2020 BMW X4 vs Porsche Macan

What's the difference?

Clearly it is hard to give a verdict on what car generally bought to be driven on public roads 99.9 per cent of the time is like to drive when you've only smashed it around a clay pan like a (very) amateur rally drive.

What we can tell you is that the X4 M Competition is a far more serious, exciting version of the (small) family friendly/cool and trendy young couple mid-size SUV, the basic X4. It also has a very exciting engine, and lots of polished gloss black bits on it and, for some reason, seems slightly more fun than the X3 it is closely twinned with. 

It is not a car that will attract, or makes sense to, everyone, and its high price will scare a lot of sensible people away. But clearly BMW believes there is a niche market of people who will want one, and will pay top dollar for one. There's no doubt Aussie buyers do love an M badge, and they may well warm to this one.

Note: CarsGuide attended this event as a guest of the manufacturer, with travel and meals provided.

Porsche purists can turn their noses up all they like – there’s still enough sports car trapped in this SUV to keep any driver happy.

The Macan is much more than just another SUV with a Stuttgart badge. In fact, I think it could still well be the best performance SUV in its size bracket. At the very least, there would be no shame in parking this GTS next to a 911 in a particularly wealthy garage.

It only seems reasonable to give the X4 M one more point out of 10 for deign than its X3 non-identical twin sister, because at least the designers have had a bit of a go at the rear.

The idea of a coupe SUV has always seemed like something a hunchback came up with so that people wouldn’t only stare at him, but it obviously appeals to some people.

And yes, parked next to an X3, this version looks better, with sleeker tail lights and a more stylish rear altogether. The more pronounced swoop of the roofline is also an improvement.

But my argument remains that BMW calls this X4 M Competition “bold and functional”, which tells you all you need to know. When a marketing department can’t come up with a better term than “functional” when talking about design, for a BMW, it’s just not hat exciting to look at. 

In fact, it looks like a shopping trolley with bigger wheels and go-faster stripes.

The non-M X4 is not exciting to look at it, either, it’s even more… functional, and this version is delineated as being M special by covering as many things as possible with “black high-gloss bits”, so black mirrors, black side gills, black chrome tail pipes, you get the picture.

BMW might have also used the word “tough” to describe this X4, and they did keep talking about how people might track it, which seems as likely as me entering a rocking horse in the Melbourne Cup, but I think they’re having a lend of themselves.

The interior feels like a proper M car, though, with the big red, programmable M buttons on the chunky steering wheel particularly eye catching, and a very cool looking gear stick. The M Sport seats also both look and feel fantastic, and the Merino Leather is lovely. 

The Macan was a coupe SUV before the genre really existed as it does today. A bold trailblazer? Perhaps not, but I remember it at least being far less controversial than the larger Cayenne which came before it.

It makes a bit more sense for the badge, at least dimensionally. The GTS trim is particularly macho with the gloss black highlights, fat quad exhausts, and blacked-out wheel trim helping to accentuate its low and wide profile (for an SUV…).

While the front of the Macan has had more grille space and complexity added over time, the most recent facelift really added extra appeal to the rear with the new light-strip across the back adding familiarity with the rest of the brand’s range.

Inside certainly feels a bit more claustrophobic than many SUVs in this size bracket, thanks to the visual effect of the high dash line, the raised button-laden centre console, and dark trim items.

Everything is wonderfully finished though, with leather lining running across the dash topper, nicely bolstered seats with thick leather and Alcantara trim (consider the longevity of this particular item before you tick the box…) and the slick three-spoke steering wheel, which is easily one of the best on the market, even at this tall end of the price spectrum.

There’s nothing fancy about the dial cluster, with Porsche’s modern interpretation of a classic dial design replacing the now-more-commonly-accepted whiz-bang digital dash designs.

Things like this and the basic plastic function stalks are oddities in an otherwise slick, luxurious, and modern cabin. It’s as though Porsche still wanted to have those little nods to its weight-saving, analogue history in a a two-tonne and heavily computer-assisted, performance SUV.

In practicality terms, the X4 loses the gains it made on looks against the X3, because you’re obviously getting less headroom in the rear, and slightly less boot space as well.

For a vehicle of its mid-size, the X4 isn’t too badly sorted for interior space, however. The rear seats, in particular, are impressive, in terms of knee room at least, although headroom is not fabulous.

I’m 176cm tall, and I could comfortably sit behind my own seating position without my knees even touching the seat in front, and headroom is also excellent, front and rear.

Those sporty front seats do make things feel slightly squeezed in the front, and the width of the headrests effects forward visibility for those in the rear, but they’re so great to sit in that you’d put up with that.

The rear seat splits 40:20:40, giving you access to the boot, which is 525 litres in the X4 M with the seats up, because you’ve chosen the more practical option (the X3 gets 25 litres more).

Drop the rear seats and you’ve got a useful 1430 litres of loadspace when you’re driving two-up, although you’d have 1600 litres if you’d chosen the cheaper X3 M.

There’s plenty of space for your phone, on its wireless charging pad, and you also get two cupholders for the front chairs, with another two in the rear armrest.

For an SUV I’d hardly say the Macan is a particular practicality hero. A (correct) decision has been made here to lean into the coupe sportiness of the Macan’s design, rather than the wagon touring practicality of, say, Land Rover’s Discovery Sport.

Porsche has gone to great lengths to make the Macan feel like a Porsche. This means a slightly claustrophobic cabin space, with the raised console taking up a huge amount of space, which could otherwise have been for storage. The console box and glovebox are shallow, the door trims provide only a small bin and bottle holder, there’s no extra nooks or crannies for loose items, It’s all really just built around being an engaging space for the driver and front passenger.

At least the primary cupholders are large with variable edges and a slot for your phone. Porsche has even thought to leave a tiny slot for the key and 12v power outlet to sit at the base of the huge function-centre of a console.

I hope you like USB-C because it is your only option for connectivity in the Macan. Porsche have deleted the USB 2.0 ports.

The screen is neat in the way it seamlessly integrates with the dash, and I like how big shortcut touch panels for the major functions surround the Apple CarPlay window. My complaint here, though, is similar to this car’s cousins at Audi, the screen is so high-resolution that navigating the icons within the CarPlay space can be a real pain while you’re moving.

Rear-seat passengers haven’t been forgotten with the same contoured seat trim, dual USB-C ports for phone charging, big cupholders in the drop-down centre console and their own climate control module with adjustable vents.

Legroom was okay for me at 182cm tall, but headroom was notably tight. The plastic seat backers, while great for those with kids, seemed uncharacteristically cheap, and had no storage pockets. Thanks to the tall transmission tunnel, I would not want to be a passenger in the centre seat…

Where the Macan does score points, however, is in the boot, with a whopping 488 litres of space available (expanding out to 1503L with the second row down). Not bad at all for something with such a swooping roofline, but that’s thanks to the depth of the load area. Under the floor there’s even a space-saver spare wheel.

Price does not matter to Porsche buyers. This isn’t a matter of opinion, it’s simple fact as confirmed by the brand’s 911 boss, Frank Steffen-Walliser, who told us recently: not only are Porsche acolytes happy to pay the tall prices set, but they tend to dive deeply into the options catalogue while they’re at it.

So then, it seems far from cynical that our Macan GTS which wears an MSRP of $109,700 also had $32,950 worth of options fitted for a grand total (sans on-road costs) of $142,650.

Much of what you pay for at GTS trim is the walloping 2.9-litre V6 drivetrain, which we’ll explore later, but the price puts our Macan in the luxo-performance SUV ballpark of the Maserati Levante GranSport ($144,990), Jaguar F-Pace SVR ($140,262), and Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrofoglio ($149,900).

What’s in the box? You’ve got headline items like active suspension management (ours had the additional self-levelling function and 15mm lowered ride height - $3100), 20-inch alloys in satin black, sports exhaust, LED headlights (this car had the tinted ‘Plus’ light system - $950) and tail-lights, 10.9-inch multimedia touchscreen with DAB+ digital radio, built-in nav, as well as Apple CarPlay and Android Auto support (ours also had the Bose surround stereo - $2470), full leather seat trim (ours was in ‘Carmine Red with Alcantara highlights - $8020 with a heated GT steering wheel - $1140 and heated front seats - $880), silver and brushed aluminium interior trim (again, ours also had the carbon package - $1770).

A lot of gear then. But there’s more, not surprisingly, optional stuff. Power Steering Plus is $550, the Sport Chrono Package (lap timing stuff with the cool analog wrist-watch dash element) is $2390, the panoramic opening sunroof is $3370, keyless entry system is $1470, lane change assist is $1220, Light Comfort Package is $650, and, finally, the red exterior paint to match the interior trim is a whopping $4790.

Again. Porsche buyers are the kind of people who don’t baulk at these prices to get exactly the car they want, even though some of those items are a little rudely priced, for instance, does lane change assist really need to be a $1220 option on a $109,700 car?

Regardless, at least the Macan truly feels like a Porsche on the inside with its beautiful fit, trims, and finish. It’s a far cry from a cynical VW Tiguan with a fancy body and different badgework as it so easily could have been.

No matter what you think of the X4 M Competition - its looks, its very existence - there’s no denying that its engine is something to be very excited about.

The 3.0-litre in-line six with M TwinPower Turbo technology is 90 per cent new, according to BMW, and will soon see action in the new BMW M3 and M4, and it is a rip snorter. The folks at M have thrown everything at it, using 3D printing to make the cylinder head, a forged crankshaft, and two new mono-scroll turbochargers, which are obviously different from the twin-scroll versions in the M5, and lift direct fuel-injection pressure from 200 bar to 350 bar. Apparently they’re even better. It also gets an electrically controlled wastegate for maximum efficiency.

The goal was an impressive 500 horsepower, or 375kW in our lingo, and they’ve achieved it. They’ve also made magic by combining both traditional BMW free-revvingness and savage turbo torque. With all of its maximum 600Nm available from 2600rpm to 5950rpm, it has the highest torque bandwidth of any BMW engine.

The screaming six can rev all the way to 7200rpm, at which point it sounds truly Wagnerian in its magnificence, and that 375kW peak point arrives at a dizzying 6250rpm.

This really is an engine that wants you to belt the hell out of it, and when you choose its most aggressive modes, and turn the adjustable M exhaust to its noisiest setting, it’s a joyful experience.

It’s also a weird one, because there’s just something so out of place about an engine like this in a car like this - it’s like finding out that your mum has secretly been cage fighting - but still, in pure engine terms, it’s a cracker.

The ZF eight-speed torque-converter automatic transmission is also silky smooth and seamless, as you’d expect.

The GTS brings a 2.9-litre twin-turbo petrol V6 to the Macan line-up, and, oh boy, is it a strong unit. On tap is an absurd 280kW/520Nm, which can propel the (two tonne, did we mention?) SUV to 100km/h in just 4.9 seconds; 4.7 seconds with the Sports Chrono package installed.

The Macan is all-wheel drive (with a variable torque-split) via Porsche’s Doppelkupplung seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission.

Further performance enhancements come in the form of variable height and self-levelling active suspension as fitted to our car, and variable power steering tied into the drive modes, which we’ll touch on later.

There’s no official Australian figure as yet, and we certainly didn’t do any testing that would be helpful, so all we can tell you is that the claimed figure is 10.6 litres per 100km. Which would be good, if you could actually achieve it. Good luck with all this temptation on board.

As though proving this is not just another commuter SUV, the Macan is a thirsty unit.

The 2.9-litre twin-turbo is rated to consume a hardly impressive 10.0L/100km, but our weekly test had it drink 13.4L/100km.

The Macan has a large 75-litre tank, so at least you won’t be constantly filling up, and another fact which a Porsche buyer is unlikely to blink at is the fact it requires top-shelf 98RON petrol.

In theory, the X4 M Competition shouldn’t be very different to drive at all from the X3 M Competition with which it shares an engine, and just about everything else. At the same time, it would be nice if was more fun to drive, because that would help to justify the fact that it costs $7000 more than the (slightly more practical) X3 version.

The differences are mainly about looks, of course, but those aesthetic changes also make the X4 ever so lightly longer, wider and lower than the X3. 

That really shouldn’t make a difference you can feel, yet somehow, every time I switched into the X4 and began another wild, hooting, dusty circuit of the rally course set out for us be foolish on at M Town, I found myself having slightly more fun than I’d been in the X3.

An actual rally driver who was in attendance, mainly to laugh at our ineptitude and because their diet consists largely of dust particles, told me he’d also found the X4 ever so slightly more chuckable, and stable, also.

So perhaps there are two reasons for choosing to spend $7K more on an X4 - the rear end, and the fun, but then again, this is probably only a factor if you attend to take your new BMW on some kind of mad motorsport adventure.

Certainly, in the unreal environment in which we tested these cars, they were hugely fun - overly powerful, playful, sporty in terms of steering feel and cabin ambience - but we will have to wait and see what they’re like in the real world.

Reports from overseas have hinted at overly firm ride quality, even in Comfort mode, and other foibles for the new X3 M Competition - like the fact that it doesn't actually feel all that fast, thanks to the 1970kg it's carrying.

What we do know is that the engine is a crackerjack, the (adjustable) steering gives fabulous feedback, and, if you happen to be on a clay pan, it’s just the vehicle you need to plaster a huge smile across your face.

I recommend the video footage highly.

One touch of genius that was beautifully highlighted, though, was the combination of the properly sports-car spec M Differential with an M version of xDrive, which allows you to choose between two 4WD modes, normal and 4WD Sport, which “pretty much does become rear-wheel drive”, as BMW admitted to us. 

This is such an M move it’s hilarious. Force us to make an all-wheel-drive car will you? Ha, we’ll put a button on it that turns it back into a proper BMW M car.

On a clay pan, where you can drive almost entirely sideways, sawing at the wheel and using that gorgeous engine to carve beautiful arcs in the Earth via the throttle,4WD Sport is a work of genius. 

In the real world, in this car, it’s… still a bit weird. 

The chassis feels super stiff as well, and the big strut braces under the bonnet show you how seriously they’ve taken that.

There’s no denying the how, or the know-how on display here, it’s just the why that’s hard to get your head around.

The Macan is stupidly fast considering its shape and weight, but you wouldn’t know it kicking around town.

Things like the fiddly dual-clutch auto, emissions-reducing stop/start system, and heavy stock steering make it a tad cumbersome in stop-start traffic and when you’re just trying to maneuver in the confines of a city.

Get out on the open road though, and the Macan comes alive. There’s the soul of a sports car in its V6 drivetrain, with lightning-fast gear shifts, dead accurate steering, aural assault from its sports exhaust, and once it’s rolling you can really start to feel the depth of capability.

Plant it, and suddenly the sub five-second 100km/h sprint time becomes quite vividly real, but what blew me away the most was the almost unreal levels of grip on offer.

Sure, it has the advantage of being heavy but ‘wow’ doesn’t quite cover the feeling this car gives when pushed in the corners. It just sticks like no other SUV I’ve driven.

If the computer’s AWD torque indicator is to be believed, the Macan routinely sends much of the drive to the thick rear tyres, helping curb the imminent understeer, or front-heavy feel which many SUVs in this class are plagued by.

The steering, once heavy at low-speed, becomes a pleasure at high speed. The weight is still there but goes from being a burden to a confidence-inducing wrestling match between you and sheer physics.

Mind you, this is all without turning the dial to Sport, or Sport +, which makes the steering even heavier, and with the suspension package fitted to our car, lowers the ride further, for seemingly unnecessary further performance cred.

And that’s the issue, really. You can’t utilise the Macan’s performance on Australian roads, and it’s not quite the right bodystyle for the track. This is the kind of car which yearns to stretch its legs on the autobahn … I couldn’t help but feel like it’s like buying a thoroughbred racing horse and chaining it up in a yard.

Safety is an odd one on the Macan.

Features which you might expect to be standard on a circa-$100,000 automobile in 2020 are optional, like auto emergency braking, which is packaged together with adaptive cruise control at a cost of $2070. (We’d argue it's well worth it if you’re already spending this much – adaptive cruise transforms freeway driving.)

Blind spot monitoring (in this case called ‘lane change assist’) is also optional at a cost of $1220, although rear cross traffic alert (which blind-spot systems are usually paired with) is absent.

The Macan has also never been assessed by ANCAP, so it has no safety stars. On the expected front it has all the electronic systems for braking, stability, and traction, as well as rollover detection, six airbags, and dual ISOFIX child-seat mounting points on the outer rear seats.

The GTS also scores a surround parking system with top-down camera and lane departure warning as standard.

It’s not unusual for premium automakers to package away safety items, but it would be nice to see the inclusion of lane keep assist, traffic sign recognition, driver attention alert, and rear cross traffic systems for the Macan to be considered as one of the safer vehicles in the segment, particularly as these systems exist across the VW group.

As is typical for BMW, the maintenance requirements for the X3 M Competition are controlled by a Condition Based Servicing system, which constantly monitors the car, and the way it’s being driven, to determine when annual inspections or oil changes are required.

BMW is offering two service-inclusive packages, a five-year/80,000km Basic level for $3685, or the Plus, for $8173, which you should choose “if you drive spiritedly and you go through brakes a fair bit”, because it includes brake pads and discs over five years.

BMW seriously seems to think people are going to track this thing. Go figure. 

Porsche now lags behind with a three-year warranty which, annoyingly, still seems to be the standard with luxury automakers. Will Mercedes-Benz change the tide with its announcement it would move to a five-year warranty as is accepted by the rest of the non-premium market? Only time will tell.

I somehow doubt Porsche buyers are lining up to demand a warranty increase, and I understand that it makes a big difference to bean-counters, yet it’s still a glaring oversight when it comes to owning one of these sorts of vehicles past the three-year period.

Porsche does offer extended warranty options (up to 15 years) provided you are willing to pay a significant premium for the peace of mind.

You’ll also be left guessing on the service front, with Porsche offering no capped price service programs for its vehicles.