Performance with a dose of fun
Macan GTS is perfect example of a sports car company doing an SUV right
Porsche may be a sports car manufacturer at heart, but cars are pretty much the “other side” of its business these days. Last year in Canada, Porsche sold more than twice as many SUVs as it did cars. And while the iconic 911 topped the auto side, the best-selling Macan outsold it three to one.
It’s certainly understandable. The Macan gives you the Porsche driving experience with sportier feel than the next-best-selling Cayenne, while it’s more practical than even a Panamera for commuters or smaller families.
It comes in four flavours, starting with the simply-named Macan at $54,100 and carrying a 252-horsepower, 2.0-litre four-cylinder engine under the hood. A 3.0-L V6 arrives in the Macan S, where it makes 340 hp and starts at $61,400, and in my tester, the Macan GTS, where it churns out 360 hp and begins at $76,000. You can also move up to the $87,200 Macan Turbo — a bit of a misnomer, because all Macan models are turbocharged — with a 3.6-L V6 that churns out 400 hp.
Anyone familiar with Porsche knows it’s likely no one ever paid the starting price. There are pages of options, right up to custom-colour paint and a leather-wrapped rearview mirror, and in theory you could build a one-of-one. Still, I’d expect some of my tester’s add-ons to be included in the base price, such as $790 for blind-spot monitoring and $1,650 for adaptive cruise control.
The GTS’ mid-range motor is the perfect fit for this vehicle. Its acceleration is naturally more satisfying than the base Macan, and it feels better balanced than the Turbo with its raw-guts power. The rear-biased, active all-wheel system receives its go-power through a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic with steering wheel-mounted paddles.
Steering feel is just right as well. You won’t mistake it for a 911, but there’s decent feedback and just the right amount of steering weight, especially since even some sportier-styled SUVs veer too far over into lighter handling. The steering wheel is heated, too.
The engine includes a start/stop function, which automatically shuts the engine off at idle and restarts it when you take your foot off the brake. You can disable it, and unlike many of these systems, it doesn’t default back when the ignition is restarted. I wish the sport exhaust did the same. I love the rumbly burble that comes out the pipes when
it’s activated, but you have to hit the button each time you start the engine.
Air suspension is standard on the GTS, and it helps it to achieve a wonderful bit of wizardry. Even when you hit the button to tighten the suspension, and the Macan hunkers down on the asphalt and carves the curves near-flat, there’s none of the kidney-bruising ride you’d expect from something this sporty. It’s supple but not too soft, firm but not too forceful, and as with the engine, it’s just right. There’s even an off-road setting that lifts it to maximum ground clearance of 230 millimetres, should you have a particularly rough road to the cottage.
I like the Macan’s cabin: The front seats have enough bolstering to be supportive, but not so much that it’s an effort to get in and out. Rearseat passengers must remember this isn’t a Cayenne, and legroom is abbreviated to the point that taller passengers will be cramped. The 40/20/40-split rear seats fold flat for extra cargo space.
The cockpit-style front seating includes an aviation-appropriate array of buttons, but I’m good with them. I’ve driven the new Panamera, which now puts almost all functions either in a huge infotainment screen or under glass, where you must tap (and sometimes tap, and tap, and tap) the icons.
Quite frankly, give me the buttons. Frequently-used ones, like cabin temperature and seat heating, are easy to reach at the top of the centre console, while the infotainment system has hard buttons
to quickly get you to the navigation, stereo, or phone screens. I like that both driver and passenger can opt for individual vent and fan settings (the other half ’s preference), or automatic climate control (my superior choice). The Macan console’s major drawback is that there’s virtually no small-item storage outside of the door pockets and a tiny console box, but then again, the Panamera shed most of its buttons and still doesn’t have any storage, either.
The Macan is not weighed down with too many electronic nannies, but the parking sensors can get a bit frantic. At one intersection, where I was stopped and waiting to make a turn, it kept needlessly warning me about the traffic light pole alongside. It just about had a heart attack in the touchless car wash.
Porsche aimed at the middle and hit the sweet spot with the GTS. It’s fast, it’s fun, but above all, it has exactly the power and performance this chassis needs. This is a sports car company doing a sport ute right.