Why the Porsche Macan should not have won Car of the Year

Let me start by saying that I’m in no way involved in the Car of the Year process, aside from putting forward a few selections of which cars I think should be in the final. That’s where my role ends and other’s start.

From there a small panel of the country’s motor journalists spend a couple days testing each of the 11 finalists at the Gerotek test facility outside Pretoria.

The idea behind these test days is that each vehicle is evaluated and scored in relation to its segment competitors, while also considering aesthetics, dynamics, performance, fuel efficiency, safety, technology, parts pricing and cost of ownership. Overall excellence is the goal.

Votes are then tallied, audited and announced at a gala hosted by Wesbank and the South African Guild of Motor Journalists.

I was present at this year’s gala as a bemused onlooker as yet another Porsche was unveiled as the Car of the Year. This time the Porsche Macan S Diesel took the honours. It was Porsche’s third win on the trot – the first manufacturer to achieve such. Last year saw the Cayman S take the title, while the year before was the Boxster.

All three have shocked me. But this year especially. And here’s why.

The Macan is Porche’s answer to the mid-size SUV / crossover or whatever you want to call it. We’ll stick with SUV on the basis that the Macan has collected several international awards that have SUV in the title – including SUV category winner at the AJAC’s 2015 Canadian Car of the Year Awards; the AutoExpress Best Compact SUV; and the Car and Driver Editor’s Choice awards in both the Compact Luxury SUV and Compact Performance SUV categories.

So let’s unpack the Macan’s victory then – and I’d like to start by looking at the other SUV’s that Porsche money can buy.

The Macan S Diesel is R912,000 if you get it with the 5 year maintenance plan, which you probably would. Here’s a list of similarly priced SUVs, bearing in mind the rules require that the jury evaluate in relation to competitors:

  1. Land Rover Discover SE Diesel – R867,300
  2. Range Rover Sport S Diesel – R912,000
  3. Jeep Grand Cherokee CRD Overland – R899,990

To dispel any ‘segment’ arguments I’ll say this. Staying inside the Porsche’s ‘segment’ would be blatantly unfair considering the price differential in relation to other mid-sized SUVs. The Audi Q5, for example, comes in under R750,000 and that’s quite a lot less money. Too much to overlook, certainly. The Audi is also one of the most expensive in the segment.

So keep those three vehicles I’ve mentioned in mind, because the next point I’ll be addressing is the purpose of an SUV. Most will know that SUV is an acronym for ‘Sports Utility Vehicle’ – which is loosely defined as a vehicle that is rugged and combines passenger-carrying with cargo-hauling capability with an enclosed cargo/passenger compartment.

You would be hard pressed to say that a Porsche Macan S Diesel is more rugged, more spacious, or more capable than any of the three listed above, wouldn’t you? These are after all the requirements of any good SUV. The fact that the world’s press have hailed the Macan as the best SUV ever made only goes to show that people have wild misconceptions that an SUV should drive like a ‘sports’ car – and largely disregard their actual purpose.

The Macan S Diesel does offer some decent performance. Its 3.0 litre turbo charged motor (out of the Audi Q5 incidentally) offers 180kW and a lot of torques, 580 to be precise. At 1900kg it’ll do 0-100km/h in 6.3 seconds which is faster than a Golf GTi.

And here are some stats from the competitors I highlighted earlier:

Description Porsche Land Rover Range Rover Jeep
Power (kW) 180 183 215 177
Torque (Nm) 580 600 600 550
0-100km/h 6.3 9.3 7.2 8.2

So the Macan is the ‘sportier’ Sports Utility Vehicle, but not by much, nor can this be the only consideration. Here are a few more:

Description Porsche Land Rover Range Rover Jeep
Luggage capacity – seats up (litres) 500 1124 784 782
Luggage capacity – seats down (litres) 1500 1950 1652 1554
Number of seats 5 7 5 5
Ground clearance (mm) 230 310 278 272
Low range 4×4 No Yes Yes Yes
Locking diff No Yes Yes Yes

 

The Macan is simply dwarfed in all aspects of passenger and load carrying ability – more so in terms of off-road capability considering it’s relatively low slung stance and lack of proper 4×4 drivetrain.

I haven’t driven a Macan myself so it’s difficult to gauge just how sporty a vehicle it is. By all accounts it is spectacular as far as SUVs go. Unfortunately for the Porsche there is a lot more to being an SUV – and in those categories, as I’ve shown, there’s are a number better vehicles out there.

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