Sold my Pure

I'm probably an idiot but I just sold my Pure.

The main reason is that I bought it as a cancelled order from someone else and it's not the actual spec I wanted.
I was beginning to get jittery over it as I kept seeing cancelled orders popping up for sale and the likes of swimfanuk not selling his car straight away. That and talk of LR ramping up production for the UK in jan. If I took too much of a hit on depreciation on my pure, I wouldn't have enough money to buy the dynamic, which is the one I wanted. Seeing as I kept my last car for 7 years, I'd rather spend the extra and get the exact car I wanted as it's a lot of money anyway. The pure was £36k but I wanted xenons, rear camera, front fogs, bigger alloys etc and so best sell the pure and wait for my dynamic like everyone else.
I had the car for just over a month and ended up loosing £180 on it, so I'm happy with that(view it as the longest test drive I've ever had). I listed it as list price as wasn't looking to make money out of it, just pass it on. I guess if I held out I might of been able to sell it for more as had quite a few calls after I sold it.
Anyway, I now have a bit of time to really think about this car as as much as I love it, it's not perfect.

Pro's
1. I love the drive. The car hugs the road with little body roll and the steering is very responsive, gives great feedback. The steering is well weighted too IMO,light for town driving and gets progressively heavier as your speed increases. I found the seats to be very comfortable too.
2. Looks. No other car compares in my view. Looks absolutely stunning.
3. Value for money....initially I thought this car was expensive, as I was comparing it to my D4 and audi. However, I got my D4 in the ressession before the vat rise, and my Audi 7 years ago....today the D4 is £10,000 more expensive and the Audi just as expensive for the spec. Looking at other cars with the same spec, and you can't really beat the value of the pure

Con's
1. Fuel economy. With my brief time in the car I averaged 28mpg. My runs to and from the station 4 miles each way I got 22/3mpg. Swapping to my D4 I got 25mpg. So for a car that weighs 700kg less, it was returning worse mpg. On a longer run including motorway I did manage to get it up to 37mpg, but thought it really should do better.
2. Gearbox...I like driving auto's but wasn't totally sold on this one. It maybe a learning auto as some people have said, but I all too often found myself having to change gear using the paddles as the auto wouldn't do it itself. For example if I accelerated up to cruising speed, be it 30 or 40, sometimes the auto would hang on the lower gear with the revs above 2000 and I would have to change up manually to drop the revs for cruising. I'm only comparing this to my Audi, but that never seemed to get confused and would always try and keep the car running in it's most economical state at cruising speed.
3. Rear visibility. the compromise for the looks, but my car hadn't got a rear camera, which I would of liked and so was playing on my mind. I was getting used to the sonic sensors with display, but with the high window line, I couldn't see the curb either for parallel parking. The car I had had power folding mirrors as an option, and I thought that may include dipping when in reverse, but no, to get dipping mirrors you had to pay another £900 as it was only part of the memory seat pack...seems a bit crazy that. The high window line also meant my kids couldn't see out the back windows
4. Space. This is not a fault of the car, but the idea behind us getting this car was that we could swap it with the disco and use it as the family wagon for longer journeys to help ease fuel costs etc, but we found we really missed the space of the disco(we're a bit spoilt there). We found boot space quickly got used up and we ended up putting stuff between the kids in the back seat. So the plan on downsizing won't wash as when we get rid of the disco, my wife wants a bigger car than the evoque. That make the evoque purely a car for me, which then becomes an expensive option, fun as it may be for me.

So now I'm car less with a few choices to make.

1. Look at a slightly bigger car that can swap with my wife as the family wagon. It would have to be more economical than the disco for longer journeys and also have to be in a lower VED band. Prob look at BMW X3 as most economical, only cost £130 to tax each year and has bigger boot. This way when disco is due to go, can look at evoque again...hopefully will have 8 speed shifter in it by then too
2. Buy a small car only for me as a little runaround only such as a mini or Audi a1.
3. Forget it all and just get my dynamic.

You're reasoning is valid and makes perfect sense.

My kids are 12 and 14 so don't have an issue with the high window line - the 14 yr old is 6ft 1" and he said the trip to Belgium recently was very comfortable and mine's a Coupe.

Space is an issue for the longer runs for us too but roof rails, cross bars, roof basket and two large waterproof ARB bags solved this comfortably. At the other end the bags remained off and the car fitted in underground carparks no probs.

I've got the Si4 so economy wasn't a main priority - given my commute is only 16 miles a day. I'm averaging 23/24 mpg for the urban commute which is what LR say's it should be and my D4 was about the same. But the Si4 engine in the Evoque is very nice indeed and in Sport mode I'm not having any issues with the auto changes. I would say in normal drive mode the auto box does exhibit moments when I would prefer it to change and it needs extra encouragement but then so have most auto's I've driven.

I have the dipping mirrors but they are turned off - I park my car next to my wife's Mini in the garage and it is a relatively tight squeeze to ensure enough door opening space so prefer not to have them dipped. I've not needed to parallel park as yet so it will be interesting when the time comes although I could try the auto park feature.

It's early day's but so far I'm happy with the downsizing from the D4 in favour of a more enjoyable driving experience. I have opted for a full-house spec and it does make ownership more enjoyable; I'm wanting to keep this one longer than my previous cars so decided to go for all the toys to keep me happy.

It does attract a lot of attention too - parked comfortably away from others at Sainsbury's this morning only to return to find two Gents and an elderly Lady admiring it; they had waited for me to return to discuss the car and voice how wonderful they found the design!

A BMW X3 will be more practical and economical and they have a better range of engines - superb engines - but overall I'm sold on the Evoque for its character and design and have made it work for me in terms of space etc.
My wife's Mini has character, my BMW's had fantastic, efficient engineering. My D4 was a brilliant large Family car but the Evoque does seem to have the character the Mini has which makes it more endearing to me

dynamic!

A good read this thread. I agree almost entirely agree with the first two posts. For me a better engine with more grunt and economy and with a quicker thinking gearbox would make this a truly outstanding car.

Like lots on here I'm a bit of a car nut and I'm always looking for the next one. Even now as an Evoque owner, I'm no different. However, when I've trawled through the auto trader the thing that quickly becomes obvious to me is that the 4x4 competition looks frumpy, old fashioned and simply last century compared to th RRE.

Agree with ytshome - thanks for explaining your sale Craig as it might be a tad disconcerting for some who haven't even received their vehicles. The trick when buying the Evoque is buying it for the right reasons (what it can do,the whole package etc) not just wanting the latest cool "car of the year".
People who have chosen incorrectly might sell early - even the fuel economy might have them returning their vehicle despite it's strengths.
When I was hurtling along in snowy conditions today with LandRover confidence I knew I had made the right choice.
Craig - you also did really well pretty much breaking even.

So I thought I'd write down my continued car saga after foolishly selling my pure in panic that it would loose too much value that I wouldn't be able to afford my dynamic.

Firstly, form my earlier post I did look at a bigger car. I drove the Q5 and an X3. I must say I liked the Q5 but discounted that as it's being face lifted in October, and I think they'll upgrade the engines at the same time. It's the only car that hasn't had the new 3ltr TDI. At the mo it has higher emissions than it's big brother the Q7.
Then the X3. I must say I've never been a BMW fan but the car was impressive. They only had the 30d msport but it still returned 34mpg on my test drive around farnborough which is more than I ever got with the SD4 pure. The 20d is meant to be more efficient and so high 30's around town and mid to high 40's on the motorway I can believe. The 8 speed auto was fantastic too, and the sooner LR get it in the evoque, the better. Downside is that I still don't really love the looks
Small car. This is what I've ended up buying at the mo. I got the A1 1.4tsi 185ps stronic. It's fully loaded, xenons, sunroof, sat nav, 18 in alloys, styling pack, tracker etc, 9 months old and cost me £9k under list price in a private sale. Great for me, not so great for the seller, so anyone thinking the a1 holds it's value we'll, think again, well at least the top specs don't. Think the guy undersold a little bit though, it's even got the 5yrs service package, which he didn't even realise.
Anyway, I'm enjoying it anyway, especially the performance, though the ride is a little too firm. However as it goes to the station and back it works fine.
So now I'm left with the tough decision of keeping the a1 and cancelling my evoque. Some of my reasoning still stand, such as we didn't think it was quite big enough for the family car, but it's too pricey just for me, and the fuel economy on the Sd4 didn't impress me that much. The a1 does the job and will save me £25k
All great reasons, but as my wife says, I'm constantly on this forum and constantly on the evoque configurator. The RRE is such a stunning car, I'm still in love with it, flaws be damned.
Hence I've still got my dynamic order in and will keep it there till the last possible minute to make my decision...all the logic says cancel, but my heart says keep it

Sorry for the long post, hope it doesn't bore you all. It's like a blog for me, getting my thoughts down

Your situation is similar to those of us on here still waiting for our car, ordered to our spec, then along comes something similar to our order and is ready to drive. But it is not the right car and we wobble.

Do we buy that one and regret or wait for the one we ordered, the best advise given on here is WAIT for it.

You are lucky to have owned one, and it seems you are still wanting one, so hang on till the build notification, then commit to the car you really wanted.

+1.

Hi Craig,you mentioned the kids could not see out of the windows,you have got me worried now as I have never taken the kids to the dealership to sit in the cars.My kids are 7 and 10 and we are getting a 5 door.How old are your kids and was your car a coupe or 5 door?
Thanks!

(07-02-2012 09:50am)broady43 Wrote:  Hi Craig,you mentioned the kids could not see out of the windows,you have got me worried now as I have never taken the kids to the dealership to sit in the cars.My kids are 7 and 10 and we are getting a 5 door.How old are your kids and was your car a coupe or 5 door?
Thanks!

My kids are 5 and 2 so quite a bit smaller than yours. Had a 5 door. The idea of getting my kids strapped in the coupe is frightning, it's tough enough in the A1.