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      08-05-2014, 11:14 PM   #1
Theatermax
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Goodbye Macan S and SQ5 and Hello X4 !!!

Guys

I am a car nut and I buy way to many SUV's but I cant get enough.. Just so you know where I am coming from lets just talk about the Last few which are most relevant.

2013 Q5 3.0
2014 Q5 3.0 Sport Package
2014 SQ5 Estoril Blue 21s loaded.
2015 Porsche Macan S

I had my Audi run and finally got bored and decided to buy a 2015 Macan S which I will attach some pics as well. My Dealer had a white launch car that was pretty darn loaded and I couldn't wait to get back into Porsche. I have owned over 140 cars and I have owned Porsches but never kept them long and was thinking this could be the one. Well I was so wrong. Coming from the Sq5 which by the way is 100X more fun than the Macan in almost every way. The Sq5 was Nimble and sounded like a race car and the seats were awesome and comfy and all the controls were nice and solid and radio was awesome. The Porsche did nothing right as far as I was concerned. It felt 1000 pounds over weight. It steered not even close to an SQ5 and how about the steering wheel ? The Porsche Steering wheel is 2-3" larger than any sports car/Suv I have ever owned. I felt like I was commanding a ship. The seat bottoms were Rock hard and caused your butt to hurt after 15 mins. The radio and yes mine had the bose system was horrid. The Buttons looked good but plasticky.. Things like the turn signal stalk was horrid. When you pushed it down or up the click to turn it on felt my my dads 75 ford. Long stroke and a big click. BMW is solid and quiet in this regard. The end all for me on the Porsche is they are having a complete failure of the Alarm in the car. All hours of the night the Factory alarm would go off by itself. They couldnt fix it and had me go through a series of things to finally after weeks of disgust they were able to disable the alarm which they say they will have a fix maybe by years end..Okay for 65K I am not waiting for fixes. The market for the Macan is huge so I put it on ebay and had dozens of takers in days and it was gone.

I almost went back to Audi and bought a 2015 SQ5 and stopped by the BMW dealer and they had just received the X4. Lets keep in mind I owned many BMW's in the past and loved loved loved my 2009 and 2010 X5 5.0.. I like different and the X6 was different which is probably why I like the X4 so much.

Okay so 2 weeks ago I go in to my local BMW dealer in NJ and I take out their Red X4 for a nice long ride. Right off the bat I realized how much I missed the creature comforts of their I Drive and Great Screen and adjustable seat control and many other features and things I didnt have on the past few cars. More important when I got on the highway and got on it , It felt like it has 400HP.. Serious acceleration and handling like what I remember on my old M3's and such. Complete fun and I drove back to the dealer knowing I wanted one. Then to find out thank god they had an allocation for one 3.5 whew but it would be a few weeks. I built a White one with 20's and pretty darn loaded and its hopefully going into production this week.

I spent a few days in and out of the dealer picking options and things and they had taken in a X3 3.5 2015 pretty loaded with 2900 miles on it, some guy bought it and wanted an X5 and he lost 16K in 4 weeks and I grabbed that X3 and replaced our little winter X1 2.8 with it.. I figured the X3 will hold me over till the X4 comes in and we need an all season SUV anyhow for my girlfriend to commute to work with. So for the last 2 weeks I have been driving this 2015 X3 3.5 and omg I am so in love with BMW again I cant believe it. This car has the LED lights which then made me go back to the dealer last week and add them to my X4 order because after driving LED's its actually hard to go back to Xenons..

Ok so now I wait patiently for my X4 which should be soon and I am genuinely excited about this car. I was on the Audi Forums when I had Audi's and of course on the Macan forums when i had the Macan but I am very happy to be back on the BMW forum where i Feel at home.

The Macan although some think is beautiful is not really that nice looking. The back has the classic porsche dumpy butt and the front is okay but the worst thing for me is the overall fit and finish and functionality. Its all just okay but none of it is great. The radio was probably the biggest disappointment and for the money they charge for bose it was horrid. I am in the audio business so Sound for me is crucial. The Audi's B&O was awesome and so far I am enjoying the X3's sound system and cant wait to hear the Harmon system in the X4.

Some things that are not great with Macan -
Bose Sound is horrid..

The Steering wheel is huge and feels like a city bus size wheel. It has to be 1-2 " larger than anything from BMW..

Try the AC on a day where its hot or not even that hot.. Its almost unusable. It only can cool the car on full fan speed and barely then. Its so loud you cant hear anything. Worst Designed AC system ever.

Look closely at the the buttons, they are plasticky and just painted silver. Not very nice for 65K..

How about the Alarm system and the fact it has still not been fixed. It goes off at all hours of the night until you turn it off completely if you can figure out how to do this.

The Seats are awful.. The bottom Cushion apparently because the circulating air system is plastic and hard and under the cushion makes the bottom cushion very hard..

The Air Conditioned seats are useless and hard. The air flow is nonexistent and brings neither cooling or heating to the seat.

This is classic Porsche Nonsense and they wont step up and make it a better quality overall. Wait till you see the fit and finish of the hood and how it sits on the stoppers. Apparently all Macan hoods are in constant need of adjustments because the hood moves too much because of their design.

Looks ? Well the macan is okay but the rear is boring and dumpy..

I will keep you guys posted and will have lots of photos when my X4 arrives soon I hope

Thanks
Craig

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      08-06-2014, 12:01 AM   #2
xDrive35i
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So upon my extensive test drive I had the opposite experience. My X3--I've had two F25s because of problems and rattles--felt like it might just shatter at any moment. The perception of quality is there, but that doesn't reach the long term. I don't know how your Macan was spec'd, but I'm satisfied with the level of fit and finish in the cars I drove with similar options as my order. Also, a couple of friends of mine got their cars in March and have had absolutely ZERO issues.

The SQ5 is an awesome car--don't know why you'd trade it for the X4. I just didn't happen to like the idea of driving a 6 year old interior for three more years. I already have an A4, so I thought I'd try something new. I personally cannot wait to get into this Porsche. Nothing could be as bad as the BMW having always been in the shop.

Separately--curious if English is your first language.
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      08-06-2014, 07:25 AM   #3
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Craig: I am also a car nut, but my "thing" is steering precision. You wrote shortly on that thread( "Steering precision") about your problems with Macan.

I have only driven a DEMO X4-a 30d with 19" wheels- no adaptive dampers, and steering precision at straight ahead driving was not acceptable- moving the rim of the steering wheel 5mm (1/5") did not produce a response.

What is your experience from Macan, SQ5 and X3/X4?

xDrive35i: no -English nor American is my native language.

The choice between X4 and Macan was very easy for me - I like the design of X4 - but not that of Macan.
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      08-06-2014, 05:48 PM   #4
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WOW! This is shocking to me! I can't believe your opinion is so low on the Macan! I am phasing out of my X3 35i and waiting for my Macan S in October.
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      08-07-2014, 12:43 AM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tjalle View Post
Craig: I am also a car nut, but my "thing" is steering precision. You wrote shortly on that thread( "Steering precision") about your problems with Macan.

I have only driven a DEMO X4-a 30d with 19" wheels- no adaptive dampers, and steering precision at straight ahead driving was not acceptable- moving the rim of the steering wheel 5mm (1/5") did not produce a response.

What is your experience from Macan, SQ5 and X3/X4?

xDrive35i: no -English nor American is my native language.

The choice between X4 and Macan was very easy for me - I like the design of X4 - but not that of Macan.
I have driven the X4 numerous times at the dealership and mine is supposed to be built next week. The demo is a 19" wheel model with Msport. It drives great and steering is refined and tight and holds a line great. The Macan steering is decent but not great. The Wheel thickness and overall interactivity of the drive is missing on the Macan. I am blown away how people think the Macan drives great. I think people just think oh ooh ahh its a Porsche but for me that wasn't enough. I bought one and was so miserable with it after a few weeks I wanted it gone..

I would buy another SQ5 any time as this was a great car with great steering and overall fantastic sound from Engine and also from the Sound System. Its a great value and certainly gives BMW a run for the money but the X4 just has something new and exciting which I like.

As more people get their X4's I guess we will see what we all think with some milage on them..
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      08-07-2014, 12:46 AM   #6
Theatermax
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Quote:
Originally Posted by PIEZON View Post
WOW! This is shocking to me! I can't believe your opinion is so low on the Macan! I am phasing out of my X3 35i and waiting for my Macan S in October.
Piezon

I am in NJ also

I hope you enjoy it and it brings you more happiness than it brought me.. Your going to miss the push button start and easy to use I drive system day one. I am sure you'll get used to the other things and I can't wait to hear your feelings after you have had it for a month..

I think at this point of my life I just like features and overall gadgets and true functionality. My New X3 which is very similar to my ordered X4 is so enjoyable with the LED lights and the Idrive which I really like along with Pandora Apps and a quick acting Gear shift and not the long throw gear shift of the Macan..

Keep us posted

Thx
CRaig
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      08-07-2014, 01:55 AM   #7
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I think i read somewhere the alarm issue on the Cayenne's too, Also like how the X4 looks. Porsches never done anything for me though, though they drive better and better interior but nothing beats the tech in BMW and idrive is just better.
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      08-07-2014, 04:04 AM   #8
Giorgio-GR
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Theatermax
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tjalle View Post
Craig: I am also a car nut, but my "thing" is steering precision. You wrote shortly on that thread( "Steering precision") about your problems with Macan.

I have only driven a DEMO X4-a 30d with 19" wheels- no adaptive dampers, and steering precision at straight ahead driving was not acceptable- moving the rim of the steering wheel 5mm (1/5") did not produce a response.

What is your experience from Macan, SQ5 and X3/X4?

xDrive35i: no -English nor American is my native language.

The choice between X4 and Macan was very easy for me - I like the design of X4 - but not that of Macan.
I have driven the X4 numerous times at the dealership and mine is supposed to be built next week. The demo is a 19" wheel model with Msport. It drives great and steering is refined and tight and holds a line great. The Macan steering is decent but not great. The Wheel thickness and overall interactivity of the drive is missing on the Macan. I am blown away how people think the Macan drives great. I think people just think oh ooh ahh its a Porsche but for me that wasn't enough. I bought one and was so miserable with it after a few weeks I wanted it gone..

I would buy another SQ5 any time as this was a great car with great steering and overall fantastic sound from Engine and also from the Sound System. Its a great value and certainly gives BMW a run for the money but the X4 just has something new and exciting which I like.

As more people get their X4's I guess we will see what we all think with some milage on them..
👍👍👍👍 I totally agree about the steering!
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      08-07-2014, 07:34 AM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Theatermax
Quote:
Originally Posted by PIEZON View Post
WOW! This is shocking to me! I can't believe your opinion is so low on the Macan! I am phasing out of my X3 35i and waiting for my Macan S in October.
Piezon

I am in NJ also

I hope you enjoy it and it brings you more happiness than it brought me.. Your going to miss the push button start and easy to use I drive system day one. I am sure you'll get used to the other things and I can't wait to hear your feelings after you have had it for a month..

I think at this point of my life I just like features and overall gadgets and true functionality. My New X3 which is very similar to my ordered X4 is so enjoyable with the LED lights and the Idrive which I really like along with Pandora Apps and a quick acting Gear shift and not the long throw gear shift of the Macan..

Keep us posted

Thx
CRaig
I totally agree! I know I'll miss the tech! I love BMW brand and X3. Just leaves me wanting. A X3M would be perfect!!! I'm prepared to adjust to the new driving experience. The things I long for are dual exhausts and more performance. Seems like the Macan is delivering this for me while sacrificing some other things. I also think the fake air intakes are not attractive while on the Macan they are fully functional. Also brake calipers painted. Little things like that are meaningful to me.
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      08-25-2014, 12:29 AM   #10
Theatermax
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Just got word from my dealer in NJ that my X4 is finished and on the truck and should be at my dealer this week..

I am really excited to get my hands on this beauty... I am loving my 2015 X3 3.5 and I am interested to see how much different it really is.

Hopefully lots of pics by weeks end and some nice test reports.

Craig
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      08-26-2014, 03:42 PM   #11
Theatermax
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My X4 Arrived at the dealer this morning.. I am psyched !

I just stopped by my dealer and Voila my new X4 is there and being cleaned.

I am taking delivery on wed !!!

The 310 Rims are freaking gorgeous in person.. The Second color is like a dark graphite metallic.. Really nice and matches the back valance nicely..

Lots more to follow !!
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Last edited by Theatermax; 08-26-2014 at 03:48 PM..
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      08-26-2014, 07:28 PM   #12
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congrats!
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      08-27-2014, 02:30 PM   #13
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The design of X4 is great! congrats for the new purchase!
I'm waiting your feedback about driving dynamics of the X4 vs the SQ5 and Macan S
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      10-18-2014, 11:29 PM   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by vladberca View Post
The design of X4 is great! congrats for the new purchase!
I'm waiting your feedback about driving dynamics of the X4 vs the SQ5 and Macan S
Awaiting your comparo Theatermax
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