Porsche Macan review

There’s plenty of room up front; even very tall drivers won’t feel hemmed in, despite the Macan’s sleek silhouette. 

There are also two fixed cupholders in the front, located conveniently just in front of the cushioned armrest, which can be slid forward or backwards and doubles as the lid for the central cubby. That same cubby houses the USB socket, so it’s perfect for storing your phone out of sight, and it's also deep enough for other small items. The door bins are relatively deep, but you’ll still struggle to find anywhere to put a 1.0-litre bottle.

There’s less rear leg room than in most rivals, including the Audi Q5 and BMW X3, so lanky passengers could well find their knees brushing the seats in front, while anyone in the middle will have to find space for their feet on either side of the large central floor tunnel.

Children and those under six-foot will still be fine in the outer seats, though. And there’s good storage, with a couple of cupholders, door bins that can take 500ml drinks bottles, and map pockets.

The rear seats are split in a 40/20/40 arrangement, so you can fold down the narrower central section and slide through longer items, while still leaving room for two rear passengers.

What the Macan doesn’t provide is the facility to recline the rear backrests, or to slide the rear seats backwards and forwards to allow extra luggage or passenger space. You'll find just such a facility in many rivals, including the Audi Q5.

The Macan’s boot floor sits flush with its load lip, making loading easy. At 500 litres it isn’t the biggest in the class, but it’s square shape easily swallows eight carry-on-sized cases; the Audi Q5 will manage nine, by the way.

Useful touches include a cargo net attached to the underside of the solid load bay cover, a 12V socket, a hook to hang a shopping bag and a recessed cubby with a net restrainer, that's perfect for storing smaller bottles. And, if you’ve spent hours trying to work out how to open the tailgate without the key, the button is hidden at the base of the rear windscreen wiper.

There’s a fair-sized storage area underneath the boot floor if you don’t specify the optional space-saver spare tyre; if you do, the wheel uses up virtually all of this handy extra space.