I drove an $82,000 Porsche Macan S to see if this bestselling, sporty crossover is worth the steep price - here's the verdict

The Porsche Macan S is a gorgeous, luxury crossover that as-tested was packed with expensive extras that didn't do much to bump up base-level performance.

The Macan is Porsche's "entry level" SUV, slotted a notch below the Cayenne in the lineup. It hit the streets in 2014, following the wildly successful launch of the Cayenne more than a decade earlier. The Macan (it means "tiger" in the language of Indonesia) has become Porsche's bestselling vehicle, moving more almost 21,500 units in 2018.

I personally have never been a Macan fan, although I think its big brother, the Cayenne, is perhaps the finest SUV ever created by human hands. It's tough to follow a revelation — that's what the Cayenne was, a staggering achievement from the company that has been known almost exclusively for the iconic two-door 911 sports car.

We've driven several Macans here at BI and have generally leaned toward the Macan S as offering the best combination of price and performance. The base Macan, stickering at a little over $50,000 with a four-cylinder engine, isn't enough Porsche for us, while the more savage high-performance crossovers, such as the raucous GTS, put far too deep a dent in the wallet (and aren't that much fun to drive at everyday speeds).

The Macan S, with a $58,600 base price and a 3.0-liter turbocharged six making 348 horsepower with 354 pound-feet of torque, looks good on paper. The 5-second 0-60 time is nothing to scoff at. But, um, unfortunately the as-tested $82,000 price tag is. Our Macan enjoyed over $22,000 in options.

If you have the case, they are of course worth it. The 20-inch gloss-black wheels were $3,000 — and gorgeous. The black-and-garnet-red leather interior was $4,000 — and gorgeous. The "Chalk" exterior paint job was another $3,000 — and hypnotically gorgeous.

So you get what you pay for with the Macan. But all the expensive goodies don't significantly upgrade the performance.

That doesn't mean the Porsche Macan S isn't an appealing choice in the popular luxury crossover segment.

The styling is Cayenne derivative, which was 911 derivative, which made for SUVs that look like turtles or pumped up VW Beetles. But over the years the design has gotten sleeker, and one might say that the smaller Macan is sharper than the Cayenne.

Of course, there's no such thing as a beautiful Porsche; beauty isn't the point. Porsches are tools — go-fast-around-corners machines, shining examples of German engineering. If you want pretty, there's Ferrari and Jaguar. Porsches are more purposeful.

Throw in a top speed of 157 mph, a seven-speed PDK transmission piping power to a surefooted all-wheel-drive system, and some exceptionally composed steering, handling, and braking and you have one of the best compact crossovers on the road. The Macan S is basically a sports car with four doors and a hatch that could plausibly compete in weekend offroad rally races. That's versatility!

And yet, I often come away from the Macan with ... complaints.

Objectively, the vehicle is great, and moaning about the price is silly. It's a Porsche. It's not a Mazda.

But of all the Porsches one can drive, I have the toughest time warming up to the Macan. I'm not crazy about the lumbering, poleaxing power of the V8 Panameras, either. I like the Cayenne in all its incarnations, and while the more supercar-striving 911 variants strike me as missing the spiritual point of the car, they're undeniably impressive and undeniably worth the big money.

The Macan S is certainly a pleasant place to spend time.

The Macan S combines luxury, performance, and versatility in a balanced and efficient manner (although, as I've pointed out, you do have to pay up if you want the best of the best). Unlike other luxury crossovers, the premium materials don't assert themselves too strongly — there' a refreshing lack of bling.

For drivers and passengers, the comfort level is high, but it doesn't rise to plush or decadent elevations. For that reason, the Macan isn't the best road-tripper I've ever piloted. I took it on a roughly 250-mile, roundtrip run from the New Jersey suburbs to the East End of Long Island and was glad to not be driving it anymore once the journey was completed. You don't notice this during daily driving excursions, and when you drop the hammer, you don't actually want the Macan S to be soft.

But how often did I drsop the hammer? Not often. Sport mode got some use, but Sport Plus was neglected. This is the Macan's Achilles' heel: it can go like hell — but the car is set up to embrace not going like hell.

The Macan's cargo capacity is not too big and not too small — just right.

The Macan S weighs in at about 4,300 lbs., can tow 4,400 lbs., and offers over 50 cubic feet of cargo space with the rear seats dropped.

The 18 mpg city/23 highway/20 combined fuel economy isn't great, but it isn't bad, either, considering that the Macan S is designed for high-performance.

The Macan, if you're being grumpy, could be lumped in with the Audi Q5 and the Volkswagen Tiguan in the VW Group crossover stable. The three vehicles are mechanically similar. I've driven all of them, however, and the Macan is the snazziest, by a stretch.

So what's the verdict? I don't the think the extras are worth it — they don't add enough to the Macan S — but there's no question that the SUV is one of the best you can buy.

For me, the Macan has become the exception that proves the rule in the Porsche lineup: the company makes some of the world's greatest cars. But a few of its cars, despite their charms and capabilities, don't always click.

More accurately, they don't click in my head. Porsche has plenty of happy Panamera Turbo owners and, it goes without saying, many more Macan owners. The issue here is one of small distinctions. I don't like the over-muscled Porsches, and I struggle with the Macan's sort of split personality: wild at the top of the lineup, adequate at the bottom, mushy in the middle, despite the impressive specs.

Look, the Macan S gets the job done. The thing drives beautifully, the interior is primo, and the infotainment system, with its crisp central touchscreen, is a blissful media center with first-rate GPS navigation. Obviously, there aren't that many vehicles on the road that combine Porsche's performance poise, racetrack ready at all times, with the chops to convey a week's worth of groceries and make comfortable, full-family Disneyland runs.

But you don't need to come up with eighty grand. The extras are wonderful and add to the experience, but they aren't mission critical. My advice is to choose the cheaper Macan and relish the still-intact Porsche-ness of it.