Porsche's SUVs quickly have become sales hits; the 2016 Macan is the automaker's second-best-selling model behind the Cayenne SUV. It's smaller than the Cayenne and has baby Cayenne styling, but it has a big price tag. We tested the $70,000 Macan S.
Transcript
(car starting) In the shorter amount of time the Porsche Macan has been on sale in the U S, it's quickly climbed Porsche's sales charts. And is now the second best selling model behind the Porsche Cayenne SUV.
Now the Macan comes in two flavors, the S and the turbo and we're here with Macan S. Now it doesn't take upgrading to the glitz and glamor filled turbo to really get what the Macan is about. And in this $70,000 model, there is a lot to like. (engine revving) The Macan may be the little brother to the larger Cayenne but little doesn't mean inexpensive. You're not going to find too many out there at the starting price of $53,000. This $70,000 Macan is more closely what you're going to find out on dealership lots and is the vast majority of what we have in Cars.com's national inventory. Now, the big appeal of the Macan here is just how much it looks like a Porsche. There are bits and pieces all around the car that remind you of Porsche sports car. The back has a very swoopy and curvy look just like the 911 and the headlights up front are inspired by the Porsche 918 hybrid super car. The wheels are actually a staggered setup. So you have wider wheels out back than you do in the front, just like the 911. And that's there to give a very balanced performance handling experience. Even though one Macan trim level has turbo in its name, both are turbocharge. The base Macan has a three liter V6 twin turbocharge that makes 340 horsepower. And the Macan turbo has a 3.6 liter twin turbo-charged V6 making 400 horsepower. The three liter in the Macan S is a highly refined engine. And I wouldn't expect anything less under the hood of this Porsche. Boost response is fantastic. And if you didn't know that there were a pair of turbochargers under the hood of this SUV, you could totally be fooled into thinking this was a high horsepower, naturally aspirated V6. It's that seamless. And then there's the sound. The standard exhaust has a flap in the mufflers that open up to give a little more sound on heavy throttle usage and also in sport mode. It's just a little bit louder but with the windows down, you really hear that signature Porsche sound. (engine revving) Despite its small size, the Macan S isn't a lightweight weighing over 4,000 pounds, but the all wheel drive system with a rear bias really helps the car drive much smaller than its pound suggests. The inside is legitimately a Porsche. You have that sports car feeling with the red leather seats on this model. They're optional, as well as the stitching and overall materials. There's aluminum and leather and it all just feels very Porsche like, especially in the design. The gauge cluster, you have a big tachometer in the middle with the digital speedometer and then the speedometer analog off to the side. And you also have the signature analog clock right in the middle of the dashboard. Another Porsche characteristic carried over from some of its other models is this massive center console with so many buttons. There are 29 buttons alone just right here in the center console and I don't totally hate it. I kind of like it actually. There aren't menu shortcuts in the touchscreen that you have to get through multiple pages to choose something. Everything is just right out in the open. It's nice having everything at your fingertips. There are over $12,000 of optional equipment on the inside of this Macan S. There's an infotainment package, the premium package plus, as well as a heated steering wheel. Now here's a trick. If you have a Macan, check and see if there's a button on the bottom spoke in the back of the steering wheel. That's going to be your heated button. Totally drove this for a good while before figuring out that's where the heated button is. It's kind of hidden. This also has heated rear seats, a panoramic sunroof, and blind spot monitoring. There's not much else I would want on the inside of this Macan. The utility portion of this Porsche sport utility vehicle is somewhat lacking in the back seat and cargo area. There's not as much room here as you'd find in a BMW X6 or Mercedes Benz GLE class coupe. It's hard to get into with the small rear opening. And once you're in, you're crammed in here. The seats position where I would sit and there's not a whole lot of room to spare. Plus my knees are in an uncomfortably high position. There's this big center hump that keeps things restricted in the feet area and the panoramic sunroof takes up space too. Overall, there's just not a whole lot of comfort to be found in the Macan's backseat. An aggressively sloped rear roof line does cut down on overall cargo height but it's fairly wide and Porsche gives you a standard power rear lift gate. Now, even though this is the base Macan, there's a healthy dose of Porsche DNA infused in its driving characteristics and the interior feel. So much so that even at $70,000, you don't quite feel ripped off even when shopping larger SUV's. (trunk closing)
