In a way, this car’s a counterpoint to the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N – not as exciting and with a faintly nose-led cornering balance that’s anathema to the Korean car, but more mature and transparent. It’s only a tad underwhelming until it isn’t.
There’s an unexpected addendum to this handling assessment. As with every car we test, this Macan was driven to and beyond the limits of adhesion on the dry handling circuit at MIRA. Here, it proved spectacularly good fun, allowing itself to be backed into high-speed bends with a trailing throttle and on a nice, juicy rind of understeer before pivoting in balletic fashion in about as much oversteer as you’d ever want. Truly, the rear-driven Macan transitions beautifully and reminded one tester of larking about with a Lotus Carlton on a damp race track. Still waters, eh?
Back to prosaic matters, the basic Macan proved notably quieter at all speeds than the Turbo, which, we assume, is largely down its narrower tyres, although the marginally less aggressive bodywork will certainly help. A figure of 63dBA at 70mph is only slightly greater than our figure for the Mercedes EQS 450+ saloon and is therefore very quiet indeed.
Of course, depending on which Macan you pick, there are several suspension systems to choose from beyond the entirely passive setup (that is, non-adaptive dampers and coil springs) of our basic Macan test car.
Conventional wisdom suggests that air springs should improve the ride on poorer British roads, but we’ve not always found that to be the case. It would certainly be worth trying a so-equipped Macan before you ticked the relevant options boxes. The adaptively damped, steel-sprung 4 is firm while staying away from being uncomfortable, and there is an honestly about the way it rides, even if you will need to accept a bit of pitching and head-toss.
Further up the range, the 4S is feels a good deal quicker than the 4, and a shade more grippy and composed (PASM adaptive dampers come as standard here, but for the best outright body control go for that air suspension), but whether it is any more involving depends a lot on how much you’re spending on options.
A 4S with optional air springs, four-wheel steering and PTV+ should certainly have plenty of tricks up its sleeve; but, in our experience so far, a purer single-motor Macan still feels decently brisk, can be just as much fun when cornering and is probably slightly more refined with it. ‘Try before you buy’ has rarely carried more weight.