Land Rover Range Rover Evoque SD4 2011 review

You'd call it one of the cars of the year, except that it's based on an SUV and carries the name of the original luxury offroader. You hesitate to say "crossover" because that's inevitably applied to lesser devices that try to be all things and succeed in being none.

By contrast, the keenly awaited Evoque (250 have been pre-sold it and it should about double sales on this venerable brand) is almost unfeasibly multi-talented. It's about as car-like as you could wish while retaining the offroad ability to almost match the Land Rover Freelander from which it's derived.

Already said to be responsible for one rear-ender on the public road -- the driver ruefully admitted to perving on the Evoque in the next lane rather than watching the car to his front -- it looks and feels fairly fabulous: a car to lure both luxury SUV lovers and those of us who wouldn't otherwise want to be found decomposing in an SUV. So, yeah, it is kind of a crossover vehicle.

Value

Explore the 2011 Range Rover Evoque range

• Land Rover Range Rover Evoque 2011 review: snapshot
• Land Rover Range Rover Evoque SD4 2011 review
• Land Rover Range Rover Evoque 2011 review

Are we talking inherent or perceived value here? From the former perspective, the signature Prestige coupe -- in motor show reveal white with black sun roof -- surges from its list ask of $75,895 to just shy of $100,000K with a few careless strokes of the pen on the options list. The Dynamic SD4 five door we later drove was a mere $94,284 options added from a base of $73,375. So both approach double the entry level 4WD Pure manual from $53,995. A sub $50K front wheel drive comes later.

Yet when it comes to the Evoque, perception is -- if not all -- then of more relevance than most. At all spec levels, with three or five doors, adequate 18-inch alloys or jitteringly phat 20s, it looks (sorry) evocative.

The degree of personalization and combination of options is long enough to fill these columns. Two worth ticking are the contrasting colour roof ($900) which especially sets off a dark colored Evoque, and the Adaptive Dynamics pack ($5900) which uses Magnaride dampers to firm up the suspension to fine effect for when the bends tighten.

Technology

A paper-eating plethora of this too, though the engineering achievement can be measured as much by what's not there -- namely the 100kg by which the Evoque is lighter on the scales than the Freelander.

The smallest and lightest Range Rover to date (at barely 4.4m it's hardly bigger than a Mazda3-sized hatch), it sits 27mm lower than the Freelander yet has 12mm more ground clearance. Resonant Meridian audio is an option, but most models come with automatic terrain settings, making the crossing of creeks and sands all but prat-proof.

Four-cylinder engines go to the heart of the Evoque's inner urban and environmental friendliness, and seldom has the choice between turbodiesel or turbopetrol been more difficult. Lesser models get a hardly poor man's oiler good for 100kW/ 380Nm. Move up a spec level and diesels gain 40 more kilowatts and 20 more units of torque.

The petrol choice, though, is not only worthy of mention, it happens to be the rather talented turbo unit familiar from Volvo's S60 T5 and Ford's much underrated Mondeo. In upgunned form it will also attempt to rejuvenate the Falcon, but to return to the feasible ...

Teamed here with a six-speed Aisin automatic (there a six-speed manual available, but really ...) it makes for a pleasant headache in the decision-making stakes. On road it's closer than the raw figures suggest, the 95RON-dependent petrol engine putting out 177kW/340Nm to return 8.7L/100km in combined driving. The top-dog diesel gets 7.6 on the same cycle.

Design

Gerry McGovern's triumph over the engineering pragmatists who would have reduced his 2008 LRX concept vision to a superannuated Toyota Rukus, is one to celebrate down the ages. One of the few indelible and likely classic designs of the century to date, its distinctive swooping roofline and rising beltline cost little in terms of practicality.

"You've got to engineer it in way that enables us to create a new and exciting shape," McGovern insisted. "This is for someone who wants the inherent qualities of an SUV but one smaller scale."

Judge for yourself, but know that the rear passengers of the three have as much room as those in the five, it's simply a matter of egress. Oddly, neither will have rear seat vents. This, the plastic Jaguar paddle shifter and the Volvo Teknik pack rear panel on the Dynamic model strike the only false notes. Otherwise it’s pure Ranger Rover -- and that means luscious, lustrous interior panelling. Choosing your own combination of upholstery and trim would be as pleasantly a time-consuming task as can be had with a catalogue.

As to fit and finish over the longer term, Land Rover seems to have learned from the epidemic of issues that plagued the first generation Freelander, which even the blindly patriotic British auto press could not fail to pan. Surveys indicate improvements in all aspects.

Safety

The Freelander is a five-star crasher, as this will surely be. The formidable array of active safety measure, including permanent and constantly varying all-wheel-drive, should ensure that if vast array of airbags is detonated, it won't be via your driving.

Driving

Petrol or diesel? Diesel or petrol. Tough one. The Ford-derived gasoline unit is a fizzy number that somehow seems more alive here than in the Mondeo that recently occupied Carsguide's garage. Its torque is accessed at a diesel-like low 2000rpm, but it will of course rev some 1500rpm higher. That flexibility is abetted by a more immediate response -- there's barely a hint of the diesel's slight but discernible lag and virtually no untoward noise at all.

And yet ... The full grunt diesel's rolling response is enough to win it for me, a linear surge that more clinically disposes of overtaking tasks. And, greater fuel economy and cheaper futile aside, there's hardly an aural indication of what's beneath the bonnet, so thorough is the noise suppression in both vehicles.

Resist the urge toward big wheels unless you're prepared to pay the extra six grand for the full outfit of adaptive dynamics. Activate the swirly road button -- our second car had it, the first one didn't -- and this becomes a very different dynamic proposition, more composed and faster through twisty bits, bearing comparison with some of the more capable mid-sized cars.

An entertaining turn at a civilized but not undemanding offroad course showed the Evoque to be massively more capable in this regard than any of European rivals. Alright, this might be largely superfluous for the likely owners, but it's terribly reassuring. I mean you won't meet any conditions beyond you on the run between home and the long queue of upmarket SUVs that twice daily clog the streets around every private school. Perhaps more to the point, you won't look out of place. Quite the opposite in fact.

Verdict

So capable, so composed is the Evoque, that almost it's too easy to overlook its excellence. That rare thing, a desirable and entirely functional object that until the rest of the world catches up, has to be seen as being in a class of its own. Get into one before it becomes the most common prestige car on the road.