The second-generation Porsche Macan hardly looks like a car enthusiast’s dream. In a world of three-cylinder manual Corollas, modern Lotuses, and multiple factory-built takes on the ultimate street 911, it may feel safe to write off an egg-shaped compact crossover as just another luxury electric product meant to reach two of the industry’s most important segments at once. Look deeper, however, and the Macan might just be the most important new car of the year.
Neither the sedan nor internal combustion are dead, but the ICE-powered sport sedan is fading. The next Dodge Charger may get four-door and gas-powered variants in time, but the age of V-8 Chargers has already ended and the next Mopar performance product has been seen only as an electric two-door concept. Kia, a brand that dipped its toes in the performance sedan waters in the 2010s, has already retreated to the safer ground of EV crossovers. BMW may be sticking with the M3, but the manual transmission has an expiration date. Options are disappearing as R&D departments focus on crossovers that will sell and EVs that will comply with changing regulations.
That does not just hurt new car buyers. For decades, cars like BMW’s E30 3-Series and E39 5-Series have been staples of the enthusiast used car market. Each were megahits in an era when sedans could sell at volume and even basic models were oriented toward driving experience, but that epoch has long since ended. The modern successors of those cars are oriented more toward a typical luxury buyer, and a famous switch in how BMW handled power steering took away the legendary feel that made those specific sedans so popular.
In that world, the current Macan is already more important than most enthusiasts realize. Some 800,000 of these things are on the road, per Porsche's own figures, and even the most worn and most basic models offer something to drivers that is missing from just about every other entry in the crowded compact crossover segment. The Macan has been a hit with R&T across a decade of refreshes and new trim levels for a reason: It has proven itself as the best performance option among a group of compact crossovers that admittedly are usually not designed with the joy of driving in mind. These cars already flood both the streets and the used car market, providing new buyers with a great driving experience and offering generations of future buyers a chance to get behind the wheel of something that is actually interesting to put through its paces.
Hell, I bought one! Me, myself. I wanted something charming, practical, and good to drive, so I went out and picked up a used Macan. I passed it on after an issue popped up a few months in, but in my blissfully unaware and also brief time with the car, I couldn't have been happier.