I spent a month doing research on Macan S, F-Pace S and SQ5.
Here are my thoughts.
F-Pace: First impression was great. Especially the driving dynamics. The car looks big but its very nimble considering its body size. The base 3.0 Supercharged motor is punchy and delivers smiles with its throaty exhaust. The 8 spd ZF transmission seems to have some lag even in dynamic mode and felt slower than SQ5-ZF 8 spd(PDK is dual clutch and super fast so not comparing it with traditional 8Spd). I felt the car was more dynamic with the Adaptive damping package which you can get only on R-Sport with 1k$ package. If you build the car with R-Sport, Adaptive dampers and Tech package(it was really cool with the bigger screen in the center and virtual cockpit kind of instrument cluster)the car is just ~500$ apart from F-Pace S with Tech package so I thought it would make sense to go with S. However the huge let down was the quality of the interior. It has cheap looking hard touch plastic around you. It is ok if its used somewhere at the bottom of the seat or where you can't reach. But F-Pace was not like that. The one I drove R-Sport had cheap looking plastic especially on the door and near the tweeters. Audi and Porsche are in a different level here. Also there are no discounts(may be 1k$) whatsoever for the F-Pace, atleast when I shopped(a month ago).
Macan S: Very nimble to its size and feels like a sporty car than a crossover. The PDK has lightening fast shifting as it should be but sometime I felt they are too harsh with thuds when you upshift at full acceleration. Good thing is it doesn't upshift by itself at rev limiter in manual mode. I specifically looked for one with Sport Plus and PSE(Porsche Sport Exhaust) as for me the car felt too silent(heard reviews that after few hundred miles the stock exhaust sounds better). But it was super hard to find the car with those options unless we build and order. Porsche dealer offered 6% off for 2016 and 4% off 2017. The car felt lil bit smaller than F-Pace and same as SQ5. There was very lil turbo lag when you kick the pedal which is expected with the turbocharged engine. But all the driving characteristics make u think that you are driving a small sporty car. I don think the interior quality needs justification if its Porsche :) its as good as it should be. As I couldnt find the one with PSE and Sport Plus package options for around 60k$ I had to drop it.
SQ5: Having driving b8.5 S4 for the past 3 yrs I dont want to get SQ5 which has the same engine and wanted to go for different brand(A4-Sold, S4-Current, S6-Salvaged). Even though the SQ5 interior has top notch quality and feels better than F-Pace(Macan interior is damn good too) it felt dated. Features like emergency braking, lane assist and others which are commonly found these days are missing and the car as a whole felt bit dated. So it was my last choice. However when I drove I was impressed how sporty and well laid out it is. I felt the steering on the lighter side(lighter than S4) but had his precise and weights up at highway speeds. The transmission in dynamic is very fast. Its not PDK kinda but its almost there and definitely faster than F-Pace. Since the drive is 95% as good as Macan S, has sporty quad exhaust, bullet proof3.0 Supercharged engine and 8spd tranny, better interior quality than FPace, relatively cheaper to maintain then Porsche and huge tuning potential I decided to with SQ5. I found a good CPO 2016 SQ5 and am very happy with it.
Originally Posted by Reckon
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