Crossovers. I don’t completely hate them and I will not apologize. Some crossovers used to come with manual transmissions, like the Porsche Cayenne GTS, BMW X5 and BMW X3, and they were pretty weird. Let’s embrace performance crossovers and bring that trend back with something like the 2020 Porsche Macan Turbo.
Listen, I’m not going to argue—the 2020 Porsche Macan Turbo is basically a performance vehicle. As Road And Track pointed out, it’s just as quick as the damn Porsche Cayman GTS, which shouldn’t be allowed by the laws of physics.
But since we’ve seemingly broken the strand of reality, let’s go with it and start treating these performance crossovers like sports cars, and that means I want a manual transmission.
The Macan Turbo would be the perfect candidate. It’s fairly small and leans toward hatchback territory, and plenty of hatches have manuals. The previous one was a damn hoot to drive, and this one is mostly the same but with more power. Tell me it wouldn’t be cool to hop in one and work a shift stick.
The only concern is whether anyone would buy it—I’m sure Europeans would, but I don’t really care about Europeans. Nobody in America would touch one. But that doesn’t matter! This is just a fun question.
So which modern crossover would you respect infinitely more with a stick shift? Which crossover is begging for one? There are plenty out there! Pick one! Or a few! As famously spoken by Lawrence of Arabia, and then later by a murderous space doom bot, “big things have small beginnings,” and maybe this blog will plant a seed of change in the crossover market.