Now go and test it properly
While you might technically have taken it off road I don't see enough mud on it to indicate you took it anywhere more challenging than where I'd happily take a metro.
By the time the Range Rover Evoque is launched in September, Land Rover expects to be producing one every seven seconds from its Halewood factory, which should leave you in no doubt as to how important Range Rover views its first step into true mainstream motoring. Range Rover Evoque Si4 Land Rover's Range Rover Evoque Si4: …
...seeing as about as far off road 90% of these will get is Waitrose car park, and possibly in a field/farm track, much like 90% of all off roaders.
I'd rather have a Subaru Legacy meself, if I needed mild off road ability, though - a bit less bling and showy, but then that's personal taste...
Steven R
This does not pass my standard 4x4 test.
It will not get through the dirt track to my country house. It is nothing challenging by the way. Old discovery, trucks, VW Caravelle or even the old (1991) Clio can make it in dry weather.
All of them however have higher ground clearance than this joke. What a Fail.
Seems to be built like a tank, so it's multi-purpose. Drive the kids the 400 yards to school and then go and do a bit of ram-raiding down the nearest retail park - should make mincemeat of the steel shutters on PC World.
Why do they show pictures of it off-road? Seriously, what proportion of these will ever go into a field, never mind climbing muddy hillsides. Surely their only purpose is clogging the roads in Chelsington.
"The Evoque Coupé destroys the Freelander for looks: the squat, muscular front end, paired with aggressively rising shoulder and the raking windscreen combine to produce a sharp, purposeful front-end that encourages other drivers to move over as you approach." That's pushing it a bit. I thought it looks a bit bland and kind of wannabe.
If you want some genuine classy looks instead, check out ebay's current offerings of a Merc 450 SEL 6.9 and a CB400F Cafe. Not that I'm showing my age or anything... bah humbug
a sharp, purposeful front-end that encourages other drivers to move over as you approach.
What the fuck sort of comment is that? These wretched shit-heaps are the pinnacle of inconsiderate driving, forever hogging the middle lane, on the phone to Hugo, making others drive-of road to pass them in narrow lanes - and with a centre of mass aimed straight at my head. Driving is not supposed to be a fucking Arms Race
Erm, did that sound a bit angry ?
James May tested one of these on Top Gear a while back and it seems like a capable offroader too, although in the Top Gear tradition they did eventually find an obstacle it couldn't clear...
To be honest I don't see the point of a coupe/4 door mid sized 4x4 that sort of fits between the Freelander 2 and Range Rover where I believe the capable and well equipped Discovery 3 seems to fit
Perhaps Land Rover are tageting the shrunken Range Rover at those with equally shrunken budgets, i.e. too posh for a Freelander 2 and too poor for a Range Rover Sport/Vogue, but a little too individual to drive a Discovery 3.
Is that by design, or did all of the idiot lamps go on in praise of Lucas, Prince of Darkness?
Ditto on the off road, ive taken a Humber Sceptre across more challenging terrain that that, after 2 solid days rain, and I didnt get set once. The same cannot be said of bmw drivers, whose concept of off road driving is:-
1. Get in, start up.
2. Select reverse
3. Floor it
4. Wonder why everyone is laughing and why your 5 series is up to its back axle in mud.
To be fair, I did sort of cheat, Im a farmers daughter, so I learned all the tricks long ago.
Not really a fan of this car, its pretty but thats what you want if you're a lil rich girl at a finishing school - its no use whatsoever when its the middle of february and you are elbow deep up a sheeps jacksie at 3am.
Considering that the only feasible excuse for buying one of these is to tow something, where are the Kerb Weight and Towing tests?
Can it pull a horse box for example? And are there any decent Diesel engines - other than the 2WD one you mentioned?
I'm of a mixed feeling about this vehicle... I feel extremely patriotic about LandRover - they are incredible 4x4 vehicles - probably the best in the world, but it makes me mad when they are driven by inconsiderate twats who only use them for driving Quentin and Chardonnay to school, where they block the road and have never so much as driven though a puddle during their existence.
A 3 door Range Rover? For fucks sake....
"A 3 door Range Rover? For fucks sake...."
er. A return to it's roots - a couple of pics of 2 door Mk1 Range Rovers here -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Range_Rover_Classic
and on the Land Rover through to the present day - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_Rover_Series
This new thing? Hideous. Much like the Mini Countryman (-o-r=Ronseal)
This thing looks a throwback to the worst of American SUV's,
Seriously lacking in any kind of side or rear visibility right off the bat and from there it quickly goes down hill.
This is styling that went out over five years ago with the Chrysler Magnum and the like (super high doors and tiny squnched up windows), looks like a drug lab on wheels!
The Chrysler Magnum (or 300c as its called in Blighty) is a fantastic looking car. It may not be the best handling car in the world and it may be a big ol' lump, but, styled right, it looks completely badass. And the noise from the Hemi V8 version... wow!
I have to say I like the high/rising shoulder line and squished windows look, and its STILL very much in vogue... the latest Renault Megane (especially the lowered GT version which emphasises the high/rishing shoulder line) and the new VW Scirocco which, again styled right, is a beautiful machine.
4x4 petrol and a 2wd diesel. That's a big fail before they start.
Either they'll rush out a derv 4x4 or this'll flop rapidly.
Oh and BTW when you spend £40k and it'll only do 30mpg and VED is £400 don't expect much of a trade in price in three years when petrol is £2 a litre.
And I actually quite like the look of the car.
Having a 2.0 FWD diesel myself I can vouch for the machine's ability to want to spin the wheels at any opportunity due to the high torque on offer at very low revs. I also consider buyers of petrol 4x4s (not AWDs) to be total twunts. The very nature of 4x4 calls for high torque at low revs i.e. diesel power.
produce a sharp, purposeful front-end that encourages other drivers to move over as you approach.
Or maybe not because they'll assume you're a dick who thinks like this and not move just to piss you off.
Maybe other drivers wouldn't need to be intimidated out of the way if tools in SUVs realized that indicators and highway code are there for a reason.
Too right. "Oh there's a little bit of dirt on the wheels and grass underfoot, it must be offroad..." My arse.
As an ex-hang-glider pilot, I took my old Montego and Cavalier up and down things it really wasn't designed for. Only got stuck once, and that was me being a prat and not only picking a bit of slippery uphill grass but then trying to turn whilst reversing down. Have once or twice got lifts on some *proper* offroad to take-off, and those came with a warning from the organisers that if you didn't have a low-range box, limited-slip diff and proper shocks, don't even think about it.
does anyone else think it looks like a poor mans clone of a Bowler Nemesis (which is itself a rebuilt Range Rover). You can imagine the clueless upper management at Range Rover seeing the Nemesis when it came out thinking 'phwoarrr, why didn't we think of that. I know lets copy it and say we thought of it first - inevitably, they got it wrong!
The styling seems a step into the mainstream industry design. Land Rovers are about being chunky, robust, flexible and getting you to your destination irrespective of the environment. They are supposed to have a bullet proof reputation. This one looks like it has a skirt with matching hand bag accessories. Bring back a retro version than can be dismantled in the field with the included tool kit.
I'm obviously a skinflint, coz a car that can be specced up to the best part of forty-five grand doesn't sound very mainstream to me. also the involvement of Victoria Beckham should be enough to deter any right-minded person from buying this particular variety of wankpanzer.
"clogging the roads in Chelsington"
How exactly - they may be taller than the average car but I bet they are not significantly longer than alternatives - i.e. people carriers, estate cars or even a mid/large saloon.
So realistically they take up no more room - it's the number of cars not their size that really matters unless everyone wants to drive a Smart car?
Ugly looking thing but that seems policy for Land Rover now with Freelander, Discovery and Range Rover getting progressively uglier with each change of design.
The ground clearance could not be much worse than a Freelander, I had one at work and regularly grounded it on rough tracks. I got used to hearing bangs underneath.
And the Monday before, seems like they were give the hacks their road tests. Which given how they were driving them, makes me think they need to redo their driving tests!
However the 3 door cars look great, if these get X5/X3 etc off the road and replaced with something built here in the UK it can only be a good thing.