Well after an extended test drive this morning I have made a decision. It's not the car for me.
In summary:
We had a Hybrid which was the first one I'd ever driven but this didn't sway my thoughts. Handling wise it was a lot more planted than the Macan and although somewhat longer and a little wider it was superb through the twisties and felt more like a well sorted sports saloon (M3/C63) than a 5M long 2 ton shooting brake. Performance was blistering on MWay on ramps but lacked the drama of my GTS. That might have been because the cabin was very quiet and the lack of PSE or just because my GTS feels a bit more raw and frantic. Not something I thought I'd say about a 2 ton SUV.
Inside was typical well ordered Germanic comfort and overall it felt a step up from the Macan. Bizarrely though I prefer the seats in the Macan and the feeling of being ensconced in the car was less noticeable in the Pany. I did however love the centre consul, central display, and the dials in the main dash. If the facelift Macan has any of these features it will be step forwards in my opinion.
I wanted to like the car more than the Macan and justify spending £20-30K more than a new fully specced Macan GTS but in the end I couldn't. I still love the look of the car and it is fantastic to drive but it looks as though it'll be Macan number 3 for me. Expecting to put an order in for a facelift GTS in the next couple of weeks and this time I'm thinking of going a bit crackers and going Voodoo Blue. Watch this space
(Saloon version & Sport Turismo are same length.)
