There is an incredibly helpful thread called Macan Secrets/Tricks but it’s over 500 posts long, so in the spirit of giving back to the community, I’ve gone through every single post and summarized below all the tips and tricks that users have posted over the last five years. Here are a few caveats – I included all tips, even those that may not have been verified; for the most part I’ve cut and pasted verbatim from the post; if there were a series of posts on one topic I tried my best to combine the information; and of course, I may have missed a few tips here and there. This is by no means perfect but it is a first attempt to get everything together on one page.
- There are 3 different ways to close the Macan? 1. If you press the close button it will close the car with the alarm on. 2. If you press 2 times quickly, you will close the car without the alarm on, in case you let your dog or your children (for short time ofc). 3. If you hold the close button for more than 1 sec you will close the car and the mirrors will collapse.
- When you stop at a red light, press even further on the brake pedal, and the car will go into HOLD mode where you can release the brake to relax your foot. Push on the accelerator to get moving again. The HOLD mode automatically engages even sooner when stopping on an incline.
- I've noticed that when using the stop-start function- brake pedal pressure determines whether or not the engine will stop running. Light pressure on the brake when stopped will keep the engine running. A little more pressure and it will stop.
- With 18-way seats and seat memory, I programmed the "key symbol" button on the seat memory, and both keys, to take the driver seat all the way down to the floor and back far enough to let the driver get in and out with minimal impact to the side bolster. Then the driver can select one of the other two seat position buttons for the correct driving position and likewise select the "key symbol" button before departing the vehicle. On the passenger side, I similarly used the bottom seat memory button for the entry/exit position, and then the other two buttons are used to save desired passenger seating positions while riding.
- Entry and Drive the key never comes out of your pocket. Just place your finger or thumb on the door sensor to lock/unlock, get in and turn the additional key that was included in this package. It is permanently locked in the key slot and looks a little different than the normal key. You can do this on any door since they all have the sensors as long as they are programmed to do this function.
- Entry and Drive: It is the first key that gets to the car that will be considered. Chances are that you won't get closer to sensors at the exactly same time. Even if, the car decides which one arrived first and uses that key to unlock/start.
- When programming your Homelink, aim your garage door opener at the front grill about 12 inches to the left of the center (i.e. towards the passenger side of the vehicle). That is where the sensor is located and should detect your signal right away.
- Make sure your co-passenger is aware that while traveling in the Macan, the "P" button in the center console if accidentally applied causes emergency braking.
- There is a button under the driver seatbelt that my SA said will deactivate interior security so once you get out of the car, you just simply lock the doors. This could be all Porsche features but I thought I mention it.
- If the Macan is dead and needs to be moved, you can remove the whole shiftier panel from the top and manually put the car in neutral by operating the electric solenoid underneath.
- There’s a storage container under the seats (not very big).
- On the LKA - the nanny will not fight you changing lanes - IF you turn on your turn signal.
- Using the Navi if you miss an upcoming direction - just press the MAP button and the turn instructions will repeat (can also program the diamond button to do this)
- Going into a lot of turns with heavy traffic it was nice to turn the Navi screen to split mode with the next turns coming up with Bird's Eye view on the other side and the 3rd view in the selection on the gauge
- Active Cruise - even in the closest setting there are about 4 car lengths at 65 MPH between you and the truck in front of you.
- Using engine residual heat. The residual heat of the engine can be used to heat the interior for up to 20 minutes after the ignition has been switched off. Just hit the AUTO/REST button on the left of the AC buttons once you have turned off the car. When the ignition is switched off, press the button on the front control panel. The indicator light on the button illuminates. The air conditioning settings cannot be changed in REST mode. Deactivating the function. Press the button on the front control panel. The indicator light on the button goes out, or switches on the ignition. The indicator light on the button indicates the previous setting.
- Entry & Drive, don't grab the outside handle while trying to lock the car by touching your thumb on the indent. It will confuse the car for a few seconds before it understands you want to lock. Touching indent only performs an instant lock
- For those with keyless entry and drive and who have had trouble locking the car by grabbing the door handle. One sure way to get the car to lock is to make a fist with your hand and touch the bottom meaty part of your hand to the car door handle and it will lock right away. Kind of like you're pounding the door handle with your hand but you just need to make contact. You can get it locked right away.
- With the Porsche Entry & Drive you can leave the car running if you take the remote with you, and can still lock the door by touching the handle.
- Entry and Drive. If you don’t want to start the GTS with a fake key all the time. Turns out that you can remove the fake key and use a real one. Turn the key on, then off, then on, and remove the fake key. The real key has to be out of range of the Macan.
- I found that you can stop the hatch lift at a chosen lower position by pressing the "close/open" dot again when desired.
- You can program the Diamond to a number of different functions.
- If you set the custom diamond button on the steering wheel to display the map on the PCM, you can also press it to dismiss the legal disclaimer that comes up initially. So to bring up the map on the PCM the first time after getting in the car: press diamond --> bring up the legal disclaimer --> press diamond again and the disclaimer is dismissed, bringing you to the map screen. Of course, if you have already dismissed the disclaimer, it will bring the map up right away.
- There's a small tab attached to the rubber liner of the cup holders so you can take it out and clean it.
- Turn on the Nav. Go to the Options tab. There is a volume control for the Nav.
- Suggestion for the folks who find the Homelink garage door transmitter to be weak. On most garage door openers, the antenna is a short piece of wire hanging down. U can increase the antenna signal to the opener receiver by splicing another piece of wire into the existing antenna, making it longer. That should help u trigger the garage door opener from further away.
- You can quickly adjust the volume of the nav while it's "talking" using the volume dial on the steering wheel (left thumb) or use the radio volume knob. The diamond button on the steering wheel is default set to repeat current nav directions, since I haven't changed that setting, what I do is hit the diamond button to get the nav to speak and adjust the volume instead of waiting for the next direction to pop up over the speakers.
- You can hit the MAP button when navigation is active to hear the directions repeated so you can adjust the volume.
- If you hold your hand over the door handle for an extra second when locking on the exit, the mirrors will fold in.
- If you click the "pick-up" phone button on the steering wheel your MFD display will go directly to the recent calls menu. This is quite convenient since you can make a call with only two clicks on one button, irrespective of the MFD screen that you have active at that point in time. When you hang up the call with the other "hang-up" button, the MFD will return to your original menu. I will be using that function daily since I normally have a small group of calls I make daily, their numbers will always appear in the recent calls menu. This will be one of my most used daily functions from now on. It is very convenient.
- Today I discovered that when in manual mode, and you floor it all the way past that little resistance point it will downshift for you. You can press the gas pedal all you want before that point and no shifts automatically occur, how I assume it would work in manual mode. But soon as you pass that resistance point, it'll do the downshift for you.
- While shifting with your shift paddles, you can go to Automatic by just holding the + shift paddle for 1 sec, instead of changing it with the stick. If (while in Auto) you temporarily use the paddles to downshift and then want to put it back into Auto you really have 2 options: Pull the + paddle for 1 second and it reverts to Auto. Do nothing and simply wait 5 seconds and it reverts back to Auto by itself.
- The "Coasting" function on Comfort mode is very interesting. Two presses on the "+" paddle, and the revs drop below 1,000rpm.
- However, if you are going downhill in Drive and use the paddle shifter to downshift, it will stay in the selected gear until you step on the gas again. Once you step on the gas, then it will go back into Drive. Nice way to use engine braking.
- To close the CD cover, push it down and it will automatically close all the way.
- Whilst you can get an indication of the car going into coasting mode from looking at the revs, the easiest way is to switch the MFD to the 4WD display. As soon as it goes into coast mode, the MFD shows no power going to either the front or rear wheels. You'll be amazed how often the car switches into coast mode when you use this and it can even help you lower your fuel consumption (if so inclined) by watching the behavior of the coast mode.
- I took the headrest permanently off the middle of the rear seat, a big difference from using the rearview mirror.
- To disable the interior motion detector: Either press the lock twice on the outer door lock or remote or press the button located between the 2 left doors (by where your left hip is for the US). If the car is running, you can just lock it normally and the alarm will not go off. If you turn the car off, you have to either do the two-press of the lock button thing or use the interior disable button
- the center console armrest is adjustable and you can pull it forward (over the cup holders) for a second armrest.
- When you press the Source button more than once the fuel gauge temporarily disappears and a rolling screen replaces it to show you which input source is being selected. Helps to keep your eyes in the direction of the road when changing the media source.
- I noticed that I can upshift while in gear to engage the "coasting" feature. It is really helpful on the long downhill stretches that we have. You can do it as long as you have taken your foot off the gas for a short period first. I regularly do it in 4th and 5th. One has to have the auto-stop-start feature engaged to take advantage of that
- Every time I start the vehicle, the ac comes on with the car and is set at 72 degrees. Does anyone know how to disable this feature? Assuming you have the memory package, set the temp to what you like and save it to your key. On the door, hit set then the key button.
- Flick the turn signal up (or down) and the flasher will blink 3 times
- If a turn indicator if left "on" and the car is turned off, the standing lamps of the side of the directional will remain lit.
- When I tried the launch control for the first time: When you floor the accelerator, The pedal stops at one point but if you press hard, There is a click sound and it goes even further. The launch control gets activated after the click sound but it seems to be working during normal driving conditions. After the click, The car accelerates crazy
- Set everything as you like, then press keys 1 or 2 and press the key symbol on the door. These should stay in memory for the designated key. If you set AC to Auto and also set a temp, this too will be stored.
- I recently found in the "Good to Know" app that double-pressing (more slowly than mouse double-click) the PCM left volume button will play/pause (not mute) Bluetooth audio streaming podcasts/music from my Android phone. Single press just mutes it (still plays muted).
- You can 'unmute' by adjusting the volume up or down rather than pushing it again to unmute
- When you plug "trailer lights" into the hitch power socket the remote hatch release on the key fob is disabled. It's not described in the trailer hitch section but is described in the Powerlift Tailgate section of the manual.
- There is a gas cap holder built into the door hinge. Don't let your cap dangle.
- Just found today you can have the Speed Limit info show in your LCD Cluster (Vehicle Info) screen. Very handy a little speed sign shows the speed limit of the road you are on in the bottom right of the display. Automatically changes as you drive on roads with a different speed limit.
- Also found a cool function with the Sat Nav, under POI you can put the phone number of a business you are looking for and it will take you there.
- If the electronic door opener fails and you need to use the manual key, insert the key, turn as far as it will go counterclockwise, turn back to the center and remove the key before the door will unlatch. But, first, try holding the key fob near the top of the rear passenger door and opening the door from there.
- I notice on the freeway at times the coast feature does not always kick in when I think it should. I was on a long decline and wanted it to the coast so I tired up shifting from 7th to, well, 7th and coasting. It worked and now I do this quite often when I want to coast just upshift!
- If you press and hold the outer door handle lock button, the side mirrors will fold while the car locks. Unlocking normally will auto-unfold.
- Another way to fold the mirrors while locking the car is to hold down the lock button on the key fob for about a second.
- If you want to lock your glovebox you must remove the "emergency" key that is inside the regular key. Hard to access if the regular key is inside a keyfob holder or if you have other keys attached to the regular key. I have a quick solution. Get a copy of the emergency key so you don't have to hassle to remove it and take the chance of losing it since it is very small. I keep a copy of the glovebox key on a keychain or leave it in my center console storage. If I want to lock my phone, wallet, or another item in the glovebox, I just lock it with the copy key and take the key with me. My locksmith did it for $20 on a blank VW key
- On excessive brake pedal travel: According to the manual, the brakes have to be broken in too, like the tires, for the first few hundred kilometers - I have found this to be true concerning the "softness" of the brake pedal. After that, the pedal works fine.
- On the back windshield wiper, is a button to raise the back hatch. I've been using one on the driver's door for months, my daughter just showed me.
- Immediately after turning the ignition off, depress the windshield wiper stalk. That will put the wipers into "Service Mode", about 30 degrees up. They can then be tilted away from the windshield. Detailed instructions are found in the manual.
- Today I learned that if you take a screenshot with your phone while it's connected it saves the car play screen too! Discovered it by accident and I think it's awesome.
- I recently discovered the CD player also plays DVDs. The DVD picture will play on the PCM screen even with the vehicle in drive, but as soon as you begin to move, the picture goes away. When you stop at a stop light or stop sign, the picture returns.
- When in reverse, and click on the Passenger side mirror adjust button, you can angle it all the way down to see the curb, once you go back to drive, the mirror fixes back to normal position automatically. Later on, when you press the passenger mirror button you won't have to do the same adjustment again as it should memorize it (at least for me but I have the memory package).
- I'm not sure if it's the newer PCM or common knowledge by now since it hasn't been mentioned, but if you have a track playing from your Bluetooth device, hovering the hand over the screen will show the timestamp on the song/podcast for a few seconds. I believe it also shows additional information on radio station songs.
- The car will lock itself again if you don't open the door within 30 seconds or so after unlocking it.
- HD FM just needs to be enabled by going through OPTIONS->SET FM-> to check off that HD button. And then not only do the stations sound better with that HD option, but some of those stations also get the "Substation" button where List usually appears. So to configure, go to FM, Turn on HD in Option Set FM, and then cycle through the stations to see which ones have substations. Some are very good and sound just as good as the satellite stations if not better.
- If you have a panoramic sunroof if you pull the latch on the upper console to close the roof and then immediately press the button for the visor, the visor will close automatically after the roof is done closing. No need to wait for the roof to close first then close the visor.
