Breaking Down the Macan GTS and Its Place in the Market
In a market full of fast Euro SUVs, the Macan GTS manages to stand out – and above its rivals – thanks to its fundamentals and philosophy.
It hasn’t been all that long (not even 20 years) since the idea of a high-performance SUV was novel and exciting. These days, they’re pretty much common. Jeep makes a Grand Cherokee with 707 horsepower and all-wheel drive. BMW has M and M Competition versions of several of its Sports Activity Vehicles. Mercedes AMGs all of the things. So the Porsche Macan GTS is just another entry in a crowded market segment, right? Not if you ask the guys behind the YouTube channel savagegeese.
Like many YouTubers, co-hosts Jack and Mark go over the Macan GTS’s hardware. They point out the fact that it has the same twin-turbo 2.9-liter V6 as the larger Cayenne S, albeit with only 375 horsepower and a seven-speed PDK instead of 434 horses and an eight-speed Tiptronic gearbox. The Macan GTS shares its all-wheel drive system with its Macan S sibling. The button-heavy center console is recognizable from some of Porsche’s sports cars.
But there’s more to a vehicle than just its stats. What seems to be the philosophy behind it? Where does it fit in the automotive landscape? Those are the questions that Jack and Mark tackle, letting their knowledge of the Macan GTS’s mechanical components guide them.
As a product of the Volkswagen Group, the Macan GTS is based on the same fundamental MLB architecture as some of its corporate cousins, such as the Audi SQ5. While many of the core components, including the multilink front and rear suspension setups, are the same, the Macan GTS is far from a cynical exercise in badge engineering. Jack says, “Porsche claims that 70 percent of the components on their Macans are different. The suspension tuning’s different, the interior/exterior panels are different and it’s built in an entirely different factory.”
Porsche dialed in the Macan GTS’s suspension to be harder and more aggressive than that of the S and even the more powerful Turbo. As Mark puts it, “The GTS is more the enthusiast Macan – harder suspension, stiffer, more reactive.” Later in the video, Jack engages launch control and fires the Macan GTS down a snow-lined rural road. The speed and conditions do nothing to upset its composure or Mark’s faith in the Porsche’s road-holding capabilities. He tells Jack, “There’s nothing you can do that you can get this out of control, unless you’re going like 100 miles an hour and doing something stupid.”
As focused as the Macan GTS may be, it’s not available with ceramic composite brakes. Instead, its steel rotors are coated in ultra-hard tungsten carbide, a move that Mark sees as logical for a vehicle that will likely be a primary or secondary set of wheels, which means the costs of consumables and long-term ownership are more critical.
The same goes for livability. While the back seats are short on legroom, they don’t stop Jack from comparing the Macan GTS to one of its distant relatives. “This is really just a competent or usable daily driver. It’s almost like having a larger GTI that’s lifted in the sky.”
Ultimately, the Macan GTS leaves one of the co-hosts with a major question and the other with a sense of certainty. Jack wonders why some people want their SUV to be like a sports car. He reasons that for the money it takes to buy a Macan GTS, you can buy two less expensive yet still sporty vehicles. Mark points out that most people can’t fully exploit the abilities of Porsche’s sports cars on the road, so a vehicle with the ground clearance, traction and power of the Macan GTS is an appealing package. Most importantly, it’s distinctly Porsche, combining luxury and refinement with the fun-to-drive nature of the brand’s sports cars in a vehicle that truly stands out from rival performance SUVs.
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