2020 Audi Q5 vs Porsche Macan

What's the difference?

In 2019, from a range boasting more than a dozen different models, the mid-size luxury Q5 SUV was Audi Australia’s best seller.

Right-sized for the city, yet large enough for the highway, its appeal is partially underpinned by a premium, but not over-the-top price list stretching from around $65,000 to just over $90K.

We spent a week behind the wheel of the second-from-the-top 45 TFSI Sport to see if this Q5’s Vorsprung and Durch match its Technik.

In the grand scheme of Porsche as a brand, an SUV like the Macan is as controversial as it is inevitable.

I mean, we’re talking about a brand with a fan-base which turned its nose up at the entire concept of water cooling, let alone having the Stuttgart crest defiled with a bloated SUV body.

The march of time and changing tastes of the world have had their way with Porsche though, and the reality is, if those fans still want to see the iconic 911 continue much further into the future, they’ll just have to accept the only reason the storied automaker can stay alive at all is because of SUVs like the Cayenne, and the car tested here, the Macan.

Is it all bad news though? Does the Macan earn the Porsche badge? Would you really sit one next to a 911 in an all-Porsche garage? We took a second-from-the-top GTS to find out…