Porsche Macan Review 2024
Porsche Macan At A Glance
If you want your sporty SUV to be as sporty as it can possibly be, the Porsche Macan is the only choice. It drives with a level of polish that no rival can even come close to matching, making it terrifically enjoyable and hugely desirable. Yes, rivals like the Audi Q5, BMW X4 and Mercedes GLC are more practical, and better equipped, and although they’re also really good to drive, they can’t get close to the Macan for fun. Read on for our full review of the Porsche Macan.
Cynicism is a funny old thing. The cynic in you might suspect that the Macan is nothing more than Porsche being, well, cynical.
After all, SUVs - especially small ones, and especially ones with prestige badges - have been flying out of showrooms for a number of years now. So surely, the Macan is nothing more than Porsche attempting to cash in on this success and get a bigger slice of the pie than the larger Cayenne can get on its own, right?
Well, maybe, maybe not. But whatever the case, that doesn’t stop the Macan being a proper Porsche. As we’ll discover, the Macan isn’t perfect by any means, but at doing the things that Porsche is famous for, it’s pretty much flawless.
Obviously, there’s one area above all others where a Porsche has to deliver, and that’s in how it drives. And on that score, the Macan is nothing short of sublime.
It displays physics-defying levels of body control when you change direction, and with massive grip and wonderful balance from a rear-biased four-wheel drive system, it’ll simply drive away from any rival along a twisty road, putting a broad grin on your face as it does so.
Even better is the steering, which just like all the best Porsches, immerses you in the action every step of the way. What’s more the ride is comfortable enough for family car duties, and refinement is good enough to make long stints at the wheel an absolute pleasure.
All the engines punch hard, with more and more punch as you progress up the range, so performance levels are easily worthy of the Porsche badge. All in all, this thing isn’t just great to drive by SUV standards, it’s great to drive by any standard.
The other area in which a Porsche must dazzle is quality: after all, if you’re going to pay so much for a car, you want it to feel worth it. The Macan might be one of Porsche’s most affordable models, but it doesn’t feel like a poor relation, with a sumptuously trimmed and substantially built interior.
In fairness, there are a fair few areas in which the Macan isn’t quite so dazzling. As we’ve said, it’s pricey compared with most rivals, and most of those rivals are considerably roomier, considerably more practical and considerably better equipped, particularly when it comes to safety (automatic emergency braking isn’t provided as standard, which defies belief at this money).
However, if the areas that are important to you are the areas in which the Macan does well, or you simply want to know that your family SUV is the sharpest-driving SUV on the face of the planet, then the Macan is your only choice.