[MikeV]

I've had my 23 Macan S for almost a month now. Overall I like the car but just don't love it. That makes me a bit sad because I've wanted one so long and it's so expensive. It drives well enough but most of my driving is in town which is not where the car shines.

My issues really come down to a couple things. First, there's no excuse for the exposure of the intercooler heat exchangers In the bumper. They need a grille. For an everyday car the chance of damage is too great. I'm looking into Zumsport for this. Second, I find the electronics to be messy. Screen after screen to do simple tasks, while taking my eye off the road. They had to try mightily to make it so cumbersome. I can't even navigate up and down through my radio favorites with the steering wheel (like every other car i owned). Maybe I'm missing some instructions on how to make it better.

I had wanted to keep the car 6-8 years but now I'm not so sure. Maybe it will grow on me. For now, I miss my 2016 A4.

 

[roule]

I've had my 23 Macan S for almost a month now. Overall I like the car but just don't love it. That makes me a bit sad because I've wanted one so long and it's so expensive. It drives well enough but most of my driving is in town which is not where the car shines.

My issues really come down to a couple things. First, there's no excuse for the exposure of the intercooler heat exchangers In the bumper. They need a grille. For an everyday car the chance of damage is too great. I'm looking into Zumsport for this. Second, I find the electronics to be messy. Screen after screen to do simple tasks, while taking my eye off the road. They had to try mightily to make it so cumbersome. I can't even navigate up and down through my radio favorites with the steering wheel (like every other car i owned). Maybe I'm missing some instructions on how to make it better.

I had wanted to keep the car 6-8 years but now I'm not so sure. Maybe it will grow on me. For now, I miss my 2016 A4.

My sentiments exactly. To be fair, Porsche probably had no choice but to jump on the cute ute bandwagon and parts sharing was the only economic way to do that. But I agree that the result is that the Macan (and Cayenne, IMHO) are the least "special" Porsche models in my opinion. What irks me in addition to the items you mentioned (spot on!) is the lack of attention improving what the Macan really deserves to have been fixed by now (fuel economy, climate control!!!) but instead Porsche blew their development budget on useless touchscreen console buttons and increasingly boxy ugly plastic fascia tack-ons, half painted. I have always preferred Porsche for driver engagement, but little by little Porsche continues to follow the herd into flatscreen electronics ****.

You can program the steering wheel button - read up on it! Or here's a video that you may find helpful.

https://www.porschebend.com/how-to-program-the-diamond-button-on-your-porsche/

 

[MikeV]

Thanks roule. Glad I'm not the only one that thinks this way. A good car could be great. I'll check out the video

 

[spyderdoc]

The Zunsport outer grills are awesome!

I am not a huge fan of the touch screens, but I had matte PPF put on them and I feel it improved the look and feel.

 

[Sweetness34]

One thing I’ve learned from owning vehicles from many different brands is there is not one vehicle that does everything perfectly. There is almost always a trade off. You want the best tech out there? You’ll probably lose a lot of the fun driving dynamics. You want the best driving dynamics? You’ll probably lose a lot of the advanced luxury tech. Lots in between. You have to decide what’s important to you and what trade offs you can live with or without.

Porsche falls on the driving dynamics side of things with a sacrifice in tech.

The only other SUV that has as good (if not better) driving dynamics in my opinion is the Alfa Romeo Stelvio buuut the tech… wow it’s bad. Like really bad. The Audi SQ5 has much better tech but it’s pretty dull to drive but better than a lot of other SUVs.

 

[MikeV]

The Zunsport outer grills are awesome!

I am not a huge fan of the touch screens, but I had matte PPF put on them and I feel it improved the look and feel. View attachment 265848
View attachment 265850
View attachment 265849

Thanks for commenting on the Zunsport grilles. They look nice on your car.

 

[Beardy]

The Zunsport outer grills are awesome!

I am not a huge fan of the touch screens, but I had matte PPF put on them and I feel it improved the look and feel. View attachment 265848
View attachment 265850
View attachment 265849

OT I know but I see you get the full screen with your carplay, I was told you cant do that?

 

[molly4753]

The Zunsport outer grills are awesome!

I am not a huge fan of the touch screens, but I had matte PPF put on them and I feel it improved the look and feel. View attachment 265848
View attachment 265850
View attachment 265849
where did you get the Matt ppf thank you

 

[THX_ZORA]

The OP could not be more on point. The electronics are not just bad, they are simply horrible. From the ergonomics to never knowing if Carplay will hook up automatically or not (and the map is the size of a postage stamp when it does), to the USB connectivity being horribly unreliable ( we have to pull out, then re-insert our USB stick with FLAC files every time we start the car to get it recognized). I fully understand the Macan got an N-1 generation of electronics, but they are almost unusable in some cases.

And you are so right about having to take your eyes off the road to do certain things on the screen.....you can advance a song from the steering wheel, but not reverse to a previous song? If it was not an over-the-top, E-ticket thrill ride, I would really be upset, but I just let it go, as I am making those summer Michelin's beg for mercy in Sport+ mode on our favorite twisties

 

[macanadian]

You can program the steering wheel button - read up on it! Or here's a video...

I spent a fair amount of time looking into this and couldn't find any really worthwhile function other than "previous track /station"

Did I miss a magical "next favourite" function somewhere?

 

[macanadian]

I can't even navigate up and down through my radio favorites with the steering wheel (like every other car i owned). Maybe I'm missing some instructions on how to make it better.

It's bewildering that someone in the porsche UX design team thought that when we set favorites we don't want to easily skip through them without taking our eyes off the road but instead want to go through the countless stations we don't like.

We have so many foreign language stations around here I programmed my diamond button as a "go back to previous station" so that if I accidently skip the station, I can at least go back to the one before without digging through the MMI.

 

[roule]

I'm pretty sure Porsche, like most other manufacturers, sold its soul to Android (yack!) and Apple (meh!). So maybe I'm operating off of old information before all the infotainment "sophistication" started taking over and user interface inconsistencies started popping up everywhere I don't have the latest model so I shouldn't assume everything that worked nicely at the dealer will work the same on the latest version, especially if you have a mobile phone linked or one of the SillyCon Valley subscription pusher companies' software up and running the show. What do I know, I still use FM radio.

 

[yrralis1]

I can't even navigate up and down through my radio favorites with the steering wheel (like every other car i owned).

The Macan is the only Porsche I have owned which falls to do this . Even a firmer 2013 Boxster S did it . The 992 does it. Its ridiculous I agree.

 

[meerec]

Maybe I’m not as sophisticated as most of you here. I’m a kinda fan of Apple // been the platform user for half a century really now but I find the Porsche PCM different enough and exciting enough as is — I’ve configured ApplePlay but never used it. Love the media display that Porsche offers, with their graphics, and fresh looking fonts - looks lovely, to me. I also like their navigation. I’ve assigned “surround camera view” to the diamond button on the steering wheel and it serves me very well. I’m happy. Especially after the many years of experience of MBUX - some of you would know what that is. My last AMG was like a Christmas tree with all those dazzling ambient lights, customisable screens, and what not. Hated it at the end. The simplicity of the Porsche interface that some of you refer to as from the 90’s fits me rather well …!!! And certainly I would not enjoy the iPad on wheels aka TMY Tesla model Y …

 

[MikeV]

Thanks for all the engagement on this thread. Glad I'm not the only one with these issues. There are others too. The worst part is after only 1 month of ownership I'm thinking of selling my brand new 23 Macan S. Sitting in the driver seat just feels disappointing. Nobody should feel that way driving a new Porsche. I wonder what the depreciation hit will be. That may force me to keep it a while. Yikes!

 

[Audiobill]

Why did you buy a car you obviously don't like?

 

[Rjs]

Thanks for all the engagement on this thread. Glad I'm not the only one with these issues. There are others too. The worst part is after only 1 month of ownership I'm thinking of selling my brand new 23 Macan S. Sitting in the driver seat just feels disappointing. Nobody should feel that way driving a new Porsche. I wonder what the depreciation hit will be. That may force me to keep it a while. Yikes!

if you really dont enjoy it, best to sell now, and take the hit. i actually went in reverse to you. i bought an Audi A5 and was disappointed enough in it to sell it after 3 months. on brand new car hit is not too bad, remember it will keep depreciating, you might find a good trade on a demo audi and the numbers will work out.

as for the electronics, the sole reason for it is so they can offer subscription services. they do it already in europe for certain features.

 

[BMinSFL]

Sorry to hear that about your new car. I've had my '21 base for a month and like it a lot. My main focus for buying a Porsche was on the driving experience....the power delivery, transmission, handling, AWD, steering feel and brakes are all the best I have experienced in my life in any car I have owned.

I've always accepted that I'll need to tweak a car to my liking for the smaller stuff. As mentioned, there are aftermarket grilles to protect the intercoolers and you should be able to program the radio controls somewhat with the steering wheel. I only listen to music sourced from my phone but was also surprised at the lack of dedicated buttons to move back and forth through the tracks. I added a small bluetooth media button hidden on my steering wheel column to address that. I've also added a small adapter box for wireless CarPlay or Android Auto that works very well.

My point is that if you are unhappy with the core dynamics of the car, get something else but there are options available for the smaller stuff and a lot of people on the forum here who can help.

 

[MikeV]

Why did you buy a car you obviously don't like?

Fair question. I test drove several over the past couple years. I used the time when my Audi was in the shop for oil changes to explore Porsches since the dealerships were at the same place. I always loved driving the Macans. The power, handling, etc were always great. My error was never spending time learning the electronics or even listening to the radio. Those things are very important during real world ownership. Had I spent time on this, I may not have purchased the car. Or, if I still decided to buy, I wouldn't have started this thread as I would have bought it with full knowledge of the car. First-world problems I guess.

 

[BMinSFL]

Fair question. I test drove several over the past couple years. I used the time when my Audi was in the shop for oil changes to explore Porsches since the dealerships were at the same place. I always loved driving the Macans. The power, handling, etc were always great. My error was never spending time learning the electronics or even listening to the radio. Those things are very important during real world ownership. Had I spent time on this, I may not have purchased the car. Or, if I still decided to buy, I wouldn't have started this thread as I would have bought it with full knowledge of the car. First-world problems I guess.

I see where you are coming from. I think Porsche focused on those who don't use the radio. With a Spotify subscription, I will never waste time again listening to commercials so its very easy to navigate what I need through Android Auto, Carplay or even the native OS. I was able to save some radio favorites and its easy for me to switch between them on the screen but that was just a novelty and I always switch back to Spotify once a commercial comes on.

With the wireless CarPlay/AA add-on box, I just get in the car and Android Auto automatically loads on the screen. My music plays and Waze pops up for navigation. I really don't need to touch the screen between those two apps loaded and just need to say "Hey Google, play" whatever music I want.

If you can't figure out a way to use the steering wheel to skip through your favorite stations, perhaps you can use an app on your phone to tune to your station then stream that through bluetooth and use a bluetooth media button to be able to skip through the stations.