Porsche might say this is a compact SUV, but that’s a little distant from the truth. In reality, the new Macan is closer to being a sports car on stilts. Here’s our seat-of-the-pants review
Story: Aninda Sardar
Photography: Sanjay Raikar
Dark grey clouds stretching from horizon to horizon and pelting rain with low visibility isn’t the ideal weather if you wanted to enjoy some speed thrills. Yet, I found myself smiling to myself as I steered the car through the sweeping bends of the rain-swept Pune-Mumbai expressway that gloomy (and what would otherwise have been an exceedingly dull) Wednesday morning. For in the just-launched Porsche Macan the potential for having fun is limitless.
Now we had been keeping our eyes peeled for some time to see when the Macan would pop up over the horizon and head towards us. So when we finally did hear from Porsche that they would be giving us a just-out-of-the-crate new example to review, the office went into a flurry of excitement. On most occasions I have no faith in hierarchies and designations, but they do have their use sometimes. Exactly at times like this. As a result, I ended up the winner in a battle, which I would have surely lost had brawn been the choice of weapon instead of team hierarchy for the Macan’s keys.
My first impression of the Macan when I set my eyes on it was, “Wow! This is tiny!” But it isn’t really, you see. It’s actually longer than four-and-a-half metres, nearly two metres wide and stands to a height of just over 1,600 mm. It is undoubtedly compact, but it isn’t small. It’s just that when you hear Porsche and SUV being uttered in the same sentence, the only image that crops up is that of the Cayenne, which, frankly, would look quite the behemoth if parked next to the Macan. Having got past the Cayenne image and starting to the see this new Porsche SUV in its own right, my second thought was that this isn’t tiny at all. In fact, it’s as big or small as any other vehicle that passes through the compact SUV filter.
Looks-wise the Macan’s bulbous and swoopy exterior can be identified as a Porsche from a distance, even without the aid of the centrally placed badge on the bonnet or the cursive writing on the boot-lid. Needless to say, the high class of Porsche’s build quality is immediately evident close up from the immaculate shut lines and the sound of solid thuds when you shut any of the five doors (tail-gate included, of course).
The inside story is much the same. Even in your wildest and most bizarre dreams will you not think that you’re in any other car but a Porsche. The separate-switch-for-every-function philosophy of the Stuttgart-based sports car and SUV maker provides ample proof of the Macan’s origins. Space too is never at a premium. Top-notch quality is again visible everywhere, courtesy the liberal use of leather and those fine stitch-lines. Dashes of brushed aluminium here and there (the paddle shifters, for instance) help remind you that this is, as Porsche would like to call it, the sports car among compact SUVs. And then you wonder: so is this an SUV really or is it a sports car?
