2018 Audi SQ5 vs Porsche Macan

What's the difference?

Audi's SQ5 is one of those marvellous cars that kind of came out of nowhere and instantly defined a genre. Technically, it probably shouldn't have existed. And for a company that is pretty much straight down the line, the decision to launch it as a diesel seemed extra odd. Not that we minded, of course.

The diesel engine was a masterstroke; André the Giant brawny, and with some clever engineering to make it sound like it actually wasn't an oil-burner. But it wasn't just a straight-line screamer - the SQ5 could corner, and it was tremendous fun while doing so.

So this second-generation car had a lot to live up to. But then - heresy of heresies - we found out that, for the moment at least, the SQ5 would be coming with a petrol engine. Without that Herculean torque figure, it's also slightly slower to the 100km/h benchmark.

So has Audi ended our love affair (by that I mean the one between the SQ5 and me)?

My mate Bram is the hardest of hardcore Porsche-philes. For him, Porsche ceased to exist 20 years ago when the 911 switched from air to water cooling. He once sent me a scan of a press ad for the Panamera E-Hybrid, and seriously questioned the meaning of life in his accompanying note.

So, you can imagine his confusion when, in 2002, what he refers to as “the company formerly known as Porsche” produced the Cayenne SUV.

Then, just over three years ago, the decision-makers in Zuffenhausen doubled down on the whole SUV thing, unveiling a mid-size five-seater called the Macan.

Bram remains in occasional therapy, but there’s no doubting the new car’s success. It was far and away Porsche’s biggest seller in Australia in 2017, with nearly two-and-a-half thousand finding homes here; that number more than doubling the brand’s next best result, for, you guessed it, the Cayenne.

About a year ago, Porsche launched this entry-level model, the Macan. That’s just M-A-C-A-N on the boot. No S, no GTS, no Turbo. And to help get to an $80,110 price-point (easily the cheapest way into a Porsche in this country), Porsche has slipped a relatively humble 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine under the bonnet.

So, is the ‘base’ Macan experience a truly Porsche one, or that of a posh SUV with a go-fast badge?