Expected to become the automaker’s best selling model just as surely as brand purists decry it as another example of the company abandoning its sports car roots, Porsche introduced the brand’s first compact CUV, the Macan, the firm’s fifth distinct model. The little crossover will compete with vehicles like the Range Rover Evoque.
Initial production will be 50,000 units a year and it shares a platform with fellow VW Group brand Audi’s Q5. Positioned below the larger, more expensive Cayenne, the Macan will come in three versions, two gasoline powered and one diesel. The base Macan S has a 340 hp 3.0 liter twin turbo V6, the Macan S Diesel has a 258 hp 3 liter V6 oil burner, and the top of the line Macan Turbo with another bi-turbo gasoline engine, this one a 400 hp, 3. 6 liter V6, the first application of this particular engine. All models come with all wheel drive and a seven speed dual clutch transmission. Suspension is with a five-link front end and a rear trapezoidal link design, available in three grades.
Prices in Germany start at 57,930 euros ($78,190) for the Macan S and Macan S Diesel and 79,826 euros for the Macan Turbo. The Macan will hit dealer showrooms dealers on April 5.
It’s likely that the Macan and Cayenne will eventually make up more than half of Porsche’s sales. That’s a point of contention with sports car purists, but while Porsche sold just 1.6% of the cars the VW conglomerate sold through the first nine months of 2013, it accounted for 22% of the group’s operating profit, so don’t expect Porsche to abandon the product planning and path that has made it the most profitable car company on the planet.
Siegfried Buelow, head of the Leipzig plant, which will assemble the Macan and already makes the Panamera scoffs at the notion that Porsche has lost its way. When the Cayenne was introduced 11 years ago, Buelow said, “there were calls back then that Porsche was diluting its profile. Today, we work three shifts a day and are struggling to keep up with demand.”
Where is the Bentley sub-sub-compact tall hatchback abomination?
Just in from VW!
They’re still trying to graft a Bentley grille onto the New Beetle, once they’ve completed this the new Bentley Mullardi will be released!
Tell them to check with George Barris; he tried and succeeded a few decades ago with the old Beetle; much to RR’s anger.
The Corvette of CUVs
I actually like this. It is much better looking than the Cayenne to my eye in the same way I find the EX35/37 to be handsomer than the FX35/37. Tidier proportions and a decent greenhouse.
I hate to admit it, but I do too. I do wish their successful profit strategy didn’t push Porsche’s prices into the stratosphere.
I will say as an EX35 owner, if you don’t need tons of cargo space, it is truly a great car. Reliable, handles very well, quick and solid feeling. And for the $32K I paid for it, nothing really compares.
My boss bought an EX35 and let me drive it. I came away very impressed. The small rear seat and cargo space called the concept into question, but I was taken by the driving dynamics.
Is it considered to be passe to make fun of “sports car” manufacturers who make family trucksters, or has everybody decided that jacked up station wagons are a perfect way to pad bank coffers and still get away with being some pseudo exclusive brand by association with the 911?
Porsche still sells the 911 right?
Perfect way to pad EPA specs.
They put the face from a Ferrari 612 on it, and the huge egg crate plastic grill looks cheap. But at the back, we have a tall Golf.
Speaking of which, when’s the VW Golf Allroad coming out?
Also, the price. What?!
I’ll take the Q5 and save some money.
At least the Macan is differentiated by a completely different engine line-up.
I like it. But the True Believers are still mad about the 928, and every water-cooled front-engined Porsche since then.
Me too. Could easily see loading the wife and 2 kids in the diesel and heading to the mountains in the winter or out to the shore in the summer. HA!
Since my older girl child will top out at 6’2″ and someday be driving, I might as well find something that my 6’4″ frame can fit into the backseat, huh? Can’t really imagine folding her or the wife into the backseat of a 911….
Love it.
Liked the “Cajun” name better than “Macan”, which sounds like a type of parrot.
It’s really heavy and too low to the ground to be even a crossover. In fact it looks more like a Golf rival. I’ll either buy the Evoque or maybe wait for the Jaguar.
As the EPA requirements get tougher, “light truck” status will become more and more important. A GT3 is penalized thousands of dollars in gas guzzler taxes but a Cayenne Turbo (and presumably the Macan), while getting even worse mileage in the real world, pays none.
I think this vehicle looks good in pictures and on paper. My only complaint is that there is no stick shift.
Me likey, purists be damned. If a CUV is in my future I’d rather it be this one.
I like it. Will VW get a version of this, ala Touareg, or will it just be Audi’s twin?
Most likely not. Probably the Tiguan will grow a bit in the next generation, and there will be a larger crossover.
According to the Porsche US site, the Macan S starts at $49.9K. I’m sure that when you option it up to a moderate equipment level, it will hit $60K no problem. Still a nice little ute, though….I like it!
The Cayenne also starts at the same price. I’m not sure I understand Porsche’s marketing strategy pricing them both the same
Oddly enough I really like it. really don’t like the big one, it’s looks do not sit well with me and then there is that whole “more money than brains” thing, but this one, looks great!