Finalising the spec took ages, started with Gentian, but viewing this in an overcast light made me change to Dolomite silver with extended leather in Bordeaux Red. It is nigh on impossible to photograph the interior accurately but the colour is a rich wine hue not like garnet of old which is very bright. Extended leather really gives the interior that special feeling I felt was missing on my earlier Macan which had the standard leather interior. I opted for 14 comfort seats this time over the 18’s really due to the side bolsters which passengers found difficult especially my ageing mother. For my medium frame the 14 way seats are just as comfortable. Had the standard stereo last time and opted for Bose which has much better bass response but the standard is perfectly acceptable in my opinion for most of my listening.
Selecting the wheels was difficult, having had 21” RS Spyder’s which were just gorgeous but a headache in other respects mainly due to the diamond cut finish, I had very slight parking scratches sorted as a smart repair but I just wanted easy to clean and maintain wheels going forward. Really wated the GT Design wheels in Platinum but this wasn’t possible, didn’t like the 5 arm Vesuvius grey option so opted for the silver ones, I was worried that this would not match the car well but was really pleased when I saw them in reality. If these are damaged badly I will just powder coat in platinum.
Just running in but so far, I love this car due to its great engine. The problem is that I had an extended test drive in a 911 992 Carrera and came away just smitten. Man maths in flow and was thinking about a new order which the latest price rise has now made much more difficult I think. I had never driven a 911 before and can now see their charm, it is the only car aside from a BMW E30 325i which I owned years ago that really made me feel connected to the road, lovely. However, I wonder if I would get tired of that noise, harsh ride and connected feeling when doing the usual things. On getting back into the Macan after the 911, I was struck how civilised the Macan was for 90% of my driving. Still can’t get the 911 out of my head…..
Negatives on new Macan:-
The glove box is not cooled any more, seriously?
Steering column manual adjustment, just pants
The jury is out on power steering plus, but this could be due to the thinner steering wheel, I miss the heavy feel of the normal steering
Not sure how I feel about the loss of buttons but the centre console is going to be a scratch magnet without ppf, looks very nice though
Telephone calls via Bose only playing through centre speaker, I wonder if this is a fault?
Positives:-
Air suspension feels less floaty than earlier generation
Engine has virtually no lag even at low revs on a trailing throttle, it’s always responsive. Test drive felt like more than 385 ponies were corralled
Car just feels more resolved, I think Porsche may have made minor suspension adjustments
Love the 14 way seats
Bose sounds good and the stereo now has decent low end response
Extended leather just makes the package complete IMO
PDK is just magic and seems even more intuitive, seems to read the road ahead, not sure if it is interfacing with google maps to enable this
