2024 Porsche Macan Review: Definitive Compact Sports SUV

Even nine years after its launch in the USA, the Porsche Macan is still the standard against which other premium sporty compact crossovers are measured. It might share many parts with the Audi Q5 - such as its 261-horsepower base four-cylinder engine - but the Porsche engineers have set it up to be a driver's car with a proper Porsche feel. It's more fun on a mountain pass than anything except perhaps the Alfa Romeo Stelvio. Even the new Maserati Grecale fails to match the Porker's athleticism, even more so in the German's 375-hp S and 434-hp GTS models, which are properly quick too.

Mainstream luxury crossovers like the cheaper BMW X3 also compete for a piece of this pie, and the Beemer is far roomier in the second row and trunk. You have to live with the fact that you pay more for the Porsche out of the box, many of the nice features are expensive extras, and it's a bit small and impractical. But if practicality were your top consideration, you wouldn't be looking at a Porsche. Better hurry up to secure one in its current form, because it's quite possible that the next one will be an EV.

New for 2024

After various updates for the 2022 and 2023 model years, Porsche is leaving the 2024 Macan essentially as is. The range still comprises the same four trims, and while most features and specifications stay the same, there are small adjustments to the standard equipment. A memory package for the driver becomes standard on the Macan and Macan T, while a wireless charging pad is now fitted to all trims. The starting price of the 2024 Porsche Macan Base trim increases by $2,400. The prices of the other trims increase by between $3,400 and $3,900.

2024 Porsche Macan Price: Which One to Buy

This year, the base price of a new Porsche Macan Base trim starts at $60,900 - the first time even the cheapest Macan will cost you more than $60k. The T's MSRP is $66,500, the S goes for $72,300, and the most expensive is the GTS at $86,800. These prices don't include Porshce's $1,650 destination charge.

The Macan really comes to life with the high-performance six-cylinder engine, but you don't have to stretch to the expensive GTS; the S is a great buy, with 375 hp and capable of hitting 60 mph in as little as 4.4 seconds. Besides 114 hp more, it uses trim-specific 20-inch alloys and uprated brakes with red calipers. We'd be tempted to add the $3,660 Premium Package Plus with its panoramic roof, Porsche Dynamic Lighting System Plus LED headlights, 14-way power front seats, heated front and rear seats, and lane-change assist. For a relatively low $1,220, the Sport Chrono package unlocks maximum performance potential and comes with an analog/digital stopwatch, a mode switch on the steering wheel, a Sport Response function, and a Sport mode for the stability control. Specced this way, the Macan still costs less than $80k, destination included.

Interior and Features

The cabin is sober and unexciting, but solidly constructed from the best materials, though you pay extra for almost everything once you start to kit it out the way a Porsche should be.

The Macan is no longer a new car, and you can tell inside. The dashboard layout is very traditional, there is no digital gauge cluster, and a big shifter lever still sits right in the middle of the center console. It's not as exciting or stylish as a Stelvio or Grecale, but it's immensely solid, and the quality of the materials is beyond suspicion. Interior space trails most rivals, especially in the second row, assuming the rear-seat passengers didn't bump their heads on the receding roofline and managed to negotiate the narrow door openings. You sit lower than you'd expect of an SUV, and the narrowing glasshouse and small rear window make the backup camera and standard parking sensors essential.

Space

Space is not a strong suit, and having a shorter wheelbase than just about anything in this class doesn't help, so the rear seat is cramped for anybody approaching adult size. The rear legroom is decent, but the sloping roofline means headroom isn't, limiting who can fit back there. The driver will quickly be able to make themselves comfortable, with the seat and steering wheel adjusting to the perfect driving position, as one would expect from a Porsche, but this is not a spacious family-friendly cabin as you'd find in an X3 or Grecale.

Cargo

The trunk space of 17.2 cu-ft behind the second row is right at the back of the class as well and pales next to the Q5's 25.9 cu-ft and the X3's 28.7 cu-ft. Total trunk volume with the 40/20/40-split rear seat folded flat maxes out at 53 cu-ft - far more useful, but less than the rest. The seats don't fold completely flat. There's a small net partition in the right-hand-side sidewall of the trunk for smaller items.

Cabin storage comprises a glovebox, four roomy door pockets, a small uncovered receptacle behind the shifter lever, two cupholders behind that, and a lidded center-console storage box behind that. The rear-seat passengers also benefit from front seatback pockets and two cupholders in their fold-down center armrest.

Materials and Colors

The Base and S trims come with a black interior, with partial leather on the seats and cloth for the seat centers. The cabin is all-black by default, but you can also get it in Agate Grey at no additional cost. Typically Porsche, you can tailor the cabin to your wishes - at a price. A whole list of extra-cost interior colors and materials is available, such as a black/Mojave Beige interior at $260, or leather on the seats, dashboard, center console, and door panels in interior colors such as black, Agate Grey, black/Pebble Grey, black/Mojave Beige, or black/Bordeaux Red for between $1,740 and $3,880. Leather with deviated contrast stitching on the seats, doors, dashboard, and console costs $5,850 and is also available in several color schemes.

The Macan T comes with sports front seats, and its interior is also rendered in black but with silver stitching throughout the interior and silver striping on the Sport-Tex seat centers. It gets leather on the dashboard, doors, and center console as well. Extended leather in a variety of color combinations, with or without deviated stitching, can be had for anything from $1,840 to $4,120. The GTS comes with a leather/Race-Tex interior, with the latter material used in place of the lower trims' cloth, and with GTS logos embroidered on the headrests. Just like the others, a list of extended-leather options is available, as well as a GTS-specific black interior with or without Race-Tex and in a variety of choices for the deviated stitching, some of which can only be had in combination with the near-$12k GTS Sport package. This package comes with 18-way power front sports seats, a Race-Tex rooflining and steering wheel, and Python Green deviated stitching.

All Macans have their shifter and steering wheel trimmed in smooth leather by default. The interior trim can be had in several materials as well, with carbon-fiber interior trim costing $940 (it's included in the GTS Sport package) and no-cost options, including brushed aluminum and dark walnut. A Race-Tex roofliner costs $1,550. You can customize almost anything, including the color of the seatbelts, instrument dials, air-vent surrounds, and chronograph.

Features and Infotainment

Standard equipment isn't all that generous, and you have to pay extra for various items that you'd expect to be standard at the price. You do get keyless entry, push-button start, heated and eight-way power front seats with driver's memory, a tilting/telescoping steering column, a garage-door opener, a wireless charging pad, and tri-zone climate control, but the seats are only partially trimmed in leather, and the steering wheel is manually adjustable and unheated. These items can be upgraded at extra cost, and other available features include rear sunblinds, an air ionizer, and a smoker's package.

The infotainment system doesn't come with everything you'd expect either, and notable by their absence are a digital gauge cluster and, disappointingly, Android Auto smartphone connectivity. You do get wireless Apple CarPlay, a 10.9-inch touchscreen, navigation, Bluetooth, a Wi-Fi hotspot, and a ten-speaker audio system, though. A 14-speaker Bose surround-sound audio system is available for $990, or you can have a Burmester setup with 16 speakers for a cool $5,700.

Performance

The ride is firm but controlled and never harsh, making for a superbly composed and surprisingly fun driving machine.

The engine in the Porsche Macan Base and T trims is the familiar VW Group 2.0-liter turbocharged inline four-cylinder, here with 261 hp and 295 lb-ft of torque. This gives the Porsche Macan a 0-60 sprint of six seconds, which can be reduced to 5.8 seconds with the Sport Chrono package, which is optional in the Base and standard in the T and adds launch control. Top speed on the standard summer tires is 144 mph. The Macan S and GTS both use a 2.9-liter twin-turbocharged V6 with 375 hp and 383 lb-ft in the former or 434 hp and 405 lb-ft in the latter. The S can get to 60 in 4.6 seconds (4.4 with the Sport Chrono package) and reaches 160 mph, while the GTS rips off the sprint in 4.3 seconds (4.1 with the Sport Chrono package), on to a top speed of 169 mph. Regardless of the engine, every Macan comes with all-wheel drive and the same seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission. Despite its sporty nature, the Macan is capable of decent trailering stats, and all trims have a towing capacity of 4,409 lbs when properly equipped. Its ground clearance of 7.9 inches will see it successfully traverse bad dirt roads, but it's not meant to go off-road, even though the GTS's air suspension can be hoisted up to 8.9 inches.

On the blacktop, the Macan shows its mettle, and it remains the best-handling compact SUV on the market. The ride quality is firm and body control superb, but Porsche engineers have tuned the spring and damper rates so well that they never lapse into harshness, riding the bumps with firm authority but zero porpoising or slack. Though it can get a little choppy on bad surfaces, it remains way more compliant than the harsh X3 M. The GTS's air suspension adds the final layer of ride refinement and control (it's optional on the other trims). The power steering is quite light but retains surprising feel and is razor-sharp for an SUV, adding immeasurably to your driving pleasure. It's rounded off by powerful brakes to render a small SUV that really does have that Porsche feel and handling. The four-pot is adequately quick but uncharismatic, and the magic lies with the V6 with its lovely snarl and rapid performance, skillfully aided by the lightning-quick shifts of the dual-clutch auto.

Fuel Efficiency

We're guessing that gas mileage won't matter too much to Macan buyers, but for the record, the Porsche Macan's mpg figures are now well behind the class best. The four-cylinder cars return 19/25/21 mpg on the EPA's city/highway/combined cycles, which is a lot worse than the 24 mpg combined figure of the AWD X3 xDrive30i and even further behind the hybridized Q5 quattro's 26 mpg. The V6 in the S returns 17/23/19 mpg, while the GTS almost matches this, losing out 1 mpg on the S's highway cycle.

Its generous fuel capacity of 19.8 gallons is more than that of these rivals, though, so you can at least still expect a range of around 415 miles for the four-pots, though this drops to around 376 miles for the V6s.

Safety

Safety is not the biggest selling point, and while it’s probably competitive in its class, no Macan has been crash-tested. More irritatingly, too many driver assist are options at this price level.

There's no NHTSA or IIHS safety review of the Porsche Macan, so we don't have any crash-test scores to go on, and the standard driver assists are a bit lacking as well. The emphasis is clearly on the driving experience here, with just adaptive cruise control, front-collision warning with automatic emergency braking, lane-departure warning, rain-sensing wipers, automatic LED headlights, parking sensors front and rear, and three auto-dimming mirrors being standard. All the other driver assists cost you extra, even on the GTS, and they cannot be had in a safety package but have to be individually selected. These include a surround-view camera ($1,200), a self-steering parking assistant ($390), lane-change assist ($700), and lane-keep assist with traffic-jam assist ($800).

Reliability

The reliability of the Porsche Macan seems to be very good, with an excellent score of 84 out of 100 for JD Power's Quality & Reliability criteria. There have so far also been no recalls for any Macan from the 2022 to 2024 model years, with the 2021 Macan recalled only for improperly secured shock absorbers.

The warranty of the 2024 Porsche Macan gives reasonably good coverage, with both the limited and powertrain warranties valid for four years/50,000 miles. The first service visit within a year/10,000 miles is also included for free.

Warranty

Design

There's not much special about the design of the Porsche Macan, not helped by having been around for so long in more or less the same form. It's unmistakably a Porsche, with the typical headlights shape, DRL signatures, and style of front air intakes borrowed from the marque's sports cars, but the profile is unremarkable. It's not quite a coupe-style SUV, nor as boxy as an X3. It does look purposeful and sporty, though, but less so on the base car with its 19-inch alloys. The others come with 20s, with 21s on the GTS, but an enormous range of wheels is available up to 21 inches in size and in silver, black, red, and gold. You can paint your Macan in a range of colors, including paint-to-sample personalized hues, and order many liveries and decal kits for it. The T comes with gray bumper inserts and side mirrors, the S and GTS have red brake calipers, and the GTS has black wheels, darkened exterior lights, and a black bumper insert. A power liftgate is standard, but a power panoramic sunroof is an option on all trims.

Verdict: Is The 2024 Porsche Macan A Good SUV?

If you want a compact luxury SUV that drives like a genuine Porsche and feels like a sports car, there's nothing to touch the Macan, with only the Stelvio coming close in terms of driver enjoyment. Add to this the endless customization possibilities, and you'll get the authentic Porsche experience when you buy a Macan, all the way from playing with the configurator to taking your new car down its first mountain pass. But in practical terms, it's now just too cramped and impractical to compare with more modern rivals, the price of admission is high, and a ton of desirable features will cost you extra money and aren't standard. See it as a far more practical, everyday, four-door Cayman alternative that you can drive on any type of road, and you're right on the money, though. Better hurry to secure one because the current Macan isn't long for this world.