PASADENA, CA—Last week, Ars was invited to a Porsche Macan product briefing in Pasadena at the Langham Huntington Hotel. We then got in the car and drove it around for seven hours—perhaps not enough to get a full grasp of the Macan's features and limitations, but enough to get a good snapshot of the way it works to make it drive in a way that Porsche hopes will seem fresh and new against a lineup of competitors in 2015.
We got a little on-the-ground and in-the-cabin video as we drove from Pasadena to the Willow Springs Raceway in California.
Ars test drives the Porsche Macan. Credit: Jennifer Hahn (video link)The event was notable because it was the Macan's American debut, and because it gave hints into some of the ways the German auto maker will be selling cars in the future. In short: make cars for very specific demographics (like the sports car-SUV hybrid Macan); put low-level autonomous systems into cars that are traditionally for "real drivers," like lane keep assist and manumatic transmission; and take a page out of Tesla's book by moving (ever-so-gently) away from dealerships to draw in customers.
Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments
