New gravy. Same train
Cleaner new engines, fresh cabin tech and tiny design tweaks: Macan Mk3 makes the fewest possible changes to keep the money pouring in to Porsche. By Ben Pulman
DESPITE THE FUSS and furore that’s accompanied the reveal of the new 992-generation 911, it’s not Porsche’s most important model. Of course the rear-engined layout is iconic, ditto the unchanging silhouette, but while ‘Porsche’ and ‘911’ used to be one and the same it’s now SUVs that have the coffers overflowing in Stuttgart.
Here the Macan is king. The bigger Cayenne might have come first – facing the same vitriol that’s since been slung at the Bentayga, Urus and Cullinan – but it’s the cheaper Macan that’s on every posh school run and has tempted the middle class to abandon their Audis, BMWs and Mercs (with over 70 per cent of Macan owners new to the Porsche brand).
Porsche hoped the Macan, launched at the back end of 2013, would replicate the success of the Cayenne and sell around 50,000 a year. In fact 97,202 left the Leipzig factory in 2017, and more than 350,000 have found homes in less than four years. Through the first three quarters of 2018 it outsold the 911, Cayman and Boxster combined. Which means this facelifted model is kind of a big deal for Porsche.
Not that the revisions themselves look significant. There doesn’t seem to be much of note beyond the adoption of LED headlights as standard, new daytime running light strips through the intakes, and a tweaked bumper. The clamshell bonnet remains, as do the odd door inserts (which are still optionally available in carbonfibre for no known reason).
It’s only when you get to the back that a difference is obvious, and it’s here you’ll find the same full-width lightblade treatment that is now afflicting every Porsche. On the Macan it looks a little Renault Megane-esque, and if the point of writing the company name across the rear is to increase brand awareness, I’ll be damned if I can make out the P O R S C H E lettering through the brightness of the LEDs. Overall it feels like the design has been fiddled and fussed over purely for the sake of it, because unlike Cayenne Mk1, Macan Mk1 was pretty much spot on. Inside the most momentous alteration has been the repositioning of
the central air vents. The revisions have been made because the central touchscreen has grown from the size of a phone to that of a tablet (up from 7.2 to 10.9 inches) and the increased width left the vents with nowhere to go but down.
The slick infotainment system is from the Panamera and Cayenne, but the rest of the high-quality interior remains more akin to the Cayman and Boxster, meaning actual buttons you can find with your fingers rather than haptic feedback panels you can’t differentiate between without looking away from the road. You still sit low, with a high dash. Rear seat and boot space is on par with the rest of the class.
New options include adaptive cruise control that does the hard work for you in traffic jams, a delectable little GT sports steering wheel from the 911, and an ioniser to improve cabin air quality.
Porsche has also tackled that issue at source, dropping diesel power. A hybrid would be the obvious replacement – that’s certainly worked well for the Panamera – but the Macan’s platform (related to the Audi Q5’s) was never designed for it. Instead the four-pot petrol is now set to grow in popularity. At the other end of the scale, a Macan Turbo will be along shortly with the same 2.9-litre twin-turbo V6 already used in the Panamera and Cayenne.
For now there are two models: the Macan and Macan S. The latter has a new 3.0-litre V6 (again already seen in its bigger brothers) with a solo turbo between the cylinders in a ‘hot vee’ and an extra 14bhp for a total of 349bhp.
The non-S is the big seller. It uses an updated version of an inline four used widely throughout the VW Group. With the corporate focus on meeting global emissions targets, the torque figures remain unchanged and peak power is actually down from 249bhp to 242bhp (at least in Europe, where a particulate filter is now standard). Is that enough power in a Porsche-badged SUV that weighs over two tonnes when there are two passengers onboard? It is, and though you have to wring its neck a little, it’s a decent engine that never feels like it’s letting the side down. In combination with the quick-shifting PDK dual-clutch ’box (the only transmission offered), wider tyres at the rear than the front, and general Porsche chassis genius, the revised Macan is still far and away the most dynamic of its ilk.
The V6 demands less throttle to pull off the same overtaking manoeuvres or progress out of tight bends, so your driving style is more relaxed, more effortless. But it doesn’t actually sound as good as its smaller-capacity sibling, only emitting a howl when fitted with the optional switchable sports exhaust.
Whichever one you’re in, from the heft of the steering, via the driving position, to the bite of the brakes, all Macans feel like Porsches. No, not like actual 911s, but there’s a consistency to the weight of the controls and response to your inputs that’s shared – and that puts daylight between it and its rivals.
If you’re in the market, take a Macan with the standard steel suspension and optional £816 PASM adaptive dampers. Or, if you’re spending extra for the S, go for the £1700 sports exhaust and £1860 air suspension. You can go further, with ceramic brakes and torque vectoring, but at some point you have to accept that an SUV, even a Porsche SUV, is still an SUV – albeit the best in its class.