Jim Wilke

I live in Anchorage, Alaska. I've had 3 Macans: A 2015 Turbo, a 2019 S and now a 2022 GTS. 95% of the time, these are marvelous cars. Go fast, reliable as a Timex, quiet and fun.

But.

AWD system is not designed for snow. We had a ton of snow in November and December, 80 inches, but not much in the last 3 or 4 weeks. Last night, the wind came up and I didn't think much of it. I took my 911 out, listened to an episode of 'Smartless' and came home. There had been some drifting in front of the left garage door but no big deal. I opened it, drove in through 8-10" of fluff, tires spun a bit and threw snow in the air as I got into the far stall. Whee!

Got up this morning and got it the Macan. Opened the right door and saw there was quite a bit of snow in the driveway. Apparently, a lot of snow had blown off the roof, swirled around and filled things up pretty good. Looked like probably a foot deep and 12 -15 feet out. Okay.

I thought about trying to saw around inside the garage to get pointed out but decided against it. Hell, I've got lots of power, I'll just hit it hard. I hit the off-road button and raised the car. I turned off the PSM, clicked the **** to Sport Mode. Stood on the brake, revved the engine to 2,500, pulled it into reverse and then hammered it.

Made it about 10 feet and it stopped. Uh oh. Pulled it into D, moved ahead about 6 feet. Nothing. Backed up a foot and that was it. Mash on the power and the engine just goes 'hmmm' and that's it.

Called one of my employees and had him bring my snow shovel from my office. We - mostly he, he's 23 - shoveled it out. I called my plow guy and he came over and cleaned it all up.

As we left the office, I yelled at the kid. "Hey, thanks for coming over and digging me out." He laughed, "I knew you weren't going to do it!" He was right.

The moral of the story: These are great cars until the snow gets over 6 inches deep. Then, a Subaru wagon would be a better choice.

doctj

Glad you had help.
what tires you on up there?

chassis

Too deep. Not related to AWD system.

Nickshu

While I agree the Macan is a sports SUV, not really made for the most severe winter conditions....I owned two Subaru Outbacks and they were the WORST cars in in snow I have owned in my life.

Maybe get a Unimog? I mean it is Alaska. :-)

nevil

There is a difference between AWD and 4 wheel drive. Unfortunately for you, for the conditions you're dealing with, a 4 wheel drive vehicle is far better at getting that job done.

WillinEvergreen

I live in the Colorado high country and routinely break out of my uphill 30 foot driveway with 6-8 inches of snow. Not an issue. I run Vredestein quattrac Pro snowflake tires all year long. When that same driveway has a foot or more of snow, I start shovelling!

VAGfan

Proper snow tires are 90% of snow-weather traction....10% is which wheels are driven.
I have had many front drive cars, equipped with 4 Blizzak snow tires, and nothing would stop them, even in deeper snow.

Jim Wilke

I have Pilot Alpins on my 911 C4S and Macan GTS. They work fine as long as you can keep your speed up and the wheels spinning at the same rate. The AWD gets confused at slower speeds when one wheel is spinning faster than the others and starts cutting power. Fairly quickly, it cuts all power. One other issue, PDKs do not like to be rocked like a regular auto box.

Back in 2018, I got into deep snow trying to get to my previous house with my '15 Turbo. It was around a corner and then up a grade to the driveway which was plowed. Almost made it but got stuck. Back and forth a few times, got on the shovel, was making a bit of progress, thought I might make it but then a yellow light came on the dash: 'Front wheel drive disabled. Please take to workshop.'

I walked to my house, called the dealer and they sent a wrecker. Took it to the shop, reset everything, good as new. While the Macan was in the shop overnight, the city plowed and the next morning, I drove my BMW 650 ix which was on Blizzaks, got around just fine.

DHL

+1
Back in the 80's I lived on the East Coast and I owned a mid 80's VW GTI with Vredestein snow tires. Left the car at Newark airport and a big snowstorm blew in, just as I had to go home. The snow on the NJ turnpike was up to the front bumper but that did not stop that car. Everyone else was stopped at the side of the road but that GTI kept motoring.

chassis

Respectfully, this is user error in snow too deep for the vehicle.

PTM (Porsche's umbrella term for AWD) is excellent, short of 4Runner, F-150 or G-Wagen levels of hardware. ABD gives side-side torque transfer, and the torque coupling aft of the transmission gives fore-aft torque transfer. Cutting power is in the interest of traction.

If the vehicle has ground clearance and tires are not enveloped (have not sunk), there is a good chance traction and movement can be achieved.

Floating, and avoiding sinking (enveloped tires), has nothing to do with putting torque to the wheels. If the wheels turn, the AWD system has done its job.

In a similar story, I drove a FWD rental car onto the beach in Turkey last year and realized I was getting into the soft stuff. Stopped the car (bad decision), then had to very carefully and slowly back up in a straight line to use what little traction I had, then achieve float at higher speed. I got un-stuck but the user (me) made the first error.

CapitalAL

Had a few 2-3 foot drifts in my driveway when I got home from work and debated clearing it first but decided to send it and made it through just fine. I am on winter tires so that helped I am sure. The lot at my office was also not plowed with about 12-14 inches of fresh snow and made it through all that without even spinning the tires. I think the Macan does great in deep snow.

DHL

So you negotiated 2-3 ft drifts in the Macan? That's incredible as the snow is considerably higher than the bumpers!

Pretorien

My route back to college in 1956 (04/06/1956) took me through Torrington Conn (this was before the Interstates in that area. By the time I got to Torrington Mountaion, as it was known, there was perhaps 8-10" of heavy, wet snow on the road. I made it over the hill as did a tow truck - everything else was off the side of the road. On my way out of Torrington, my car began to overheat. I stopped and got out to inversigate, I was plowing snow with my front bumper and the grille was packed with heavy snow. I turned around, returned to town and found a hotel.
The point: I was driving a RWD Sunbeam Talbot, vintage 1953.



Two points: The car had a rearward weight bias and mounted 5:50 X 16 tires - tall and, by today's standards, very narrow. Current wide rubber is not your friend in deep snow.

Russian Mafia

My routine involves stormchasing to other Rocky Mountain states in the winter, east to CO and north to WY and MT, sometimes at the height of a big dump. I've been driving a Tacoma for that, going back several years, equipped with Nokian winters, and it's never failed me. The most memorable save was in a blinding snowstorm with 4-6" on the highway near Glacier NP (heading to Whitefish) when at 35 mph I found myself heading towards a group of Cariboo standing disoriented in the middle of the road at night. They were from the first herd to make it back into MT from Canada. Had I hit them I wouldn't have been very popular in those parts, among other things.

But I've had plenty of chances to drive my 2023 Macan GTS with Scorpion Winters through snowstorms locally and they seem to offer similar traction. The differences are mostly clearance and momentum. The Tacoma is better on packed, polished snow but that could be the Nokians, they're sticky suckers. I routinely back into my garage and I've never had an issue ramming through at least 10" of fresh, semi-heavy on the way out. Where the Macan excels is recovering from a skid, which makes it good at pushing the traction envelope. I'm very pleased with the Macan's snow and ice performance.

Tpup

I’m far from an expert but we had our Macan in WI for 7 years. I noticed the “all season” tires were a bit sketchy and started to run a winter wheel setup with Blizzaks in the winter. It would go anywhere…