I have recently been driving a car that will definitely be a gamechanger for a premium brand, writes Brian Byrne.
That brand is Range Rover, best known for its large cars with large engines, and large road tax bills.
But with the new Evoque, Range Rover has entered a whole new market arena, of compact SUVs, crossovers and more frugal, urban-focussed cars.
It is a cat amongst the prestige pigeons, if you wish. Not just the Audi Q5s, Volvo XC60s, BMW X1/X3s now have a new and very serious competitor, but so also do saloons and wagons in all the premium brands. Evoque is already garnering attention from drivers in those kind of cars.
When I first saw the concept at a limited studio viewing a few years ago, I was one of a number of journalists who were very taken with what was a very brave shape. One that none of us believed would ever be rolled out in production without being made more conservative.
Well, they must have lost the word conservative from the Range Rover design vocabulary, because the car I have been driving this week has hardly changed at all from that first concept. Except, of course, in the finish, which is much better.
The front end is right out of 2020, both sleek and rakish, and yet absolutely Range Rover in current family look.
The slope-back roofline is exaggerated by a rising shoulder, and it looks both different and very appealing. Big wheel arches shade chunky alloys. From the back you see strong lines, squares and rectangles. Overhangs front and rear are minimal, which makes the car very maneuverable in both tight traffic and offroad gullies.
Inside is all Range Rover luxury, and a streamlined for this decade version of the leather, chrome and hi-tech look. All metal trims are real metal, all leather is hand-crafted.
The general controls and instrumentation layout has been slimmed down from the older and larger Range Rovers, and there’s nothing here to intimidate anybody new to the brand, especially the women who are being targeted as part of the new owner profile. Specifically, the Terrain Response controls for going offroad are intuitive to understand and operate.
The analogue dials have details in a mother-of-pearl style that really looks smart. Nice to see the graphics are bigger too. And the touch-screen to manage the radio, phone and nav systems is top-notch, designed in a fuss-free manner where clarity and ease of use is the underlying principle.
Space inside is more than you’d expect, given that this is in the compact SUV segment. For rear seat passengers there’s good head and elbow room. Knee room is adequate unless there are seriously long-legged people up front.
The whole ambience oozes a prestige ethos. Lots of padding and stitching. High end fittings and style. Puddle and ambient lighting. A lounge space on wheels.
But a lounge space that can be experienced in the country wild as easily as in the urban jungle. The Evoques on sale since a week or so ago are all 4WD with the best of modern Range Rover technology. A FWD version coming towards the end of the year is aimed at those who won’t ever need to venture beyond the road verge.
For Ireland the key power options are 2.2 diesels, available in both 150hp and 190hp variants and ranging C-E in Irish tax bands, depending on whether the 6-speed manual or an auto box is chosen. The FWD version will be R-rated. A 2.0 petrol engine humms out 199hp and a large tax bill.
If I wasn’t already impressed by the design and finish, taking the car out on the road would have rectified that. As smooth and refined a runner on the highway or in traffic as you could ask for. A very decent operator on grass and mud, and through pretty deep water, even without a lower range of gears.
OK, I have always had a grá for Land Rover vehicles, and I have driven them from glaciers in Iceland through paddy fields in Laos to mountain deserts in Morocco and the high Andes in both Bolivia and Argentina. So the Evoque would have had to be a real bummer to make me not like it. It isn’t anything like that.
Quite the opposite, I just loved driving this car. Apart from the experience of being in a truly luxury compact car, the ride and handling is a rare mixture of comfort and precision, the steering and gearshifting helping to make the Evoque a joy to play with. Again and again. And then again.
There was possible danger that the Evoque was going to be more of a style machine than a very competent high-end car. It is to the credit of all those at Jaguar Land Rover that they didn’t let this happen.
Bottom line, the Evoque IS a gamechanger in my opinion. I look forward to watching its progress.
Prices from under €41,000 to a bit above €60,000.
