Porsche Macan S 2019 first drive

Having been launched in 2014, the Porsche Macan recorded its best ever year of sales in 2017.

With upwards of 97,000 of these entry-level Porsche five-doors having been sold around the globe in those 12 months alone - an outright record for any Porsche model - demand for the Macan is showing little sign of slowing down. By the end of this year, Porsche expects close to 400,000 to have found homes over the past five years.

Given that the Macan was still proving to be such an unqualified hit among compact SUV buyers, we shouldn’t be at all surprised to learn that this midlife facelift amounts to not much more than a tweaked front end with LED lights, plus a restyled rear that now incorporates a full-width light bar – a nod to the Porsche Panamera and Porsche Cayenne that have been replaced wholesale in the past 18 months or so.

Within the cabin, there is now a 10.9in touchscreen and the latest Porsche Communications Management software, which again keeps the Macan in line with Porsche’s more expensive family models, although its centre console is still the festival of buttons that Porsche has moved away from with the Panamera and Cayenne.

No specific claims are made for revised spring rates here or tweaked damper curves there, apart from the usual fine tuning that goes on throughout any car’s life cycle. The V6 engine in this mid-range Macan S, however, is new, borrowed from higher up Porsche’s model range with its turbocharger located within the valley formed by the two banks of cylinders for sharper throttle response. The 3.0-litre unit develops 349bhp and 354lb ft of torque.

Even before Porsche updated the Porsche Macan, it was comfortably the class leader in terms of handling agility. That’s thanks in part to the clever four-wheel-drive system, which powers the rear axle until the traction limit nears and the front axle is quickly called into action, plus staggered tyres that put more rubber on the road at the rear end.

Post-facelift, the Macan S is as good to drive along a winding road as it ever was. The steering is uncommonly precise for a high-riding car, while the response at the front end is near enough immediate. In many SUVs, you can sense a delay as the rear half of the car lazily hauls itself into the corner, but not in this one.

What’s most impressive about the Macan S is that you simply don’t have to make any allowances for its elevated centre of gravity. You just drive it the way you would a hot hatch, for instance, taking note of the few degrees of extra roll when you really pile into a bend.