Range Rover Evoque review
by Sue Baker (2 August 2011)
The island of Anglesey off the north Wales coast is currently best known as home to a future king and his bride, but it now has a new claim to fame: as the starting point for the international launch of the Range Rover Evoque.
Of all the places in the world for Land Rover's new fashion model to strut its stuff, Anglesey might seem a surprising choice, but it is a suitably nostalgic one. For it was there, on a beach more than 60 years ago, that a sketch for the first Land Rover was famously drawn in the sand by the man regarded as the company's "father", Maurice Wilks. So Anglesey will evermore be the marque's spiritual home.
It was apt that the launch route comprised an adventurous trek from a sheep-strewn island in the remotest corner of North Wales, via the rugged terrain of Snowdonia, to the edgy urban modernity of Liverpool. The Evoque – it rhymes with "bloke" – has all the country credentials expected of car from the brand known for making "The Best 4x4xFar", but its fashionista street cred will be rooted in a city environment. Anyway, Liverpool is home to Halewood, the Merseyside factory where the Evoque is built.
So what is this edgy new Range Rover all about? That somewhat depends which version we are talking about, because there is a schizophrenic split between the five-door version and its Coupé (as Land Rover insists on calling the three-door) sibling. The former is an upper-crust cross between elevated family hatchback and SUV, while the latter aims to woo customers away from trendy sports models like the Audi TT.
Both Evoques are four-seaters. The five-door is more practical, while the Coupe is the real glamour model, but with compromise: a slightly lower roofline means a touch less headroom, and accessing the rear seats requires both nimbleness and patience. Either version is eye candy, but the Coupé is the real head-swiveller.
The Evoque is the smallest Range Rover yet made, and shares a basic chassis structure with a Land Rover Freelander, although you wouldn't detect it from the way each of them drives. Like the rest of the range it stands tall, so you climb aboard, and inside the fashion theme continues. The car is classily kitted out with nicely tailored high quality fittings and has a snug, cosseting ambience. Its interior design features a "floating" centre dash panel with stowage space behind it.
The driving position is excellent with lots of adjustment, and all-round visibility is pretty reasonable, apart from a very shallow and restricted rearward view through the letter-box slot that is the back window. Another annoyance is the irksomely nannying tone of the female voice chosen for the satnav.
A worthwhile accessory is the full-length panoramic glass roof that relieves the slightly repressive long ceiling and floods the cabin with overhead light. Standard kit includes the brilliant Terrain Response electronic dial-a-surface feature that lets you switch between settings for road driving or varying degrees of off-road control.
In automatic transmission models there is a Jaguar-style rotary gear selector, giving the Evoque that charming piece of theatre when you switch on and the cylindrical dial-a-gear knob rises up from the centre console. If you go for the optional dynamics pack, there is an additional setting on the Terrain Response that shows a twisty road. Select it, and the car is instantly set up firmer for sportier driving, while the instrument dials change colour from their usual slightly eerie diamond-white to a fiery red.
So, does the Evoque perform as well as it looks? Yes it does, both on and off-road. It is hard to imagine that any owner would seriously choose to go mud-plugging with this car, but being from the Land Rover stable it has off-road ability as an essential part of its DNA, and the launch route included several opportunities to demonstrate this – including tracks across undulating fields with steep grassy slopes and a remarkable two-mile drive on soft squidgy mud through a disused railway tunnel in the centre of Liverpool.
On-road the Evoque is a cracker with a taut, sporty feel and pert responses. It has direct-feeling, responsive steering and alert, poised behaviour through the bends. Unless you already knew that it shares similar under-structure with a Freelander, you wouldn't guess it, because the Evoque is an entirely different animal.
It feels dynamically very good indeed, with a precision and agility that makes it fun to drive in an almost hot hatch kind of way. It rides well too, absorbing severe bumps with aplomb and ironing out lesser undulations. It is only jostled by an unusually severe pothole, such as feature more often than desirable on Britain's under-maintained roads.
All the launch models were equipped with MagneRide variable magnetic damping, and it is well worth having, giving the car commendable assurance and body control.
Engine choice includes two diesel engines and one petrol, all of them four-cylinder units. The 2.2-litre turbo diesels are the 148bhp TD4 and the 187bhp SD4. Both come with a six-speed manual gearbox, and a six-speed auto with paddle shifts is also available with the SD4. The turbocharged petrol engine is a 237bhp two-litre with standard automatic transmission. Land Rover expects nine out of ten Evoques sold in the UK to be diesel-engined, and five-door models to outnumber Coupés by 70/30.
There are three trim levels, as they'll inevitably be known, despite Land Rover's insistence on calling them "design themes". These are Pure, Dynamic and Prestige. Extra kit packages are available, a Tech Pack to perk up the Pure and a Lux Pack to enhance either of the higher-spec models. The Evoque is on sale from mid-September, and prices start from £28,705, which buys a five-door Evoque Pure with a TD4 diesel engine and manual gearbox. A range-topping Dynamique coupé Si4 auto with Lux pack is £44,320. Coming in 2012 is an Evoque eD4 with two-wheel drive and a £27,955 price tag.
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