2018 Porsche Macan vs Volvo XC60

What's the difference?

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?

If this was 10 years ago I’d be making jokes about Volvo drivers, IKEA and ABBA, but those those stereotypes are all irrelevant now. Safety is not nerdy, and Sweden really is more than flat-packed furniture and catchy pop music. Yep, a lot has happened in the 10 years since the Volvo XC60 first arrived, and now a decade on the second generation of the mid-sized SUV is with us.

The most popular Volvo SUV in the world, the XC60 may not be the first SUV people think of when asked what you might compare a BMW X3 to, or an Audi Q5 or Mercedes-Benz GLC, but that’s their loss. 

Could the XC60 quietly be the best mid-sized prestige SUV on the road in terms of value, design, comfort, safety and driving? Let me help you with that question – read on.