20" Wheels and Ride

Just back from Evoque Unleashed at Gleneagles. The cars were Prestiges or Dynamic 's and all were on 20" wheels. I drove a Coupe SD4 Dynamic for the afternoon and the ride on 20" wheels is amazing, whether or not you used the Dynamic setting on the TR. Very smooth on the back roads no harshness transmitted into the cabin - just very impressive. WackyJim was driving a 5 door Prestige also on 20" style 8 wheels and that car AFAIK had no Magneride. I didn't hear any complaints about the ride on non Magneride cars.

Things that impressed -
The amount of room inside the Coupe rear seating area - access was also no worse than any other 3 door coupe.
The size of the boot - not far off the size of the RRS's
The quality of the finish inside and out
The amazing effect that closing the panoramic roof blind had - so gald I specced it as I think it will be an essential for all Coupes. The car I drove had the Pursuit Interior which helped lighten things but with the roof closed it was claustrophic in the back with the black headlining
The rear view is much better than the press makes out - the glass isn't huge but the rear view is OK. Over the shoulder is more worrying though.
It was dead easy to get the mpg to show 40mpg in gentle driving.
Dynamic setting on the TR really works of twisty fast roads, the car stayed lovely and flat, steering was noticably sharper too.

Less good
The SD4 is a bit vocal under any form of acceleration
Agility Red on the Plus pack of the Dynamic is a bit garish but the seats are amazingly comfortable for a 5'7" fat me!
The car I drove had an annoying quiet but obvious rattle somewhere in the rear!
Style 8 wheels are very bling!


Well worth the drive to Gleneagles - the groups this afternoon were of 10 people and there were enough cars that there was no sharing. While the Evoque is no FFRR it is a very very impressive package and JLR have judged the ride and performance very well. This car deserves to sell by the zillion and the hype is true - it rewrites the small SUV rule book and anybody considering an X1/X3, Q3/Q5 must need their head looked at because the Evoque is 1000 times more desirable than any of them. Just hope that the quality of the production cars matches those that we drove today

can u give more detail of the 'vocal' sd4 - could this be turned into a good positive by way of an exhaust tweak?

(31-07-2011 09:08pm)FullFatTim Wrote:  Just back from Evoque Unleashed at Gleneagles. The cars were Prestiges or Dynamic 's and all were on 20" wheels. I drove a Coupe SD4 Dynamic for the afternoon and the ride on 20" wheels is amazing, whether or not you used the Dynamic setting on the TR. Very smooth on the back roads no harshness transmitted into the cabin - just very impressive. WackyJim was driving a 5 door Prestige also on 20" style 8 wheels and that car AFAIK had no Magneride. I didn't hear any complaints about the ride on non Magneride cars.

Things that impressed -
The amount of room inside the Coupe rear seating area - acces was also no worse than any other 3 door coupe.
The size of the boot - not far off the size of the RRS's
The quality of the finish inside and out
The amazing effect that closing the panoramic roof had - so gald I specced it as I think it will be an essential for all Coupes. The car I drove had the Pursuit Interior which helped lighten things but with the roof closed it was claustrophic in the back with the black headlining
The rear view is much better than the press makes out - the glass isn't huge but the rear view is OK. Over the shoulder is more worrying though.
It was dead easy to get the mpg to show 40mpg in gentle driving.
Dynamic really works of twisty fast roads, the car stayed lovely and flat, steering was noticably sharper too.

Less good
The SD4 is a bit vocal under any form of acceleration
Agility Red on the Plus pack of the Dynamic is a bit garish but the seats are amazing comfortable for a 5'7" fat me!

Well worth the drive to Gleneagles - the groups this afternoon were of 10 people and there were enough cars that there was no sharing.

Excellent news about the 20" wheels and about the rear window. One question since I am doing final spec this evening (no changes past tomorrow) is the window good enough to do the 'look over the shoulder when parallel parking' bit? I'm at the last yes/no decision and it relates to the park assist.

We all had a go with the park assist car and it is very clever, but only if you do lots of parallel parking on the street - I don't as where I live we have to use carparks which are all end in parking. Over the shoulder view isn't great but if you are speccing park assist then you also get the surround cams IIRC , which are great.

The vocal engine is induction noise not exhaust noise - I may be hyper critical having been used to TDv8's for the last 4 years though.......
Maybe if I had been driving a Freelander2 for the last few years I would have thought nothing of it. It's only vocal under load and at one stage I found myself doing a very rapid and illegal speed without really trying too hard or having to put my foot flat to the floor. Berlin if I were you I wouldn't worry about the over the shoulder view, it is not worse than any other smart modern coupe - it will enhance the resale value of your car when you come to replace it with another. I have some video that I will post of the park assist in action.

Thanks for all the info Tim, you've put my mind to rest on several of the options.

Can't wait until next weekend when I will be getting up close and personal with one. How do they allocate the cars? Do they just give you a set of keys when you arrive, or is it similar to the way they started the races at Le Mans, they line you up then you sprint to the car you want to drive

How do they allocate the cars?
I arrived plenty early enough that when I went to the reception and they asked what I had ordered (I was the only person there with a Coupe on order) and the staff apologised that there wasn't an SD4 Dynamic Plus Lux Coupe to drive but there was a Dynamic Plus Si4 to view. So I got nearly what I had ordered.


Do they just give you a set of keys when you arrive
No, you get the full 'Elf and safety briefing after looking at a car in the display room (the white Prestige Coupe in my photos) and a refreshment. Then you are sorted into little groups and taken out to the cars, which at Gleneagles we parked near to anyway when we arrived. At the cars they showed us the nearest spec to what we had on order, then another briefing on some of the controls, then off you go - 55miles of test route for us. Back for a nice light meal in the hotel and then off to test the Park assist and have a drive over the Terrapod, then home

The test route was unaccompanied - we had four Evoques - 1 Dynamic Coupe and 3 Prestige 5 Doors to drive around a route , no escorts or minders, drive it how you like just don't break the law or deviate from the easy to follow route

Some photos (not many ) here http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y217/jo...Unleashed/
Will add some video on the terrapod and park assist later

(31-07-2011 09:08pm)FullFatTim Wrote:  Just back from Evoque Unleashed at Gleneagles. The cars were Prestiges or Dynamic 's and all were on 20" wheels. I drove a Coupe SD4 Dynamic for the afternoon and the ride on 20" wheels is amazing, whether or not you used the Dynamic setting on the TR. Very smooth on the back roads no harshness transmitted into the cabin - just very impressive. WackyJim was driving a 5 door Prestige also on 20" style 8 wheels and that car AFAIK had no Magneride. I didn't hear any complaints about the ride on non Magneride cars.

Things that impressed -
The amount of room inside the Coupe rear seating area - access was also no worse than any other 3 door coupe.
The size of the boot - not far off the size of the RRS's
The quality of the finish inside and out
The amazing effect that closing the panoramic roof blind had - so gald I specced it as I think it will be an essential for all Coupes. The car I drove had the Pursuit Interior which helped lighten things but with the roof closed it was claustrophic in the back with the black headlining
The rear view is much better than the press makes out - the glass isn't huge but the rear view is OK. Over the shoulder is more worrying though.
It was dead easy to get the mpg to show 40mpg in gentle driving.
Dynamic setting on the TR really works of twisty fast roads, the car stayed lovely and flat, steering was noticably sharper too.

Less good
The SD4 is a bit vocal under any form of acceleration
Agility Red on the Plus pack of the Dynamic is a bit garish but the seats are amazingly comfortable for a 5'7" fat me!
The car I drove had an annoying quiet but obvious rattle somewhere in the rear!
Style 8 wheels are very bling!


Well worth the drive to Gleneagles - the groups this afternoon were of 10 people and there were enough cars that there was no sharing. While the Evoque is no FFRR it is a very very impressive package and JLR have judged the ride and performance very well. This car deserves to sell by the zillion and the hype is true - it rewrites the small SUV rule book and anybody considering an X1/X3, Q3/Q5 must need their head looked at because the Evoque is 1000 times more desirable than any of them. Just hope that the quality of the production cars matches those that we drove today

Thanks for real world report Tim, I have learnt more than all of the magazine stories to date. I hope the rattle was a one off, I hate rattles spoils the quality feel of a car for me.

Interesting that the group that WackyJim and I were with drove 2 x FFRR's, a Mini and a Jag XF between us and all were well pleased with what we had driven today. The lady with the XF told us that the interior of the Evoque was home from home for her after the XF!

Thanks for the report, any view on the Si4?

We didn't get to drive it, it was a Firenze Red with Black Contrast Roof. It was idling and at idle very quiet otherwise no I cannot comment on it