On this episode of Head 2 Head
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MotorTranscript
00:00 (engine revving)
00:02 Hey everybody, and welcome to a light-hearted episode
00:12 of Head to Head.
00:13 Why light-hearted?
00:14 Figuring out which small, cramped, sporty, expensive
00:19 German SUV is the most fun to drive
00:22 is kinda like figuring out which elephant
00:25 is the best rollerblader.
00:27 The answer is, it's one of them,
00:29 but does it matter?
00:31 I'll just go ahead and say that no one yet
00:33 has shown me any evidence proving
00:35 that there's anything wrong with fun for the sake of fun.
00:38 This guy is just a hoot.
00:40 I mean, it's so much fun I just said the word hoot.
00:44 Of course, I can already hear the comments section
00:46 filling up with stuff like,
00:47 oh, it's not a real SUV unless it's got a frame
00:51 and two solid axles and a transfer case,
00:53 to which I say, hey man, go ahead and type
00:56 Jeep Wrangler up into the Google box
00:58 and we'll see you next time.
00:59 For the rest of you, we've gotta figure out
01:02 which one of these two is best.
01:04 (dramatic music)
01:07 (engine revving)
01:09 (laughing)
01:14 This is the manliest thing I've ever done in my life.
01:17 In the brown corner, weighing 4,500 pounds,
01:24 is the Porsche Macan Turbo.
01:26 And under this hood sits a 3.6 liter twin turbo V6
01:31 that makes 400 horsepower and 406 pound feet of torque.
01:36 All that gumption goes to all four wheels
01:38 via the Porsche Doppelkuppling,
01:40 a fancy way of saying PDK
01:42 or a seven speed dual clutch transmission.
01:46 In the red corner, weighing 900 pounds less
01:49 and wearing a wing, flicks and a splitter,
01:52 is the Mercedes GLA 45 AMG,
01:57 a mechanical twin of the CLA 45.
02:00 Under its hood, the mighty GLA has a turbocharged
02:03 two liter inline four that makes 355 horsepower
02:07 and 330 pound feet of torque.
02:10 It's also all wheel drive and it also has
02:13 a seven speed dual clutch transmission.
02:16 But which one is the best rollerblading elephant?
02:20 There's only one way to find out.
02:22 (upbeat music)
02:24 (dramatic music)
02:32 (upbeat music)
02:42 This is the Porsche Macan,
02:45 specifically the Porsche Macan Turbo.
02:49 Couple of questions, what is the car?
02:51 Another one is, how do you pronounce Macan
02:54 and why do they call it that?
02:55 No clue on the second question.
02:57 As far as the first question goes,
02:59 there is a Macan below the Turbo.
03:02 Right now it's called the Macan S
03:03 and it's only got 340 horsepower.
03:07 This Turbo here, obviously, makes 400,
03:09 making it the most powerful Macan for now.
03:12 How is it?
03:15 Well, it's exactly what you would expect
03:18 from a small Porsche SUV.
03:20 In fact, it looks just like a Porsche.
03:23 This interior is exactly like a 911,
03:26 a Panamera, a Cayenne, and sort of like
03:28 a Cayman Boxster with a lot more buttons.
03:30 The steering wheel is lifted off of the 918 Spyder
03:34 and between you and me, it's the only thing
03:35 it shares with the 918 Spyder.
03:37 If you're used to Porsches, this feels like a Porsche.
03:45 Like a Porsche, it's actually quite luxurious in here.
03:47 Everything's kind of wrapped up in either like
03:49 Alcantara or leather and it's, you know,
03:52 they did a nice job.
03:53 You know what else is Porsche-like?
03:57 This thing's capability.
03:59 Road holding, the grip, it just sticks like crazy.
04:12 I'm having a hard time even getting the tires to squeal,
04:15 which to me is the mark of a car
04:17 that is just fundamentally engineered well.
04:20 The suspension geometry is good,
04:23 the mechanical grip is good,
04:24 they picked out the right tires for the car,
04:26 steering geometry is good.
04:28 Just kind of does everything right,
04:30 which is what you want in a high-performance SUV.
04:33 Now, the Macan does have an off-road mode,
04:39 but let's be honest, you're never gonna use it.
04:41 It also has launch control,
04:43 which you get with the Sport Chrono package,
04:45 and it's quick, man.
04:47 (car engine revving)
04:49 The brakes on this car for a 4,500 pound small SUV
04:53 are very good, and what's nice is they don't fade
04:56 after repeated usage, which,
04:58 when going down a road like this, you discover.
05:01 Performance-wise, very quick car.
05:07 Transmission shifts in the blink of an eye.
05:10 It'll do it automatically if you put it in Sport Plus.
05:13 If you shift it manually, it's also super quick.
05:16 Engine, it's not the best-sounding engine I've ever heard,
05:20 but, you know, makes a lot of power,
05:24 makes it very quickly, car accelerates well.
05:27 It's hard to say negative things about this car
05:33 other than price.
05:34 I would like maybe a little bit more emotion.
05:37 You know, it's a very German car.
05:38 It's very, you know, just goes about its business,
05:40 gets the job done, very efficient.
05:46 This thing just hustles.
05:47 The other thing is, you know, we're talking about
05:49 how it's so quiet and so luxurious,
05:51 and oftentimes you'll just be kind of chugging along,
05:53 and you look down, and you'll see something like
05:54 100 miles an hour, and it's like, wow, really?
05:57 You have no idea how fast you're going.
06:00 It's a little bit hidden from you,
06:02 which is both good and bad, obviously.
06:04 Is it fun to drive?
06:08 Yes, it is fun to drive, but it might be one
06:10 of those situations where its extreme capabilities
06:14 make it fun.
06:15 The chassis doesn't rotate at all.
06:17 It's not even that there's understeer,
06:18 because it actually just dives, you know,
06:21 into the corner, which is fine.
06:23 But there's no rotation, so it's much more like a,
06:26 oh, dare I say, like a driving simulator
06:30 than a driver's car.
06:31 But I mean, if you want a driver's car,
06:34 Porsche's got, you know, a Cayman.
06:36 Go buy that, you know, go buy a Boxster.
06:39 For a small SUV, though, this is about as good as it gets.
06:43 (upbeat music)
06:45 Speaking of great driving small SUVs,
06:59 the GLA, also known as the GLA45.
07:03 The first thing you need to know and understand
07:05 is that Americans hate hatchbacks, won't buy 'em.
07:08 But the manufacturers have figured out,
07:10 hey, if you take a hatchback and lift it by 50 millimeters,
07:14 slap on a skid plate, sell it as an SUV,
07:16 we can't stop buying 'em.
07:18 The tragedy is that over in Europe and the rest of the world
07:21 they got the A-class, and it's a gorgeous little hatchback.
07:24 And there's a hot version called the A45 AMG,
07:27 and we don't get it because we hate hatchbacks.
07:31 (engine revving)
07:33 (speaking in foreign language)
07:34 Or as they say in German,
07:36 (speaking in foreign language)
07:37 or something like that.
07:39 You might remember the video we did with the CLA45
07:42 versus the small BMW 2 Series.
07:45 And my conclusion was that,
07:47 meh, I'd rather have a Subaru STI.
07:49 Well, I was having dinner with Tobias Mors,
07:52 who's the head of AMG,
07:53 and we were in Salt Lake City of all places,
07:56 and we had a moment alone, and he turned to me and said,
07:59 I saw your CLA video.
08:03 And I turned and I said, hey, you know,
08:04 Tobias, like, what do you want?
08:06 That car just kinda is what it is.
08:09 And you have to know him, but he's got a very dry,
08:12 kind of very German sense of humor.
08:14 And he kind of folds his arms and sternly looks at me
08:18 and says, wait for the GLA.
08:20 (engine revving)
08:24 Man, I'm glad I waited.
08:25 This car is a hoot.
08:27 (upbeat music)
08:30 (engine revving)
08:33 (laughing)
08:46 Okay, what's different between this and the CLA?
08:49 I know they reprogrammed the dual clutch,
08:52 so it's much quicker instead of the way the CLA was,
08:55 which was kinda laggy.
08:57 It's not as quick as the quickest double clutches
08:59 on the market, but you know what?
09:00 Good enough.
09:01 (engine revving)
09:03 The suspension is much better.
09:05 This has really good body lean.
09:07 I don't like cars that stay perfectly flat during cornering.
09:09 I like the ones that kind of like lean over
09:11 and dig in a little bit.
09:12 And this one does that.
09:13 It's again, kind of reminiscent of an STI.
09:16 (engine revving)
09:19 And of course, we cannot discuss the GLA
09:21 without discussing the engine.
09:24 Kids, we live in fantasy land.
09:27 355 horsepower from a two liter turbo
09:30 that doesn't break down every other mile.
09:33 That's incredible.
09:34 That's actually unheard of.
09:35 Now, the internet being the internet,
09:38 people will be going, "Uh-uh."
09:39 There was a Mitsubishi Evo whatever, MQ400,
09:44 that made 400 horsepower from a two liter turbo,
09:47 and it really wasn't actually ever in production.
09:50 And the engine had to be rebuilt by hand every 5,000 miles.
09:54 Not an actual production car.
09:57 This is, you can go buy it right now.
09:59 And you might want to,
10:00 because this thing just attacks a road as well as any car.
10:05 (engine revving)
10:08 Again, the conceit is that it's an SUV,
10:10 and we know it's not really an SUV, and that's okay,
10:13 but boy, it drives exceptionally well.
10:17 Exceptionally well.
10:19 Little bit amazed by how well this thing goes.
10:24 (engine revving)
10:26 The sound is great, and grip, and rotation.
10:31 The chassis will actually, it's not quite oversteering,
10:35 but it'll just step out just a little bit,
10:37 let you know what's happening.
10:38 You also have a terrific sensation of speed.
10:41 Like when you're going 100 miles an hour in this car,
10:44 which we're doing right now,
10:47 you feel like you're going 100 miles an hour.
10:49 Plus, it's got really good brakes.
10:51 It's just a great car.
10:53 Great car, great engine.
10:55 Great SUV, great engine.
10:57 But yeah, GLA 45 AMG, man.
11:02 What a little brute.
11:03 (engine revving)
11:08 So, what we're gonna do now,
11:10 and really this is for my entertainment mostly,
11:12 but hopefully you'll get something out of it,
11:14 is have our friends at the California Highway Patrol
11:17 close down this road in both directions,
11:20 and we're gonna stage ourselves a little road race
11:23 to see which one of these cars I can make go quicker.
11:28 (upbeat music)
11:33 In terms of measurable performance,
11:37 these two are almost identical.
11:40 The Macan Turbo has the 0-60 edge,
11:42 doing so in 4.2 seconds to the GLA's 4.3 seconds.
11:47 That gets reversed in the quarter mile,
11:50 the Porsche needs 12.9 seconds at 106.2 miles per hour,
11:54 to the GLA 45's 12.8 seconds at 107.9 miles per hour.
11:59 Braking, again, virtually identical.
12:03 The Porsche Macan Turbo can stop
12:05 from 60 miles an hour in 102 feet.
12:08 The GLA 45 AMG can stop from 60 miles an hour in 103 feet.
12:12 If there is any sort of performance advantage,
12:15 it goes to the AMG in terms of max lateral acceleration.
12:19 The GLA can pull 0.93 G's to the Macan Turbo's 0.9.
12:24 And when it comes to our patented figure eight test,
12:27 the two cars are identical.
12:29 Both of them can run around the figure eight
12:31 in 25 seconds flat.
12:33 - Johnny, go ahead in three, two, one.
12:40 (car engine roaring)
12:43 (car engine roaring)
12:46 (car engine roaring)
12:49 (car engine roaring)
12:53 (car engine roaring)
12:57 (car engine roaring)
13:00 (car engine roaring)
13:03 (car engine roaring)
13:06 (car engine roaring)
13:27 (car engine roaring)
13:30 (car engine roaring)
13:41 (car engine roaring)
13:49 (car engine roaring)
13:53 (car engine roaring)
14:12 (car engine roaring)
14:15 (car engine roaring)
14:23 - Well, that proved surprisingly little.
14:31 But as stated earlier, the two are right on top
14:35 of each other in terms of performance.
14:37 The GLA felt quicker in the corners,
14:40 whereas the Macan Turbo felt faster on the straights.
14:43 But again, these two are the definition of evenly matched.
14:47 How then do you pick a winner?
14:48 Which small, sporty, overpriced,
14:52 relatively cramped German SUV is best?
14:56 Well, we can throw it off-road.
14:57 You're not taking either one off-road.
14:59 Looks wise, Macan, all day, all night.
15:02 GLA, I like that wing quite a bit,
15:05 but it's just kind of a roly-poly little guy.
15:09 Not so much to look at, but you know,
15:10 certain angles, not too bad, not too bad.
15:12 And then we have fun to drive.
15:15 This is where one car really separates itself
15:18 from the other, and that is the GLA.
15:20 In terms of fun to drive, it just walks away from the Macan.
15:24 (car engine roaring)
15:27 It frustrates me because a Porsche
15:34 that ends in the word turbo should be freakishly fun
15:38 by definition, and the Macan turbo we have,
15:42 it just isn't, but the GLA, it is in every way.
15:46 I mean, this thing, it just, it fizzes, it's electric.
15:49 It's crazy, and I like crazy.
15:52 What a surprising little beast.
15:58 This thing just rocks, absolutely rocks.
16:02 What do you want from a car?
16:06 And if your answer is, I just want to smile when I drive,
16:10 this thing's really good.
16:13 And so for that reason, fun to drive, fun, pure fun,
16:21 for that reason, the GLA45 AMG wins this head-to-head.
16:26 - The camera's gonna just (beep) us up, so.
16:35 Oh, I want to do my, say la vie,
16:37 or as they say in German,
16:39 das ist was Leifenkugel, or whatever.
16:43 Now, the first thing you need to know is that Americans,
16:46 (burps)
16:47 burp, Jesus.
16:49 Wow, I want to snuck up.
16:49 I gotta never drink Red Bull.
16:52 I was trying to get my energy levels up,
16:54 and I'm like just burping my brains out.
16:56 (coughs)
17:00 Okay.
17:02 (beep) Camrys.
17:04 God (beep) middle of nowhere,
17:07 the gray-haired woman in a (beep) Camry.
17:09 All right, Prius, (beep)
17:12 but you know what I always say, (beep) butterflies.