Speedmonkey: Range Rover Evoque press car

13 Jul 2013

Range Rover Evoque press car - mid-loan thoughts

I've run a Range Rover Evoque 2.2 SD4 Prestige Coupé for a few days now. The Evoque costs £40,995, has 190bhp, does 0-60mph in 8 seconds and should return 44mpg.

The Evoque parked next to our Discovery

The Evoque Coupé is a good looking car although the 19 inch wheels look slightly too huge to my eye. The interior is pretty fantastic with a leather trimmed dash top, seats that are comfortable and supportive, lots of room in the rear and a great driving position.

The Evoque has several suspension settings. So far I've only used standard and dynamic. Standard is fine whilst cruising - the ride is soft without being wallowing. Set to dynamic for a harder ride with more precise cornering but it feels pretty harsh and follows the undulations of the road rather too precisely.

The 2.2 litre diesel has good power and torque and is pretty quiet. The only let down is the 6-speed automatic gearbox which is a little recalcitrant in Drive but hangs on to the gears all the way to the red line in Sport - even if you back off the power. This necessitates the use of the flappy paddles pretty frequently, at which point the whole thing works fine.

Oh, and like most it autos it pulls away in 2nd gear which is too slow when pulling out of a junction. You need to manually drop it down to 1st gear.

The touch screen is a little frustrating. You can end up in a muddle as to where you are with the various menus and I can only get it to connect with the iPod functionality on my iPhone by using the voice activated controls. The dual zone TV is theoretically brilliant but neither my wife nor son has wanted to watch one of the limited range of channels whilst on the move.

Overall the Evoque seems to be a well conceived SUV that does what it should with ease. It's enjoyable to drive and is practical and stylish. Full review in a week or so.