LivingTheDream
Well-Known Member
- First Name
- Thomas
- Joined
- Jul 16, 2024
- Threads
- 3
- Messages
- 59
- Reaction score
- 122
- Location
- Greater Boston
- Vehicles
- 2022 718 Boxster
- Thread starter
- #1
Sometimes, timing is everything.
An afternoon appointment today put me a couple of exits away from my local Porsche dealership. Crossing my fingers, I rang my SA to see if they had gotten any Macan EVs in yet—our last exchange indicated they wouldn’t be getting any until the end of the week. I’m happy to report he said they had just received their first—a Volcano Grey Macan 4 w/Black & Chalk interior—and, as luck would have it, the technicians had just completed the software update and it was ready to drive.
Ten minutes later, I was at the dealership and had the good fortune to be the first person to drive it—not even the SAs had gotten their hands on it yet. Below are my impressions and some details I was able to uncover that I’ve not yet seen reported elsewhere. A couple of caveats: when I arrived, it was right around rush hour, so traffic prevented me from any kind of spirited driving. Also, I recognize that some of my statements below are judgment calls based on my aesthetic sense, so your mileage may vary.
Exterior impressions… It’s prettier than I thought it would be. Rear and rear quarter perspectives are all great and the rear wiper it had didn’t detract from the clean lines as much as I thought it might. Front and front quarter views are cleaner than I expected, and the “grill” area does not look as high in person. Not the low nose of a 911 or 718, but not the beast of a schnoz that other makes (I’m looking at you BMW) feel compelled to stick on their cars these days. I’ve been debating about going with the stock blades (flat black) or opting for the body color (I’ve got an Oak Green Neo 4S on order) and seeing the stock blades in person confirmed my belief that they are not as bad as some people have said. The “shark skin” texture on them is repeated on the front chin spoiler, tying the two together and lending an integrated feel to that treatment. I’m sure the body color would also look great, but I like the consistency of the flat black elements sprinkled around the car (i.e., chin spoiler, wheel arches, baseline on the sides, bottom of the side view mirrors, rear diffuser, etc.). The black roof rails are glossier than shown in the configurator and will tie in nicely with the gloss black window trim I optioned (not a fan of the 4S stock window trim in stainless).
Interior impressions (front seat)… Typical Porsche quality throughout and a great premium feel. I’ve optioned the full leather interior and will probably stick with that, but the partial leather interior did not feel cheap. If the Chalk interior wasn’t so light, I might be tempted to save a couple of grand and downgrade. The 14-way seats are very comfortable, though not quite as heavily bolstered as the 14-ways in my 718 Boxster. No seat massage (which I’ve optioned) in this one, so I was not able to try that. The climate controls are excellent and appear bigger than photos convey. Very easy to operate on the go with great tactile feel. All screens are bright, sharp, and as large as I need or want (I’m not a fan of giant center screens that look like a misplaced iPad). I was surprised at how constricted visibility is to the rear via the rear-view mirror. Livable, but tight. I’ve optioned the noise insulating glass on my 4S, but I think I may cancel it. The one I drove didn’t have it, and it was plenty quiet. Cancelling that would allow me to get the rear wiper, which will come in handy and looks better than I thought it would in person.
Interior impressions (rear seat)… Even with the front seat pretty far back (as far as I’d need it anyway—it can go back several more inches than I need) leg room is very good and, combined with the panoramic sunroof, it feels plenty spacious for my taste. The quality of the 4-zone climate control is excellent and the fans at half speed throw more air than I’ve seen in any other rear compartment. The only downside was that my head did brush the headliner a bit (I’m 6’2”). If the opening for the sunroof was just a few inches wider (as in the Taycan Cross Tourismo), there would be plenty of room. However, this would end up interfering with the roof rails, so I get why Porsche made the compromise. This issue notwithstanding, I’d be just fine to ride in the back seat for shorter trips. For the big trips, you’ll probably want to segregate who sits where based on height.
Driving impressions… As noted above, traffic didn’t permit me to do anything near a comprehensive test, but my general impression was that handling and steering feel are up to Porsche standards. Nothing I did in my brief time in it made me feel like I was driving a car with a 5k+ pound curb weight. The suspension engineers at Porsche have managed to very successfully hide the car’s mass and the low center of gravity gives it a riding-on-rails kind of stability. Acceleration was excellent and probably plenty ‘nuf for most people—especially if you’re not used to the instant torque of an EV. You’ll have no problem inserting yourself into that traffic opening up ahead in a Macan 4.
Heads-up display (general impressions)… I like it—a lot. You can configure it quite a bit, but I found my first crack at it (speed limit on left; speed in center; nav on the right) worked very well and definitely allowed me to keep my eyes on the road more. The overlay is bright and clear, but does not interfere with your view of the road ahead. When using Adaptive Cruise control, graphics are overlaid on the road to visually represent your distance setting. If you have lane keep assist active, lane boundaries will highlight in red (even on a curve!) if you get too close.
Heads-up display (CarPlay support!)… I’ve got some GREAT news for CarPlay fans: when using CarPlay navigation (Apple Maps; I did not try Google Maps), the HU display WILL display most of the same information you’d get if you were using the Porsche built-in nav. This includes direction and distance to your next turn and which lane you should be in for the next intersection (e.g., |^|^|^| ). The only thing that you lose compared to the built-in nav (at least as far as I could tell in my brief experience) are the augmented reality arrows (>>>) that project out where your next turn is. Not a huge loss in my book. What really impressed me was that all the other aspects of the HU display were fully functional at the same time as the CarPlay navigation cues. As a CarPlay fan, this was great news and effectively locks the HU display into my configuration.
Other impressions… I did uncover a couple of negatives that surprised me. In my Boxster, pushing the cruise control stalk FORWARD (i.e., toward the front of the car) will increase speed, while pulling it BACK reduces the speed (cancel is down and resume is up). In the Macan, you increase speed by pushing the stalk UP and decrease speed by pushing it DOWN (cancel is back and resume is forward). Also, in the Boxster, speed is adjusted up/down in 1 MPH increments; in the Macan it happens in 5 MPH increments. I can’t for the life of me figure out why Porsche would introduce these kinds of inconsistencies across different models. The only reason I can think of is that the Macan behavior is the same as what I have in my Audi. Maybe this was a concession Porsche had to make because of the shared platform? This would really bug me were it not for the adaptive nature of cruise control on the Macan. This will pretty much eliminate the need for the constant fine tuning I do with the non-adaptive cruise I have in the 718. I didn’t get a chance to play with the “themes” feature which allows you to colorize different elements of your display, but was perfectly happy with the neutral tone that was the default (pure black without any blue/purple/whatever shading). CarPlay support (including the HU support noted above) is excellent and your nav map can take over ALL or part of either the center OR driver’s display. NOTE: I do not think this is CarPlay 2.0 (maps appearing in a secondary display does not require it), but I don’t think I’ll miss it that much given the quality of the above noted support and the strength of the new PCM architecture. Given Porsche’s commitment to CarPlay, maybe we’ll see that in a future update.
All in all, I really enjoyed getting the opportunity to see and touch one of these puppies in person. I was fortunate in that this example gave me the information needed to tune my options list and make those sometimes tough choices with more confidence.
I’d be happy to answer any questions people may have—to the extent I can.
An afternoon appointment today put me a couple of exits away from my local Porsche dealership. Crossing my fingers, I rang my SA to see if they had gotten any Macan EVs in yet—our last exchange indicated they wouldn’t be getting any until the end of the week. I’m happy to report he said they had just received their first—a Volcano Grey Macan 4 w/Black & Chalk interior—and, as luck would have it, the technicians had just completed the software update and it was ready to drive.
Ten minutes later, I was at the dealership and had the good fortune to be the first person to drive it—not even the SAs had gotten their hands on it yet. Below are my impressions and some details I was able to uncover that I’ve not yet seen reported elsewhere. A couple of caveats: when I arrived, it was right around rush hour, so traffic prevented me from any kind of spirited driving. Also, I recognize that some of my statements below are judgment calls based on my aesthetic sense, so your mileage may vary.
Exterior impressions… It’s prettier than I thought it would be. Rear and rear quarter perspectives are all great and the rear wiper it had didn’t detract from the clean lines as much as I thought it might. Front and front quarter views are cleaner than I expected, and the “grill” area does not look as high in person. Not the low nose of a 911 or 718, but not the beast of a schnoz that other makes (I’m looking at you BMW) feel compelled to stick on their cars these days. I’ve been debating about going with the stock blades (flat black) or opting for the body color (I’ve got an Oak Green Neo 4S on order) and seeing the stock blades in person confirmed my belief that they are not as bad as some people have said. The “shark skin” texture on them is repeated on the front chin spoiler, tying the two together and lending an integrated feel to that treatment. I’m sure the body color would also look great, but I like the consistency of the flat black elements sprinkled around the car (i.e., chin spoiler, wheel arches, baseline on the sides, bottom of the side view mirrors, rear diffuser, etc.). The black roof rails are glossier than shown in the configurator and will tie in nicely with the gloss black window trim I optioned (not a fan of the 4S stock window trim in stainless).
Interior impressions (front seat)… Typical Porsche quality throughout and a great premium feel. I’ve optioned the full leather interior and will probably stick with that, but the partial leather interior did not feel cheap. If the Chalk interior wasn’t so light, I might be tempted to save a couple of grand and downgrade. The 14-way seats are very comfortable, though not quite as heavily bolstered as the 14-ways in my 718 Boxster. No seat massage (which I’ve optioned) in this one, so I was not able to try that. The climate controls are excellent and appear bigger than photos convey. Very easy to operate on the go with great tactile feel. All screens are bright, sharp, and as large as I need or want (I’m not a fan of giant center screens that look like a misplaced iPad). I was surprised at how constricted visibility is to the rear via the rear-view mirror. Livable, but tight. I’ve optioned the noise insulating glass on my 4S, but I think I may cancel it. The one I drove didn’t have it, and it was plenty quiet. Cancelling that would allow me to get the rear wiper, which will come in handy and looks better than I thought it would in person.
Interior impressions (rear seat)… Even with the front seat pretty far back (as far as I’d need it anyway—it can go back several more inches than I need) leg room is very good and, combined with the panoramic sunroof, it feels plenty spacious for my taste. The quality of the 4-zone climate control is excellent and the fans at half speed throw more air than I’ve seen in any other rear compartment. The only downside was that my head did brush the headliner a bit (I’m 6’2”). If the opening for the sunroof was just a few inches wider (as in the Taycan Cross Tourismo), there would be plenty of room. However, this would end up interfering with the roof rails, so I get why Porsche made the compromise. This issue notwithstanding, I’d be just fine to ride in the back seat for shorter trips. For the big trips, you’ll probably want to segregate who sits where based on height.
Driving impressions… As noted above, traffic didn’t permit me to do anything near a comprehensive test, but my general impression was that handling and steering feel are up to Porsche standards. Nothing I did in my brief time in it made me feel like I was driving a car with a 5k+ pound curb weight. The suspension engineers at Porsche have managed to very successfully hide the car’s mass and the low center of gravity gives it a riding-on-rails kind of stability. Acceleration was excellent and probably plenty ‘nuf for most people—especially if you’re not used to the instant torque of an EV. You’ll have no problem inserting yourself into that traffic opening up ahead in a Macan 4.
Heads-up display (general impressions)… I like it—a lot. You can configure it quite a bit, but I found my first crack at it (speed limit on left; speed in center; nav on the right) worked very well and definitely allowed me to keep my eyes on the road more. The overlay is bright and clear, but does not interfere with your view of the road ahead. When using Adaptive Cruise control, graphics are overlaid on the road to visually represent your distance setting. If you have lane keep assist active, lane boundaries will highlight in red (even on a curve!) if you get too close.
Heads-up display (CarPlay support!)… I’ve got some GREAT news for CarPlay fans: when using CarPlay navigation (Apple Maps; I did not try Google Maps), the HU display WILL display most of the same information you’d get if you were using the Porsche built-in nav. This includes direction and distance to your next turn and which lane you should be in for the next intersection (e.g., |^|^|^| ). The only thing that you lose compared to the built-in nav (at least as far as I could tell in my brief experience) are the augmented reality arrows (>>>) that project out where your next turn is. Not a huge loss in my book. What really impressed me was that all the other aspects of the HU display were fully functional at the same time as the CarPlay navigation cues. As a CarPlay fan, this was great news and effectively locks the HU display into my configuration.
Other impressions… I did uncover a couple of negatives that surprised me. In my Boxster, pushing the cruise control stalk FORWARD (i.e., toward the front of the car) will increase speed, while pulling it BACK reduces the speed (cancel is down and resume is up). In the Macan, you increase speed by pushing the stalk UP and decrease speed by pushing it DOWN (cancel is back and resume is forward). Also, in the Boxster, speed is adjusted up/down in 1 MPH increments; in the Macan it happens in 5 MPH increments. I can’t for the life of me figure out why Porsche would introduce these kinds of inconsistencies across different models. The only reason I can think of is that the Macan behavior is the same as what I have in my Audi. Maybe this was a concession Porsche had to make because of the shared platform? This would really bug me were it not for the adaptive nature of cruise control on the Macan. This will pretty much eliminate the need for the constant fine tuning I do with the non-adaptive cruise I have in the 718. I didn’t get a chance to play with the “themes” feature which allows you to colorize different elements of your display, but was perfectly happy with the neutral tone that was the default (pure black without any blue/purple/whatever shading). CarPlay support (including the HU support noted above) is excellent and your nav map can take over ALL or part of either the center OR driver’s display. NOTE: I do not think this is CarPlay 2.0 (maps appearing in a secondary display does not require it), but I don’t think I’ll miss it that much given the quality of the above noted support and the strength of the new PCM architecture. Given Porsche’s commitment to CarPlay, maybe we’ll see that in a future update.
All in all, I really enjoyed getting the opportunity to see and touch one of these puppies in person. I was fortunate in that this example gave me the information needed to tune my options list and make those sometimes tough choices with more confidence.
I’d be happy to answer any questions people may have—to the extent I can.
