From the January 2024 issue of Car and Driver.
If midcentury soothsayers really had a line on the future, all those Syd Mead illustrations of happy sci-fi suburbanites would have shown them darting around glass-walled skyscrapers in Porsche Macans. Talk about a flying car. The Macan looks like a June bug (especially the GTS in Python Green), but it zings and zips like a hummingbird. From the four-cylinder base Macan to the snorty, six-jug GTS, Porsche’s small SUV makes good on the badge’s sports-car promise, just with more space and height.
Porsche achieves greatness in the decidedly not-great category of compact crossovers by placing the Macan’s tall body on a chassis so lithe and responsive that one wonders whether the German manufacturer has discovered some secret alchemy to imbue steel and aluminum with the life force of an agility-trained border collie. While the 261-hp turbo 2.0-liter four backed by the quick-shifting seven-speed dual-clutch automatic in the base Macan provides enough thrust to put the body through its paces, the real magic happens when the 434-hp twin-turbo 2.9-liter V-6 in the Macan GTS joins the mix. With a 60-mph time of 3.5 seconds and the deft direction changes of a high-dollar lawyer, the GTS can roar and whisk through the turns on a weekend joy ride or burble politely through an afternoon of errands. So connected is the Macan with the desires of its driver that it can be startling to open the door and disembark by stepping down rather than heaving oneself upward with the traditional grunt and wiggle needed to get out of a 911. For the elegance of exit alone, it deserves praise.
No future is perfect, and the Macan’s minimalist dash and console didn’t win over all our reviewers, even with its standard 10.9-inch infotainment screen and 10-speaker stereo. But the Porsche isn’t on this list as a budget buy. For those who pony up for the Premium Plus package, leather upholstery, and Sport Chrono add-on, the cabin becomes several steps more luxurious.
As a pure workhorse, the Macan can’t compete on cargo space and rear legroom, but no other SUV of this size offers such a temptation to take the long way to your destination.
Temptation always has its cost, and the Macan starts at $62,550, with the price for a well-optioned GTS easily topping six digits. Still, to paraphrase senior editor Ezra Dyer’s notes from the logbooks, some small things are worth big prices. Consider the Macan a spoonful of caviar, a dollop of joy atop the daily grind.
Specifications
Specifications
2024 Porsche Macan
261-hp turbo 2.0-liter inline-4, 375- or 434-hp twin-turbo 2.9-liter V-6; 7-speed dual-clutch automatic
Base: $62,550–$88,450
C/D Test Results
60 mph: 3.5–5.0 sec
1/4-Mile: 12.1–13.7 sec
Top Speed (mfr’s claim): 144–169 mph
Braking, 70–0 mph: 148–163 ft
Roadholding, 300-ft Skidpad: 0.89–0.98 g
EPA Comb/City/Hwy: 19–21/17–19/22–25 mpg
Senior Editor, Features
Like a sleeper agent activated late in the game, Elana Scherr didn’t know her calling at a young age. Like many girls, she planned to be a vet-astronaut-artist, and came closest to that last one by attending UCLA art school. She painted images of cars, but did not own one. Elana reluctantly got a driver’s license at age 21 and discovered that she not only loved cars and wanted to drive them, but that other people loved cars and wanted to read about them, which meant somebody had to write about them. Since receiving activation codes, Elana has written for numerous car magazines and websites, covering classics, car culture, technology, motorsports, and new-car reviews.
