There was a time after the 2014 launch of the Porsche Macan when the four-cylinder version was a special order only. You could have one if you really wanted one, but the six-cylinder cars were what Porsche really wanted to sell and what you would want anyway.
But times change. Fuel prices have gone up and most forms of car taxation have been revised upwards. Less really needs to be more.
The four-cylinder base Macan was taken off the secret menu a long time ago and has since established itself a commercially successful part of the range, particularly since the Macan was revised in 2018. Now it has been joined by a second four-pot option, the Macan T, in the first time that the T badge has been used on anything other than a sports car. In Porsche’s lexicon, T means Touring and is given to cars that offer the best possible driving experience without adding lots of extra power.
Related Porsche Macan T reviews
To that end, the Macan T features a series of chassis tweaks but no extra grunt for the longitudinally mounted 2.0-litre turbo petrol engine, which retains outputs of 261bhp and 295lb ft from the base Macan (although the Sport Chrono pack is standard here, shaving 0.2sec off the 0-62mph time).
Those dynamic changes include lowering the steel springs by 15mm, and adding PASM adaptive dampers (air springs are optional). The front anti-roll bars are stiffer and the four-wheel drive and traction control systems have been retuned for greater rearward bias. Your £5000 premium over the standard Macan also includes a series of styling changes inside and out, among them 20in alloy wheels, a rear spoiler and some contrasting grey details for the bumpers.
The Macan T is designed to bridge the gap between the Macan and the Porsche Macan S, yet it still unsurprisingly feels much more like the former than the latter. The one thing it could probably actually do with is a bit more poke. Given that it’s getting on for two tonnes, that’s one big thing lacking here.
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It probably costs no more for Porsche to make this than the base model, so why not charge £5k more for very little more. That's the Porsche way (and they are not the only ones).
I bet it's really hard to order a base model any more.
jason, your absolutely right, very few people buying a VW today remember or care when Porsche was a car, not a VW badge, but unlike them, you never reached up far enough from under your rock to be able to tell the difference?
Porsche to me are sports cars, I'd love a 911, always have and always will, but have had a 924 and that's likely the only Porsche sports car I will have unfortunately.
Hi Si73, i guess the answer is that from VAG perspective, (who ultimately control Porsche) they get to sell a bucket load of very profitable Porshce SUV's so why wouldn't they, okay some cannibalise VAG sales, some people will have a Q5 not a Macan, but not many will have a Tiguan. E even if they do the Porsche unit is more profitable. i was actually very anti Porsche going in to SUV's from a business perspective, i thought it would ruin the Porsche brand image, clearly VAG and Porsche knew a lot better than me as if anything they seemed to have benefitted from it. 'Hey look we can make even an SUV sporty, think how good are sports cars are.' Just checked and only 20% of Porsche sales in 2021 were sports cars, maybe 30% if you include the Taycan.
So i guess to put it more simply, Porsche are doing what is most porfitable for the VAG group, not what sports car enthusiasts want.
... and for me it would be a 928!
You are totally right of course, from a business perspective it makes sense, but it also shows how times have changed, that a 2.0 VW engined Porsche SUV is more widely accepted now than a 2.0 Audi engined Porsche 2+2 transaxle coupe was back in the 70s/80s.
928s are stunning, even if they couldn't replace the 911 as originally thought or planned.
Because if it build sports cars with uniue engines and gearboxes it'll lose money day in day out, why do think AM, Ferrari, Lotus, Alfa etc are going down this route.
Jason, that doesn't even make sense. . why would people buying a VW Golf care about when Porsche was a car...
If you going to insult a VAG car buyer get it right next time.
Yep, not a big enough saving to justify buying Macan T , could ask, why is Porsche bothering ?
Peter, easy answer, at least here in USA. You can walk into a Porsche dealership (pre chain supply issues) and take your pick from any number of 4cyl Macans. GTS, Turbo and S were order only as all allocations were spoken for. In effect pre Ukraine/Supply Chain Issues, Porsche was struggling to shift 4cyl Macans, hence the marketing solution to offer a 'T' to shift 'base' units at inflated prices. You can see the same with Cayenne 'Platinum' Editions. This Macan 'T' is a regrettable decision by Porsche, as the original 'T' designation unless I am corrected was the 73 Carrera RS, the 'touring' or 'T' differentiating spec, not a considerably lesser powertrain?