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Select a country to begin.Repair Split Wooden Door PanelYOU JUST KNEW when Porsche decided to build Barbie’s Dream Car it was going to be awesome. Removing Self-Stick Vinyl FlooringThe 2015 Macan S ($49,900 MSRP) is Porsche’s entry to the exploding luxury compact crossover segment, and it is a dram of excelsior, a proud, darling thing: quick off the line (5.0 seconds to 60 mph, with the optional launch control engaged) and nimble at the helm, with a steel-spring suspension (wishbone front and trapezoidal-link rear) that’s as tight as a speed skater’s buttocks. Diy Broken Digital CameraActually, the Macan S drives shockingly well considering it weighs in around 4,500 pounds and is a foot taller than a 911. More on that later.

Among the details to savor is the clamshell hood that extends to the front wheel arches, so that the hood shut lines go away. The Macan isn’t dripping in aggression, design-wise, with soft, rounded corners inherited from the 911 and an open, expressive face. It has nothing like the Range Rover Evoque’s narrow, predatory stare. And yet the Macan is low, wide and stance-y, with staggered tires (a wider set in back) and heavy haunches. It’s a Cayenne in short pants. Porsche has made no secret of the desire to expand the brand to more women. Translating that desire into product design is a perilous business, especially for such a macho brand. But I think the Porsche design team, led by Michael Mauer, got exactly what it was looking for. The Macan hits a mall parking lot like a fishing lure hits the water, if smartly dressed women were largemouth bass. The category, Alex, is premium/luxury compact crossovers and/or sport-utilities. The yard marks are wide, but you are going to shell out anywhere from about $40,000-$70,000—I recommend leasing such nonsense—and the competitive set includes the cream of the world auto-making crop: Acura RDX, Audi Q3, BMW X3, Land Rover Discovery Sport, Mercedes-Benz GLA, the Evoque and a few others.

In this category you are free to spend like you are on cocaine. There is such a thing as a Macan Turbo (with a 3.6-liter, 400-hp version of the V6) that starts at $72,300 and can top six figures when you start adding carbon-ceramic brakes ($8,150) and air suspension ($1,385). Our Macan S test car—painted ermine-white with beige leather interior —came in at $72,620 and included 20-inch alloy wheels ($1,260), the active dampers ($1,360), the upgraded Bose stereo ($1,400) and infotainment package ($2,990) and the Premium Package Plus ($5,990). The powertrain is a thing of beauty, starting with the all-aluminum, 90-degree, 3.0-liter direct-injection twin-turbo V6, producing a nicely focused 339 pound-feet, from 1,450 rpm all the way to 5,000 rpm, and peak horsepower from 5,500-6,500 rpm. Golly, what a sewing machine. When you switch to Sport + mode and add some throttle, the engine bawls, it purrs, it chuckles. Hot, guttural overrun sounds come courtesy of the active exhaust valve.

But the symphony is turned way down in volume, a bit too far to seem threatening, just adorable. More in Rumble Seat Ram ProMaster City: The Little Cargo Van That Could Mercedes-Maybach S600: The Silence Is Deafening Land Rover Discovery Sport: Taming Iceland Detroit Sees the Future Toyota Camry Hybrid: Wonderfully Boring Volvo V60: A Wagon You Can Easily Warm Up To Ford Transit, Mercedes-Benz Sprinter: Big Vans, Big Ideas Jaguar XJL Offers Much More Than You Need More on Cars Driver’s Seat blog Downstream of the engine is Porsche’s seven-speed dual-clutch PDK automatic transmission and the full-time all-wheel drive system, based around a digitally managed multi-plate center differential. The Macan’s front diff is open and the rear is limited-slip, with the option of the Porsche Torque Vectoring Plus on the rear diff, slewing torque left or right as needed to help the car turn harder and accelerate sooner. Romp it and all this actuates with greased flawlessness one might expect in a late-model Porsche, even to a fault.

There isn’t a sharp edge to be found is this car. Even in Sport + mode, the PDK acts like/drives like any other high-tech, torque-converter based automatic transmission, with upshift events that flutter among the ratios, never bang. If the camera could zoom into the ghostly face of Ferdinand Porsche as he surveyed his legendary sports-car empire, now building glammy luxe crossovers for the recently divorced in West Palm Beach, would he have a single tear, like Iron Eyes Cody? Oh, I’ve had it all explained to me: Porsche, now a holding of Volkswagen AG, has been fully entrained into the group’s product slipstream. The Macan is a platform cousin to the Audi Q5, sharing VW’s MLB platform, for light-duty vehicles with front-longitudinal engine orientation and all-wheel drive. About a third of the Porsche’s structure is common to the Audi, but Macan gets Porsche-proprietary engines and the PDK gearbox; suspensions and dynamics software. Porsche AG also spent more than $550 million to construct the Macan assembly line in Leipzig, Germany—where car-building counts—with an annual capacity of 50,000 cars.

So pedigree really isn’t an issue. 2015 Porsche Macan S Base price: $50,895 Price, as tested: $72,620 Powertrain: Turbocharged, direct-injected 3.0-liter DOHC V6 with variable valve timing; seven-speed dual clutch transmission; rear biased all-wheel drive. Horsepower/torque: 340 hp at 5,500-6,500 rpm/339 pound-feet at 1,450 to 5,000 rpm Length/weight: 184.3 inches/4,112-4,641 pounds (min.-max, manufacturer) Wheelbase: 110.5 0-60 mph: 5.0 (with Sport Chrono package) Top speed: 156 mph EPA fuel economy: 17/23/19 mpg, city/highway/combined Cargo capacity: 17.7/53 cubic feet (second-row seat back up/folded) And yet, I can’t help thinking the Macan would have been a lot—what’s the word?—lighter, had it not been born to share the girdle of the corporate platform. If the Macan wins, it’s to the credit of Porsche’s interior-trim department. This is the best interior of any in the competitive set: clean and Nordic in design, wintry with polished alloy, rich with skins, with lots of very nice parts from the company’s bins, including Porsche’s new, three-spoke steering wheel, like the one in the 918 Spyder.

The seats are terrific, and the fully upholstered rear cargo space large and useful (17.7 cubic feet). My kids had no problems riding in the back seat. The whole thing is surprisingly undiminished by the price point. If the Macan stumbles, it might be because it feels a bit soft to enthusiasts. This truckette is well over two tons, and all the adaptive suspension, torque vectoring and sport tires only defray the costs of that mass. Yes, it has good road-holding in corners, considering, but the weight makes it feel antsy. Yes, the electric-assist steering is tactile and responsive, but it could be more of both. The short-stroke engine of the Macan S (69 mm stroke and 96 mm bore) spins like a bandit, but it’s all so at a distance, so muted and isolated. The Macan’s missing piece is driver involvement. But maybe you don’t feel like driving at the moment. In that case, switch on the Macan’s optional Lane Keeping Assist, a ghost-in-the-machine system that will keep a car heading down a road with minimal input from the driver.