I do not care how careful you are or whether you are the only driver of your SUV. Sooner rather than later you will see scratches along the top of the rear bumper from cargo removed from the rear compartment.
To mitigate this problem, many SUV manufactures will design the rear bumper with some form of protection. A rubber strip integrated into the top of the bumper is the most practical solution.
But not Porsche. That kind of design fluff is apparently not in their design philosophy.
Like many Macan owners I searched for a solution. The criteria were simple. It had to offer protection to the top of the rear bumper, and most importantly, it had to look good.
I finally found a rear bumper protector that met my criteria. It’s sold by ZIC Motorsports (zicmoto.com) Photographs below.
The bumper protector came well protected and packed. Examining the item revealed its stainless steel construction with the inner portion inlaid with carbon fiber. (Photograph below)
Installation is not complicated. The bumper protector comes with double sided 3M tape already affixed to the bottom. That said, I soon realized that the real challenge of installing this protector was getting it aligned in exactly the center of the bumper.
Realizing that I would only get one shot at aligning this, I laid the bumper protector on the bumper at where I believed it should be and looked at it from about 3 feet. And I kept shifting it slightly and looking at it, and looking at it.
The more I looked at it the more I became convinced that there had to be a better way to center this bad boy.
I needed to find the center of the rear bumper and or hatch opening and the center of the bumper protector.
Quick measurements determined that the center of the rear bumper and the rear hatch opening is the rear hatch mounting latch retainer. (green arrow photograph below)
Measuring the bumper protector from both ends determined the center.
With the center marked on the bumper protector (green arrow) it can be lined up with the rear hatch locking retainer. (yellow arrow photograph below).
Photograph below. Note tennis ball (red arrow) holding swing away license plate bracket open to provide access to my battery maintainer access port (blue arrow) located behind the license plate.
With the rear bumper protector location firmly identified, the wax needed to be cleaned off the bumper. I used a clean cloth and Windex for this job.
To be absolutely sure that the bumper protector would line up with the rear hatch locking retainer, I added a piece of tape between the retainer and bumper protector and extended the center mark. (red arrow photograph below)
With the bumper degreased and wax removed, the next step was removal of the 3M double sided tape from the bottom of the bumper protector.
You will only have one shot at this, so do not screw it up. Carefully align the center marks, lower the protector into place and, starting from the center press firmly towards the edges while following the contours of the bumper. (photographs below)
Press firmly over the bumper protector edges (where the 3M tape is located) with a towel or soft cloth to make sure that there are no air gaps between the 3M tape and bumper.
When completed it should look like the photograph below.
Project complete.
Drive Safe.
