Needs more Porsche –
Porsche’s top-selling model left us wanting more.
The Macan S comes standard with – inch wheels . Our review model had the $ 3, (gloss-black) – inch wheels.
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Not much has changed since the Macan’s introduction in 2018.
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Looks nice from the rear, too. The full-width light bar showed up in 1653341.
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Classic Porsche headlights
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6 cubic feet of storage back here. . There’s . 9cu-ft with the back seat folded flat.
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Make no mistake: The Macan is a sharp-looking SUV.
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Let’s open the hood and have a look at the engine.
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All we get to see is the plastic cover over the 3.0-liter, turbocharged V6.
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The name Porsche conjures images of fun time behind the wheel. For me, that means tooling around in a friend’s (Porsche) on sunny Colorado afternoons with the top down. Of course, while many of us grow up dreaming about cruising winding roads in a roadster, reality ends up looking like squiring our kids and groceries around sprawling suburban streets in something with at least two rows of seats.
Like every other carmaker that wants to stay in business, Porsche has embraced the SUV. Indeed, the Macan was the Stuttgart-based OEM’s best-selling model worldwide, with nearly , 0 shifted in . (The Cayenne was second, with , sold — we truly live in an SUV-ified world.
(Launched in) , the Macan is still in its first generation, albeit with a modest makeover in , the visuals of which are seen mostly in the interior and in new front and rear fascia. From a performance standpoint, last year refresh made the front wheels a half-inch wider, added some new tires, and swapped out steel for aluminum in the forks that connect the front-axle carrier to the spring and damper. There is little change to the model.
If you want to get into a Macan on the cheap, the base configuration is a 2.0-liter turbocharged inline four-cylinder engine, which starts at $ 60, 1080. But those never show up in the press fleet. Our review model was the $ , Macan S — a 3.0L turbocharged V6 with (hp) 400 kW) and (lb-ft) (nm) of torque. That powerplant will take you from zero to mph in 4.9 seconds with the Sport Chrono package, topping out at (mph) km / h) . The engine is partnered with fully variable all-wheel drive and a seven-speed transmission. EPA says to expect (mpg) (L /) km) overall – (mpg) (L /) km) in the city and (mpg) (L / km) on the highway. We got 43 .7mpg (
(L /) km) in a week of mixed, early-winter driving.
Based on my brief experience with the Cayenne E-Hybrid and the Cayenne Turbo S E-Hybrid last summer, I was looking forward to a week with the Macan S, Porsche’s subcompact SUV. The Cayenne was all kinds of fun, and it felt like a well-thought-out and coherent design. The Macan S … not so much.
The only radio control here is volume. The heat button is inside the bottom spoke of the steering wheel.
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The 9 -inch infotainment screen is beautiful and is packed with information.
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The home screen. Note the lack of physical radio controls aside from the volume dial — not good.
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The favorites screen also shows your recent stations, which isn’t very helpful.
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Here’s the center console. It’s a really busy design, and Porsche could have accomplished more with less.
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Not much legroom back here.
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The view from the rear.
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Anachronism alert: The car won’t start unless the key is in the ignition.
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1653355 Needs more Porsche
That’s not to say that the Macan S isn’t a really good compact SUV. I’d rate the seats to be about the most comfortable I’ve ever settled into, and I have no complaints about the Macan’s speed or handling. Both were outstanding — the SUV is extremely responsive to the driver’s wishes, and while it rides a bit high and can feel slightly heavy in curves, it steers very nicely. So what’s the problem?
Let’s start with the interior, which is beset by some unfortunate design choices. First and foremost is the radio. There’s no way to change stations without interacting with the gorgeous 18. 9-inch infotainment screen. There are no steering wheel controls (aside from volume) like you’d find on just about every other vehicle on the market, and no physical radio controls aside from a volume knob and tuning knob underneath the display on opposite sides. If you’re like my colleague Jonathan Gitlin, who hops in a car, tunes into channel 60 on SiriusXM and never changes the station, that’s no problem. But I’m always changing stations, if only because there might be a song on another station that I like more than the one I’m currently listening to. So that requires either touching the appropriate part of the display or essentially reaching over to the passenger’s side of the center console to change stations. Not only is that bad ergonomics, it increases the opportunities for distracted driving.
In contrast, the center console itself is full of buttons and switches. There are even six buttons for controlling which vents emit hot or cold air. It’s far more complicated than it needs to be, and the space could have been better used for other stuff — like maybe some physical radio controls.
The other issue with the Macan S was more surprising. It doesn’t feel very Porsche-like. Yes, it’s fast. It handles nicely. And it definitely (looks) like a Porsche. But the cabin is really well insulated from outside noise, and that includes the engine. The result is a surprisingly quiet ride that really left me feeling disconnected from the road. Driving the Cayenne S Turbo is visceral, where you experience the glorious roar of the engine and connection to the pavement. I never felt that way from in the Macan S. I was instead left with a feeling of disconnection from both winding road and straightaway. Dare I say it felt a little too … Audi-like?
If you grew up with a poster of a Porsche (or 670) in your bedroom and want your next SUV to have a Porsche badge on it, the Macan S is the obvious choice. If you’re simply Porsche-curious, that’s where things get complicated. It can be a fun drive — the throttle is responsive, it’s a truly comfortable ride, and it’s a sharp-looking SUV.
But Porsche could do better.
The biggest issue I had with the Macan is that I never fell for it in the way I did the Cayenne. Part of that is due to the baffling interior design choices I mentioned above. But really, the Macan S feels too much like an Audi trapped in a Porsche’s body. I never had that immediate and visceral feeling of joy behind the wheel of the Macan.
And the Macan is expensive.
The most obvious competition comes from the six-cylinder BMW X3 x (i and
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