Masters of Destiny

I wrote an article some time back about the McLaren MP4-12C and, admittedly, it wasn't the best article I've done. As it turned out, I got a handful from 'potential' McLaren buyers saying they didn't quite understand the story. I suppose I couldn't blame them. They are after all buyers and not readers and, thus, trying to get their attention can be a bit tough. But you see, the fact that I had to spend half a working day attending to them wasn't painful. It was the explaining.

It's like trying to explain to people where I work and what I actually do for a living. I would explain about my job, which is basically to write about cars on an automotive website that is basically a platform for car buyers and sellers to meet. It's the number one automotive website in Singapore, so on and so forth… And they would say yes and then ask me, "So how many cars have you sold so far?" Getting a hot date with a Japanese porn star would have been easier than explaining.

So while we had the chance to do a piece about the Porsche Macan and the Audi Q5, we decided otherwise. Not only did it lack the creativity of sorts, we knew this story would be appearing everywhere else in the coming months (and probably written better than ours!).

Some people only trust folks who know about cars, or who know how to drive one. I only trust people who have the experience and the expertise to come up with a rather innovative idea for such an article. And if you can't comprehend an article like this one (really? A Cabriolet, a Sportback and an SUV?), you're disallowed from having a beer with me. I would like to have my beer with the people who can actually enjoy the foam and bubble and not just for the sake of getting drunk. So I digress...
You see, our society loves a good piece of story. Whether it's about cars and clothes or watches and women, the love for these stories is a reflection of hierarchy. To stop someone from reading a good piece is to reject the principles that stop us from having a strike against dynamometer testing, recreating a Toyota Supra and wearing undies on the outside of our pants pretending to be Superman. But that's just me.

More relevantly, the Porsche Macan here with both the A5 Cabriolet and the A5 Sportback have more similarities than you'd expect. Like the 2.0-litre 234bhp rated Macan, both the Audi A5s come close in terms of its power output of 225bhp each, thanks to a recent upgrade of the engine.

While you may argue that the figures are the same as the Q5, I can tell you for a fact that the A5s handle more comparably to the Macan than the Q5 does. It doesn't matter if the SUV from Ingolstadt shares the same basic architecture with the SUV from Stuttgart. What matters here, particularly the purpose of this story, is the various quality choices you can have. And when you're forking out close to $300,000 (as of 21^st Aug 2014) for the Macan, we reckon having choices is important.

At this price range, you can also expect the cars to have two extra 'legs' to furnish you the sufficient grip you need on the roads, be it dry or wet. Like the Macan, the Audi A5s come with four-wheel drive as standard. Needless to say, the disadvantage of the A5, compared to the Q5 and the Macan, is that you won't be going off-road. Well, I guess you can if you want to, but you can bet I won't be trying.

But the bigger advantage that the A5 Cabriolet and Sportback have over the Macan, which is also more relevant in Singapore, is the better fuel economy. At 14.5km/L and 14.9km/L respectively, the Cabriolet and Sportback will achieve better mileage over the Porsche's 13.9km/L stated figure. Fuel consumption may not exactly be the priority for buyers of these sorts of cars, but it's always nice to show people your greener side. After all, you wouldn't want to be labelled as an environmentally unfriendly bloke.

As to which of these cars appeal to you more, it's entirely subjective. The Macan is just downright sporty and aggressive-looking and if that rocks your world, we don't see why you should hold yourself back. The Audi Cabriolet? Well, that's just cool. But I'd like to keep my pompadour in one piece. Personally, I'd go for the Audi Sportback because there's a sense of 'understatedness' and sophistication without having an air of arrogance floating around it. Plus, I think that should be enough to help me get that hot date with a Japanese porn star.