{"id":4670,"date":"2020-07-27T14:36:57","date_gmt":"2020-07-27T14:36:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.carpages.ca\/blog\/?p=4670"},"modified":"2020-07-28T20:35:23","modified_gmt":"2020-07-28T20:35:23","slug":"full-review-2020-porsche-macan-turbo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.carpages.ca\/blog\/full-review-2020-porsche-macan-turbo\/","title":{"rendered":"Full Review – 2020 Porsche Macan Turbo"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Words By: Adam Allen<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you insist on a go-fast SUV, it\u2019ll be hard to top this one<\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Soooooo\u2026 another SUV with a glut of power. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this point, if you are not used to\nheadlines that involve SUVs making serious horsepower that can stop and turn\nbetter than many sports sedans of a handful of years ago, we applaud your\nresolute ambivalence. You can plug your ears and shut your eyes tight all you\nwant but these things aren\u2019t going anywhere- quite the opposite, actually. We\nare living in an age where Ford is slapping ST badges on  Explorer and Didge plans on stuffing a 707 horsepower\nHellcat engine in a Durango which reaffirms the notion that people want SUVs that\ncan haul you and the family as capably as they can haul ass. It\u2019s a trend that\nwill be here for the foreseeable future, folks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So you got your hands on a Porsche Macan\nTurbo, but now it\u2019s packing a smaller engine. Is it still relevant?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes. Despite the engine being downsized\nfrom a 3.6 litre V6 to one displacing 2.9, there is more power on tap- hard to\nargue with that. Here it makes 434 horsepower and 406 pounds feet of torque.\nThat\u2019s enough scoot to satiate even the most impatient families. But the Macan\nis so much more than a 0-100km\/h one-trick pony; this SUV can scrub off speed\nand handle your favorite roads with a proficiency that so many of its ilk try\nto achieve and ultimately fall short. While it shares a distant link to the\nAudi Q5 platform, trust us- Porsche has seen to it that the Macan feels nothing<\/em>\nlike a Q5. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fine, but does she go around corners OK?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Macan Turbo does such a convincing impression\nof a sports car that should you own say, a 2011 Audi S6 (the very same one powered\nby a Lamborghini-sourced V10) you would exit the Porsche ashen faced and maybe\na little embarrassed. That\u2019s right, folks- a contemporary hotted up SUV will\nsoundly spank many performance icons of just a few short years ago. And while\nthose brutes often served up ride quality that could charitably be described as\nbrittle, the Macan\u2019s air suspension provides a supple experience that is a stark\njuxtaposition to its lofty handling abilities. There\u2019s so much excellence taking\nplace here dynamically that we apologize for blurting out a summary of our experience:\nThat engine, while downsized, makes enough power to deliver a sub-4 second sprint\nto highway speeds and sounds terrific doing it. Surely it must be one of the best\nV6 engines you can currently buy. The PDK transmission it\u2019s mated to is never flummoxed\nby any situation you may encounter, allowing for buttery smooth shifts around town\nand then snapping off whip-crack shifts when you want to dance. The standard fitment\nof Porsche\u2019s new Surface Coated Brakes endow the Macan with fearsome deceleration,\nand during our Road Test we felt like we were not even challenging them, even\nafter a few hard stops sprinting between stop signs on concession roads in\ncottage country. The steering is perhaps the best we have ever sampled in any\nSUV- maybe even better than some contemporary sports cars. And if you like\nhaving fun scaring family and friends, engage the Macan\u2019s launch control- just\nmake sure someone with a steady hand is around to film their reaction as the Turbo\ncatapults towards the horizon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whew! Hard not to get the pulse rate up\nafter reading that. Did you find the time to check out the interior?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inside is just as you would expect- high quality\nmaterials, unimpeachable build quality and all the comforts and niceties you\ncould ever want. A couple of things stood out to us, though. The driving position\nis nigh on perfect and anyone will feel right a home after futzing with the\nmyriad of power adjustments for the seats and steering wheel. It is admittedly\na little snug for rear passengers but they will be too enthralled at the driving\ndelights offered by this speedster SUV that they are likely not to notice. The\nfront console is very button heavy; seriously, it\u2019s a little overwhelming at\nfirst. Once you get used to it, there is nary a problem and you begin to\noperate the controls intuitively without taking your eyes off the road. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What might go wrong?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As in dating, after the honeymoon phase\nstarts to wear off you find things that bug you after spending a few days with\nthe Macan Turbo. There\u2019s the little nits to pick, like how Porsche has moved\naway from a floor hinged throttle, how the comfort seat entry gets your\nsettings all wrong even after you try and shut it off multiple times and how\nthe wind turbulence created when you roll the windows down on a beautiful\nsummer day hurts your ears. Oh, and the cargo area does not leave much room for\nyour stuff. These all fade into nothing once you start sashaying the Macan\nTurbo down your favorite twisty road. The biggest fault we\u2019d levy at the Porsche\nis that the when you slot the gear lever into its manual setting, you realize\nthey got it backwards: it should be push forward to downshift and pull for an\nupshift, not the way it comes from the factory. Luckily, there is an easy\nworkaround; just use the beautiful shift paddles peeking out from behind the\nsteering wheel. The gripes are minor are best and only enthusiasts and Porsche\nfans like us are really going to find an issue with. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Should I buy a Macan Turbo?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If our breathless review does not convince\nyou otherwise, yes, you should buy a Porsche Macan Turbo. If you are reading this\nthen your interest in high performance SUVs is serious and while there are\nother options, none as holistically dialed in as a driver\u2019s tool as the Macan.\nYou\u2019ll need to bring money- lots of it, it should be noted- but the old adage\nof \u2018you get what you pay for\u2019 holds true, even if you what you pay happens to be\nmore than what the other guys window stickers are claiming. Readers familiar to\nthis space know we prefer a sedan over an SUV any day of the week and twice on\nSunday. However, for the Macan Turbo we will gladly make an exception.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2020 Porsche Macan\nTurbo \u2013 Specifications<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n