How Do You Drive Your Macan?

[Moriarty]

I recently finished running-in my Macan S and now I have the other half of the rev range available. 1,900 miles run-in is a kind of torture, but it’s over now and I do think I felt a freer, smoother engine after about 1,400 miles, which seems to have improved further since.

During run-in I mostly left the car in comfort and, while there is plenty of power below 4,000rpm, I found the gearbox a little awkward - too determined to keep the revs below the power band and too quick to shift down when I wanted to press on. I would flip the downshift paddle once or twice myself if I wanted to accelerate, but it doesn’t stay in my chosen gear for very long and it still tended to downshift again if I pressed the throttle a bit too hard (which then delays the acceleration). But I will say that comfort mode gives a very calm and refined drive and it gives fuel economy that you couldn’t possibly achieve selecting the gears yourself.

Since completing the run-in I find so far that sport mode is much more smooth and alive, and I don’t need to use the paddles now that revs don’t matter as much, but perhaps the car is slightly too eager sometimes and the fuel economy certainly goes down a lot. I usually got 29-31mpg in comfort and I get 20-23mpg in sport. I’m also someone who tends to prefer the deeper sound of accelerating from lower revs and I don’t really like to rev the nuts off a car and sound like I’m racing. I like a low-key but powerful drive, and the Macan S certainly has enough torque to do this if it weren’t for the way the DSG gearbox is programmed.

I suppose what this comes down to is that a manual gearbox would give me the control to drive the way I prefer, but a DSG box will always compromise the car. As of now, I’m driving in sport and accepting the ostentatious noise and the wasted fuel at lower speeds. It seems the best compromise for me if I still want a car that responds to the throttle and delivers the full performance that it can, when I want it. But I’m still new to the top half of the rev counter and I may find other ways to drive it that suit me better.

How do you guys drive your Macans?

[wab172uk]

Flat out !

[gasgas1]

why did you buy an auto if you prefer a manual?

[andreas]

If my wife's in the car with me, I tend to go into chauffeur mode; if on my own my driving is more spirited.

[DJMCUK]

Comfort for pootling around. Sport for hooning around.

The PDK is brilliant but it needs to learn your driving style over time. I've had my 981 PDK for 9 years and the gearbox is super intuitive. It's as though it knows my thoughts.

Still getting used to the Macan S PDK but having had PDK for so long I know how to get the best out of it.

You need to give your very new car time, and vice versa.

[Moriarty]

why did you buy an auto if you prefer a manual?

Mostly because my wife doesn’t like manual so I compromise. But I also buy a whole car and the auto gearbox is only one part of the experience, for which there are both pros and cons (and manual gearboxes are available on fewer and fewer cars these days). The Macan is a lovely car, fantastic interior, refined and comfortable, great ergonomics, very versatile, very practical, and bags of power. I didn’t find another car I liked better.

To be clear, my post wasn’t intended as a complaint about automatic gearboxes. It is more a question about how to get the best out of the car, and adapting to the gearbox is the most impactful part of that, for me. Other tips unrelated to the gearbox are welcome too.

[Moriarty]

Comfort for pootling around. Sport for hooning around.

The PDK is brilliant but it needs to learn your driving style over time. I've had my 981 PDK for 9 years and the gearbox is super intuitive. It's as though it knows my thoughts.

Still getting used to the Macan S PDK but having had PDK for so long I know how to get the best out of it.

You need to give your very new car time, and vice versa.

Is that really true? That the PDK box is programmed to adjust its parameters based on driver inputs over time? How do we know this?

[SAC1]

Comfort for pootling around. Sport for hooning around.

The PDK is brilliant but it needs to learn your driving style over time. I've had my 981 PDK for 9 years and the gearbox is super intuitive. It's as though it knows my thoughts.

Still getting used to the Macan S PDK but having had PDK for so long I know how to get the best out of it.

You need to give your very new car time, and vice versa.

Is that really true? That the PDK box is programmed to adjust its parameters based on driver inputs over time? How do we know this?

Now you've run your Macan in, you could try a PDK reset. This topic will take you to the procedure.......


viewtopic.php?t=13578

[mueslibrown]

There was a comment from a PEC instructor a while back, when someone asked why the Macan they had driven was more responsive than their own same model and was told the PEC cars are driven flat out all the time so the PDK has adjusted accordingly ...

[2japs]

If my wife's in the car with me, I tend to go into chauffeur mode; if on my own my driving is more spirited.

Ditto, but also includes the dogs and G/ kids, the golf clubs don’t mind a more spirited drive tho…