Range Rover. When you say the term, people understand that
there is a certain air of quality about the name. They are known as being
superb off-road vehicles, luxurious people-carriers, and as having an unmatched
fit and finish.
That’s why we were skeptical at first when Land Rover said
they were going to build a smaller, less expensive vehicle. Would it be as
luxurious? Would it have the same off-road ability? Would it be as refined as
the Range Rover Sport or Full-Size vehicles?
When the Range Rover Evoque showed up to our store a few
weeks ago, the styling was the first thing to stand out. Usually when a
manufacturer makes a concept car, they scrap 99% of the styling points and
leave behind some diluted version of the original copy. Not with the Evoque
which looks identical to the stunning LRX concept from several years ago.
Next is the interior, other than the new shifter-dial that
harks to Land Rover’s partnership with Jaguar, the interior is so nice that it
is completely indistinguishable from the Range Rover Sport, its bigger brother.
Then you lean back and notice the panoramic roof, and your jaw drops. Other car
companies have panoramic roofs, but they are usually broken in the middle by
some support column, or are very narrow. This car has the roof equivalent of a
glass bottomed boat.
The drive is phenomenal, with a low center of gravity, and a
plenty-powerful 4-cylinder turbocharged engine that makes 240 horsepower, which
is plenty to give this car a great pickup. The suspension system is crisp, and
the Dynamic version I was in used an electro-magnetically controlled system
that allows the suspension to adjust its firmness thousands of times every
second as road surface changes. That’s the same type of suspension that’s used in
the Ferrari 458 Italia supercar.
Off-road is exceptional, with the Evoque offering the same
adjustable setup as on the sport, allowing you to adjust for mud ruts, sand,
rock crawl, and snow, or just leave it in normal and the system will figure
some of those situations out on their own.
For fun, we took the Evoque on our off-road course, which
was designed and built years before anyone knew that Land Rover was going to
build such a small vehicle. It handled the enormous dips and angles like a true
Range Rover. That video can be witnessed here:
http://youtu.be/6v84TeYc4sw .
I spent the majority of my time after driving the Evoque
removing my foot from my mouth as I could not have been more wrong about this
vehicle. It is in every way, a true Range Rover, displaying prowess off-road,
on-road, and everywhere in between. It is equal parts luxury and capability.
Motor Trend must have thought so too, as it is now the 2012
Motor Trend SUV of the Year.
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