2020 BMW X4 vs Porsche Macan

What's the difference?

Launching new cars must be an endlessly repetitive job, and trying to keep over-fed, overly feted and ostentatious motoring journalists entertained would strain the will to live of any human being, or even a house elf. So it’s easy to see why the people at BMW tried something different when it came time to launch its new X4 M Competition. 

They were also dealing with a very strange car; not just an M version, but a Competition variant of a mid-size SUV (or SAV, as they prefer) with a kind of quirky coupe roofline that makes it look like it would prefer not be an SUV (or SAV) at all.

While the idea that someone might use this car for any kind of motorsport “Competition” seems as likely as Clive Palmer running for the bus, what it means is that this X4 gets an absolute rocket of an engine and all kinds of go-faster bits.

So, BMW decided to create a place called M Town - “a place where too much is just right”, as they put it - where we could experience this car in what you would have to call its unnatural environment.

M Town, in this case, was a giant clay pan hidden in the middle of the South Australian outback, with a rally circuit laid out on it, where we would be invited to drive the X4 M Competition as no one intended.

Cue much hilarity, and a highly unconventional non-road test.

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…