Is the Macan as good as it gets for my use case?

We added a 2020 Macan Base last fall as my wife's daily with 10k miles. Probably overpaid but wanted to buy a CPO.  Between the remainder of the base, and the 2 year CPO, that gave us the same 4 year bumper-to-bumper as new.  It replaced her Nissan Rogue which got handed down to our teenager.  It wasn't that much more than buying another ho-hum new Rogue.

The upsides - PDK is just a marvelous piece of kit. My first PDK car. For us the size was right, as it has to fit in the 3rd garage bay, she ain't parking outside. Well appointed for a Base, 14 way seats, pano, PDLS+, which are fantastic in comparison to anything else we own.  Handles well for what it is.

Negatives:  Backseat isn't large.  You can seat 4 adults, but 4 6 footers would be cozy. The Base model needs more power. We just had it up in the NC mountains, and you had to really focus on keeping the turbo spooled, if you wanted to enjoy it. First weekend we brought it home battery died. Turns out the car will never go to sleep if the key is too close to the car. A small Faraday box in the mud-room for keys solved that problem for like $15.

I liked it enough i just purchased an old Cayenne Diesel to try out as a daily / occasionally tow pig.  Better size, but the auto isn't as close to as fun as the PDK.

not written by AI :-)

I had a Mk7.5 Golf R 6MT for a few years.  It was a fun, sporty car that hauled a surprising amount of stuff.  I'd say it's easily got the cargo volume of a Macan.  Very numb steering feel but other than that, a good platform.  I traded it in 1.5 years ago for almost what I paid for it to get my Land Cruiser.

Another vehicle came to mind that I test drove and loved a while back: the Ford Maverick. I came very close to buying that little "truck". It drives nothing like a truck. I found it to be very comfortable and more spacious than I had anticipated- the ergonomics were fantastic! I'm a die-hard manual guy, but the 8-speed transmission was very quick and intuitive and it handles nothing like a truck- it's build on a car/unibody chassis, so it can only tow 4000 lbs, but the trade-off is that it drives like a far sportier vehicle, I think C&D pulled 0.82g on their skidpad on all-terrain truck tires! 

And it's actually a quick little bugger! I think Car and Driver hit 0-60mph in 5.9 seconds (with the 2.0L Turbo motor and AWD, which is how I would spec it). 

Fuel economy is 25/22/29 (combined, city, highway). Great visibility and plenty of utility since it has a truck bed. Plus you can get a brand new vehicle for less cash than you're looking to spend on a used vehicle. There's a reason why pretty much every driver-focused publication on earth praised this little "truck" that isn't a truck. Worth a test drive if you're remotely interested, it's much better to drive than you think. 

roninsoldier83 said:

Another vehicle came to mind that I test drove and loved a while back: the Ford Maverick. I came very close to buying that little "truck". It drives nothing like a truck. I found it to be very comfortable and more spacious than I had anticipated- the ergonomics were fantastic! I'm a die-hard manual guy, but the 8-speed transmission was very quick and intuitive and it handles nothing like a truck- it's build on a car/unibody chassis, so it can only tow 4000 lbs, but the trade-off is that it drives like a far sportier vehicle, I think C&D pulled 0.82g on their skidpad on all-terrain truck tires! 

And it's actually a quick little bugger! I think Car and Driver hit 0-60mph in 5.9 seconds (with the 2.0L Turbo motor and AWD, which is how I would spec it). 

Fuel economy is 25/22/29 (combined, city, highway). Great visibility and plenty of utility since it has a truck bed. Plus you can get a brand new vehicle for less cash than you're looking to spend on a used vehicle. There's a reason why pretty much every driver-focused publication on earth praised this little "truck" that isn't a truck. Worth a test drive if you're remotely interested, it's much better to drive than you think. 

I've heard great things about the Mav but I already have a truck in the stable. The issue I have with the truck bed is that it's exposed and I want the security of having my stuff locked inside since I'm leaving it in the car at work all day long. Not to mention it kind of sucks the fun out of the commute.  

The Mercedes GLA45 AMG and the Macan S appeared in a handful of "shootout" reviews together. 

docwyte said:

Macan is just small.  Small back seat, small cargo area.  You're not carrying a bike inside it without folding down the back seats and removing the front wheel from the bike.  You can't get a manual in it.  If I were you, I'd look at a small wagon instead, like a BMW 3 series wagon, Audi A4 or A6 allroad, VW sport wagon etc.

If folding the back seat down and taking the bike's front wheel off counts as fitting inside the vehicle, just about any coupe or sedan with a fold-down back seat might be able to carry it.

MadScientistMatt said:

docwyte said:

Macan is just small.  Small back seat, small cargo area.  You're not carrying a bike inside it without folding down the back seats and removing the front wheel from the bike.  You can't get a manual in it.  If I were you, I'd look at a small wagon instead, like a BMW 3 series wagon, Audi A4 or A6 allroad, VW sport wagon etc.

If folding the back seat down and taking the bike's front wheel off counts as fitting inside the vehicle, just about any coupe or sedan with a fold-down back seat might be able to carry it.

Modern mountain bikes have really difficult proportion, outside of vans the only vehicle I know of that can swallow one without removing the front tire is a Honda Element. So having to fold the rear seats and remove the front tire is a concession I figure I'll need to make if I want to get anything with "fun to drive" as a reasonable descriptor. I would bet that even most full size SUV's would struggle to fit a modern mountain bike with front tire intact. 

And just for comparison - my E90 will not fit my mountain bike with rear seats folded, even when the front tire is removed. One of my mountain biking friends has a 1st gen Mazda 3 hatch and can fit his bike in the back but needs the passenger seat moved forward with the seatback upright in order to fit it. Another friend with a B8 S4 can barely fit his in the car but it's a pain in the ass to do it, he has to dance back and forth between the trunk and rear seats. A third friend with a current gen Volvo S60 can make it work without too much trouble. All of these with front tire removed. So those are my yard sticks. I'm assuming something that's a mid-size sedan will either be difficult or so tight that I'll regret it, but I am willing to try. Like I said in the original post - an S4 was on my list.

I couldn't fit in a GLA45.  At least with the "regular" seats, they didn't have one with the recaro seat option for me to try.  With the seat as low as it could go, my head was brushing the headliner.  I'm 5'11" but pretty much all torso.

As far as space for mtn bikes, I think even with my land cruiser I'd have to remove the front wheel to get it inside.

I'm surprised the e90 won't fit.  I have an e46 sedan, and i can a large frame 29" wheel bike with the seats folded down and the front wheel off.  Did they shrink the trunk space?  Or maybe shrink the opening above the rear seats?

Flynlow (FS) said:

I'm surprised the e90 won't fit.  I have an e46 sedan, and i can a large frame 29" wheel bike with the seats folded down and the front wheel off.  Did they shrink the trunk space?  Or maybe shrink the opening above the rear seats?

It's a width issue, the pass-through is too narrow and the forks / handlebars don't have the space to squeeze through. It's very close to working, if the passthrough and side shelves were an inch or two wider I'd be able to make it work. But all that said, even if the bike fit the E90 wouldn't be the right car for me, it's RWD and I bought it before I lived on the side of a mountain. I figure as long as it's time to move on to something else I might as well fix a few of it's other shortcomings (like not being able to carry my bike!)

I'm seeing used Ford Edge ST's under $25k. They'll have a 2.7 ecoboost, AWD, an 8spd auto, and at least some performance/dynamic pretense.

roninsoldier83 said:

Another vehicle came to mind that I test drove and loved a while back: the Ford Maverick. I came very close to buying that little "truck". It drives nothing like a truck. I found it to be very comfortable and more spacious than I had anticipated- the ergonomics were fantastic! I'm a die-hard manual guy, but the 8-speed transmission was very quick and intuitive and it handles nothing like a truck- it's build on a car/unibody chassis, so it can only tow 4000 lbs, but the trade-off is that it drives like a far sportier vehicle, I think C&D pulled 0.82g on their skidpad on all-terrain truck tires! 

And it's actually a quick little bugger! I think Car and Driver hit 0-60mph in 5.9 seconds (with the 2.0L Turbo motor and AWD, which is how I would spec it). 

Fuel economy is 25/22/29 (combined, city, highway). Great visibility and plenty of utility since it has a truck bed. Plus you can get a brand new vehicle for less cash than you're looking to spend on a used vehicle. There's a reason why pretty much every driver-focused publication on earth praised this little "truck" that isn't a truck. Worth a test drive if you're remotely interested, it's much better to drive than you think. 

This is kinda where I have fallen with window-shopping. I like the dynamic pretense of the Macan, but, back when I had a '14 Clubman, I parked next to my neighbor's Macan and was blown away by how small the Macan was. Not much more usable space than even the Clubman. "Smallest necessary" is my mantra when car shopping though, so that's actually a complement. The biggest downside on the Macan is the low-ish tow rating. Certainly higher than my E91, but not high enough to pull my Elise in an enclosed trailer should I ever get one. 

2nd gen Cayenne GTSs seem to be a great option aside from the fuel economy. That brings me to the latest round of Utes - the Santa Cruz being my visual favorite. Tow rating splits the difference pretty close between the Macan and Cayenne (5000lbs), but I imagine comparing a PDK Porsche Macan to a Hyundai is going to give a pretty obvious winner when it comes to "fun-ness". Being a manual guy myself, I want to like the 2nd gen Cayenne, but I find the GTS far more attractive, and that is a lot of mass for 300hp to shift around. Still, the VR6 + exhaust does sound pretty neat. 

My 29" full suspension fits in my 2012 X5 quite well with front wheel on and back seats folded down. Just another data point.

A current X3M is probably about as big as my older X5. Have you considered those?

dyintorace said:

My 29" full suspension fits in my 2012 X5 quite well with front wheel on and back seats folded down. Just another data point.

A current X3M is probably about as big as my older X5. Have you considered those?

I have, that's definitely one of the cars that would get me over to the dark side of automatic transmissions, but they're a bit out of my price range unfortunately. I'm hoping to keep it around $30k if I reach for a Macan or similar, seems like the cheapest X3Ms around me are still asking $50k. Good data point to know an X5 will take a bike with tire intact. Was it a tight fit or room to spare?

Circling back around to this thread for more Macan info. The Q5e is in the middle of it's 4th month-plus stay at the dealer for a failure (dual-mass flywheel, hybrid battery controller, charging module, and now the rear differential clutch) and we're getting tired of driving loaners and making car payments this high for it. 

The Audi dealer has a 18 GTS and a 20 base on the lot and we looked at both. The 20 had a significantly updated interior screen and UI upgrade and the rear light bar was really nice. The GTS made lovely noises (valved exhaust) and had all the right options (Sport Chrono, air suspension, PTV). The GTS having the Porsche 2.9 TT V6 seemed like a better idea than the S4 motor in the S with it's rear timing cover issues. 

The Q5e is almost perfect when it works, it's just not working very often. Surely a Porsche can't be less reliable?

In general, the newer Porsches are quite reliable.  However, when something does go wrong, it rings the register hard.

I'd go for the GTS, those have a great option group for an enthusiast.  Are you going to lemon law the Audi?

In reply to docwyte :

Unfortunately it was a CPO, not new, and none of the major repairs have been the same thing. I really think we just got one of those cars that was built during the height of COVID where they had to stop the production line a bunch. Audi has taken care of everything, but I'm not feeling very confident in this particular car post-warranty...

Update. Spent all day at the dealer. Drove a 2018 Macan GTS, a 2020 Macan base, a 2021 Audi SQ5, a 2024 Audi Q5 e-tron, and a 2023 Audi Q4.

Still coming home in the loaner Lurch.

What were your impressions especially comparing the GTS to a base Macan? My daily E90 is starting to act up and a used pre-facelift Macan is likely be one of the few SUV's I would consider. 

In reply to newold_m (Forum Supporter) :

I wouldn't call the Macan an SUV, it's based on the same platform as the VW Golf and is a CUV.  The difference between the loaner Macans we get vs our Cayenne is night and day.  GTS is just more of everything, we get the base Macan's as loaners.  They're a decent car but don't feel particularly sporty or fast.

Maybe this is largely semantics but the macan is not on the same platform as the golf. The macan is longitudinal engine rwd based, the golf is transverse engine fwd based (the extra engine bay length of the macan being one of the things limiting interior space). From what I can tell the macan platform is actually fairly closely related to the cayenne platform, but shares almost nothing but the engine with the golf platform.

Here are my impressions of the following cars:

2018 Macan GTS (pre-facelift, 2.9L twin turbo Porsche motor, PDK) - Lightning shifts, excellent gearbox, underwhelming motor. It makes great noises, it's just not fast or quick. Our Q5 e-tron would smoke it 0-60. Driven in a vacuum, it would likely feel great, but you can totally tell that this is an older platform than the B9 Audis. The steering is vague, the handling is jarring yet still has too much body roll in a corner, and the touch points feel 2005 (weird key-like ignition thing, turn signal stalk, shifter from a 1G Cayenne, etc). It had all the right options (Sport Chrono, PASM, valved exhaust, etc). It just felt like an Audi with a PDK, and frankly Audi makes a much better Audi than Porsche does.

2020 Macan base (post-facelift, 2.0L turbo Audi motor, PDK(?)) - This feels like the Audi DSG that's in our Q5, not the PDK in the GTS. Shifts are fast, but lazy compared to the GTS driven back-to-back. Slow. The updated screens are nicer, but still old tech compared to our 2020 Audi, and not much else has really changed. I would not buy a base Macan when an Audi Q5 is available.

2021 Audi SQ5 (B9, 3.0L single-turbo hot-V, ZF 8-speed) - I really thought this would be the one. The B9 chassis is a pretty massive, noticeable step forward over the B8 (what our S4 is and what the Macan is built off of) in chassis dynamics, ride, handling, steering feel, and build quality feel. The interior was excellent, the tech was great (wireless Apple Car Play and Android Auto, digital gauges including a NAV screen, LED headlights with auto-dimming for oncoming vehicles, etc). The ZF was good, but lacking compared to the PDK back-to-back. It's lacking in torque compared to the B8 SQ5 (3.0L supercharged V6) I've driven before, so it's slower in the 0-60. Honestly, if VAG stuck the Porsche PDK in this car it would be the winner. That's what the post-facelift Macan S drivetrain is, but it's still the B8 chassis.

2023 Audi Q4 e-tron - Woof. Slow, cheap, not an Audi experience at all. Couldn't pay me to drive one.

2024 Audi Q5 e-tron (B9, 2.0 Turbo 4 with an electric motor, 376 HP) - Felt like home. Slightly bigger/better battery than our 2020, but no performance difference. Literally the exact same car. I'm worried about the build quality of the Mexico-built Q5's (base and e-tron, but not the SQ5) as one of the ones we went to drive literally disentigrated the driver's door latch (with 11 miles on it) and the door would no longer stay shut, and the one we did drive totally had a failed dual-mass flywheel like ours did. I wish they built the Q5e in Germany to be honest.

2023 Audi Q8 e-tron (all-EV) - Loved it. Really want to drive the 24's, they are much different, especially the 3-motor SQ8 e-tron. Waiting for the dealer to get some. They depreciate *HARD* though. Lease would be smarter maybe? Can't really afford it though ($85K and up!).

In reply to dps214 :

Macan is based on the MQB platform, same as the Golf.  IE, chassis are the same, despite different motors and transverse vs longitudinal etc.

In reply to Javelin :

Surprised you felt the GTS was slow.  My wife and I test drove the newer SQ5 with the turbo motor and it felt plenty quick.  Not the same as my old stage 2 3 liter supercharged S4, but that's not a fair comparison.  

docwyte said:

In reply to dps214 :

Macan is based on the MQB platform, same as the Golf.  IE, chassis are the same, despite different motors and transverse vs longitudinal etc.

Macan (and cayenne) are MLB platform. Same "concept" as the MQB but different layout and virtually no shared parts. If you go look at some parts diagrams the two are nothing alike. Macan/cayenne are double wishbone front suspension where the golf is strut is the first glaring difference.