Porsche Macan S Diesel review, test drive

The centre console, again, is typically Porsche, with a sea of buttons that flanks both sides of the gear lever. All the switches are logically laid out, but I wonder if it’s time for Porsche to clean them up by moving some of the functions into an iDrive or MMI-style rotary controller.

The Macan S Diesel does not fail to impress. The 3.0-litre V6 diesel is so refined in this car that I had to glance at the modest 5200rpm redline on the large rev counter to figure out what diet this car was on. This oil-burning Macan is very un-diesel-like in the way it performs too. There’s no explosive mid-range, but instead, a nice surge that builds up like a tidal wave from as low down as 1,500rpm. Throttle inputs are met with a sharp response and there’s practically no turbo-lag here. Also, the PDK twin-clutch gearbox always manages to keep the engine in the meat of the power band most of the times.