, but it's quite serene if you're not in Sport mode, the only alternative mode you can select.

The ride hangs in there in Sport, too, especially impressive when you're firing it down the fun stuff. Perhaps sticking with the standard wheels helps here, but I do wonder if it isn't worth getting more attractive rims.

The great thing about the Macan is that it feels so close and connected to the road. Part of that is the seating position - you sit really low in the Macan, down behind the wheel rather than just plonked in front of it.

The Macan has six airbags, ABS, stability and traction controls, reversing camera, around-view cameras and lane departure warning.

You'll notice the standard list is missing things like AEB, which is part of a $2410(!) active cruise package. 

There are also three top-tether points and two ISOFIX anchorages.

EuroNCAP awarded the Macan a five-star rating in 2014, but there isn't an ANCAP rating.

The Q5 50 TDI is covered by Audi’s three-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty. Servicing is recommended every 12 months/15,000km.

Audi has two servicing plans for the 50 TDI: three-year coverage for $2040 and five-years for $3070.

Like its premium rivals, Porsche offers a three-year warranty but it at least lets you drive as far as you like before the end of that period. You can also extend the warranty if you so wish. 

You'll have to visit Porsche just once per year, or 15,000km, whichever comes first. That's not bad, but you won't have the peace of mind of either a pre-paid service plan or fixed-price servicing.