The Ambiguously Grey Turbo

[sor]

One month in, 1000 miles. Man I love this car. There aren’t a lot of people on here who just post “enjoying the Macan, no issues to report”, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the model is a problematic mess. And maybe some people feel that way. I could nit pick a few things, but for someone who was used to driving turbo Golfs , Audi S4s, BMW M3s, and then somehow ended up in Minivan and large SUV land for a decade… such a breath of fresh air.

I took it out in the rain today, no problem with wipers, they work great. Used the heated steering wheel for the first time. Got the ski rack delivered and ready, will put that on next month. Winter wheels ordered, listed my old winter set from the iX.

As I exited the car just now I was marveling at how satisfying the interior door handles feel. They don’t feel mechanical, they require no effort, but at the same time they feel natural if you give it a good pull.

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[sor]

Definitely a unique combo you got there.

That’s a nice way of putting it . I wasn’t really satisfied with any of the color combos for various reasons. I’m not enamored with the look but I like that it isn’t just a basic looking Macan.

In the end just decided to do something different, it’s a lease after all. The club leather was a must just in terms of leather quality but also value, it was just a few hundred more. I might have gone red or chalk with black inserts, refuse to have full black interior if I can avoid it. The neodyme was just to try something different, and the wheels are going to be swapped out in winter anyway.

 

[sor]

I’m officially putting the car into winter mode, and decided to roll some efficiency tests comparing to my iX. Everything is pretty much in line with what you’d expect, no huge surprises, the Macan is not defying physics or introducing some amazing new tech.

Test is a 15 mile freeway loop at 72mph when temperature is between 50°-60°F.

I removed the stock 22” spyder wheels and put on some 20s. Wider than the stock 20s but not as wide as the OEM 22s. I wanted the Alpins but couldn’t find a size that would work without looking stretched, so I got the x-ice. Not an EV specific tire.

Going to the winter tires was pretty much a wash, a negligible loss of efficiency. Adding the ski rack incurs a 16.3% penalty, which is roughly in line with the 16.5% penalty measured on the iX.

I usually take a few ski trips in the winter, the iX had plenty of range for this but the Macan charges much faster so I look forward to that.

I’ve used this ski rack on five different cars and it is almost silent on the Macan. On the e-tron and my X3 it whistled at certain speeds. On the iX it just made a bit of whooshing wind noise, but not bad. On the Macan I can hear it at 40mph or if I listen intently, just a slight white noise, but otherwise I can’t hear it at all.

Vehicle	Configuration	Efficiency kWh/100mi	Theoretical range
2025 Macan Turbo	22" OEM spyder	31.5	301.58
2025 Macan Turbo	20" x-ice	31.9	297.80
2025 Macan Turbo	20" x-ice and ski rack	38.1	249.34
2023 BMW iX M60	20" Nokian	32.8	304.11
2023 BMW iX M60	20" Nokian and ski rack	39.3	253.81

 

[sor]

Oh I snapped some photos as an afterthought. I will get some better ones in the mountains later.

 

[sor]

Dropped it for PPF today. See you soon!

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