2019 BMW X4 vs Porsche Macan

What's the difference?

Love it or hate it you can’t say the X4 hasn’t been a hit for BMW, just like the bigger X6. Now the completely new version is here – the sequel to the original, the second-generation X4. But is it better?

This one is bigger – but does that solve the practicality issues of the previous one? The outside is completely restyled, but has the ageing interior of the past been turfed? And now that this is not just a rebodied X3 like the previous car was – does it feel like it has its own identity? And then there’s the wilder M40i - could this be the X4's ultimate form?

I found out this week at the new X4's Australian launch.

If the Cayenne saved Porsche, the Macan consolidated its gains. SUVs print money for premium manufacturers, and you only have to have seen the Germans pivot to SUVs as their first major EV products to get the full force of what these types of cars mean.

The Macan held the distinction in Australia of being the first affordable Porsche, breaking well below $80,000 and nabbing yet more customers who had never thought, or ever dreamt, that they could take the wheel of one of Stuttgart's finest.

And with the sort of commercial and marketing nous few can manage, the fact it was basically an Audi Q5 largely passed unremarked. Possibly because the Q5 is pretty good to start with, but also because the Macan feels like a totally different car.

It's already time for a facelift, and in true Porsche style it's a hard one to spot. We've already driven the mid-spec S, but now it's time to get to grips with the base spec Macan.