QOTD: Is a McLaren SUV Blasphemy?

by Tim Healey

Published: June 10th, 2024

McLaren CEO Michael Leiters told Road & Track that an SUV is coming to the supercar brand.

Blasphemy or smart business?

In general, car enthusiasts tend to look askance at exotic car brands that add SUVs/crossovers to their lineups. This is because these brands are supposed to purely focused on high-dollar performance machines.

On the other hand, there's a narrative out there that Porsche used the profits from the Cayenne and Macan to keep building 911s and other sports cars. That's likely true.

Personally, I think that if an exotic brand like McLaren decides to build an SUV, it doesn't mean that the brand is no longer pure. If you have the money to afford a McLaren and you want to own a GTS, why should you care if the brand also sells an SUV? I doubt someone buying a Lamborghini Revuelto cares that the brand offers the Urus.

It may be weird to compare mainstream brands to exotics, but I doubt a Mustang buyer is put off by Ford selling the Explorer. On the other hand, Ford has sold SUVs for decades and offers models for almost every segment. I suppose it is jarring when a brand that only sells extreme performance cars at extremely high prices moves into a new segment, but I also wonder if it's really that big a deal.

What say you?

Sound off below.

[Image: McLaren]

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Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

More by Tim Healey

Comments

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3 of 23 comments

Tassos on Jun 11, 2024
For McLaren or Ferrari or Lambo to have a stupid SUV is like the Bolshoi Ballet to dance Swan Lake with obese, middle aged Russian cleaning women.

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- Tassos on Jun 11, 2024
  ”middle aged Russian cleaning women.” For Warsaw VIPS only
  
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IBx1 on Jun 11, 2024
They haven’t made a manual since the F1 so who cares.

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