The BMW X4 is a sporty SUV designed to
upstage the Porsche Macan
When more space is needed, both have rear
seats that split 40/20/40 and fold fat – with them down, there’s 100 litres
more room in the Macan.
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The
wide range of body colours for the BMW X4 are the perfect accompaniment to its
extroverted appearance. Colours such as Deep Sea Blue metallic or Melbourne Red
metallic are particular attention-grabbers.
Porsche interiors are some of the best in
the business, and the Macan’s doesn’t disappoint. Its dashboard is solidly
constructed and features lots of chrome and dense plastics that all feel
high-quality. The X4’s dash is by no means drab, but you’ll find scratchier
plastics than in the Macan and wider panel gaps.
The Porsche’s dash isn’t as user-friendly,
though. There are simply too many buttons on the centre console, which makes
adjusting, say, the cabin temperature more difficult than it needs to be. The
Macan’s touch-screen system is also starting to feel its age, mainly because of
its tired graphics and less intuitive interface.
Meanwhile, BMW has kept its climate
controls simple and more conveniently positioned higher up on its dashboard,
while its standard iDrive infotainment system is far more intuitive.
Still, seeing out of the X4 isn’t quite so
easy. Both cars have good forward vision, but the X4’s large rear pillars
obstruct more of the over-the-shoulder view than in the Macan.
What will they cost me?
You’ll struggle to get a penny off either
of these cars at the dealer, so expect to pay the full brochure price. That
means you’ll have to pay nearly $2,320 more for the X4 than the Macan. On top
of that, the X4 looks even less attractive when depreciation is taken into
account, because having paid more for it in the first place, it’s then
predicted to be worth $8,050 less than the Macan after three years.
It also proved less efficient than the
Porsche in our True MPG tests and costs slightly more to service. All of this
adds up to an expensive three years for a X4 owner, because it will cost around
$11,250 more than the Porsche.
The BMW starts to looks more promising if
you plan to run it as a company car. Over the course of a year, it will cost a
40% taxpayer nearly $330 less than the Porsche in company car tax, although the
difference of just $27 a month is unlikely to worry those who can afford either
car.
Porsche
invested $677 million in Macan manufacturing facilities and bolted in new
engines, four-wheel-drive systems, and suspension hardware. More than
two-thirds of the donor Q5’s parts have been replaced or altered. An aluminum
hood arcs from windshield to grille and from tire to tire to eliminate unseemly
seams.
Both come with 18-inch alloy wheels,
climate control, four electric windows, an electric tailgate, automatic
headlights and rain-sensing wipers, front and rear parking sensors and a DAB
radio as standard, but the X4’s list goes on. It adds xenon headlights,
sat-nav, full leather seats (rather than the Macan’s part leather), cruise
control, keyless entry and start, and heated front seats.
It’s particularly disappointing that the
Porsche misses out on Bluetooth – another standard feature on the X4. Speccing
the Macan up to the same level as the X4 will cost you more than $11,100.
Neither car has been crash tested by safety
organisation Euro NCAP, but both get six airbags and a tyre pressure monitoring
system as standard. The Macan offers the chance to add rear side airbags, but
the BMW comes with standard run-fat tyres and a system that will help avoid
collisions with cars and pedestrians at low speeds by applying the brakes
automatically.
The
entire vehicle design is testament to the BMW Efficient Dynamics philosophy.
Every BMW boasts excellent air resistance figures thanks to a range of mutually
optimised aerodynamic elements, which in turn has a positive effect on
efficiency and fuel consumption.
Both also come with an alarm, and received
a full five stars from security firm Thatcham for their resistance to being
stolen, and four stars for their resistance to being broken into.
