CAR magazine review

Car magazine has has issued a road test report today in the September magazine carrying out a "big test" against the Golf GTi, Audi TT,Mini Countryman and the Peugeot RCZ.
The end result was that the Golf GTi was rated the better car and the Evoque the more desirable one! The roport being very biased toward road use comparison, which I suppose is fair as that is where the Evoque will mainly be used.

The one thing not mentioned in comparison, was that the GTi could not get out of a ploughed field where as well as being a great driving car, the Evoque could ford streams, climb mountains and drive in winter!

The Evoques engine (SD4 tested) was deemed as underpowered against its more modern stablemates such as the new BMW diesel but the X1 was slated as being boring.

The testers were not over impressed with the magneride suspension stating it wallowed when going over undulations and was uncomfortable in town - why they did not change the settings I don't know, thats what they are there for.
Anyway - quite a good review
I do have a pdf which failed to attach

Probably the most negative review so far then??

They seemed to want to compare it to a hot hatch but did not know how to.
My impression is that they loved the Evoque but did not know what box to put it in.
My advice to them - put it in a box called Evoque and then start comparing cars against it rather than the other way round.

Do we all need to cancel our orders because the Fatherland won again?

The fatherland only won on the engine front. The X1 was slagged off otherwise as being cheap inside

I agree the Evoque resists pigeon-holeing so that their choice of cars to compare was strange. None of the others would have got me up my driveway last winter. I hope and believe the Evoque would have done.

A trip to the GTI configurator will show you the price difference is less than they say; true, the GTI is faster than the SD4 but I hope the Si4 will close the gap a bit.

Interesting comments on Magnaride, they say it's worth trying 18 and 19 inch wheels with and without before deciding, seem to suggest it's good for 20 inch wheels. Fortunately, since I wanted petrol, I have to have dynamic so will get Magnaride so any decision is out of my hands.

What Car? has a group test that will be published on 25th Aug - they are the only other mag I have read that was luke warm about the Evoque so the group test might be interesting reading as they will certainly test it against a better group of competitors

Just wondering as AutoCar and AutoExpress got all the exclusive first drives on the Evoque whether it’s a bit of sour grapes on Car Magazines part.

Last month could probably be described as the Evoques “official” magazine launch month and the only mention in the whole of Car Magazine was the last sentence of the Audi Q3 review (in which they thought the TTS engine version of the Q3 was the best & it’s not even available yet). They concluded that you should buy the entry level Q3 or wait until next month when the magazine would review the Evoque. I’ve had a quick skip though the article and can’t see any mention of the Q3 and how it compares to the Evoque. I bet you the german mag AutoBild had more info on the car last month.

I’ll take some time to read the article properly but as with all the comparisons regarding price I’m sure if you specced a Golf GTI up like an Evoque Prestige the price gap would not be anything like £12k ..... and you would still have the same interior as the rep special £12k car.... no thanks.
Why is it OK for German marques to charge loads for options but not OK for JLR to have models with those options already installed. Certainly from a depreciation point of view the JLR approach is the better one for customers.

Having had and still got a GTi's the latest mk6 is a hard car to beat full stop.

It more or less can do most things a 'car' should be able too, and is a great all rounder, and so easy to live with.

The prices are still creeping up, the mk6 must have had a least 4 prices rises from VW on list since it was launched.

Only reason I am swapping for the Evoque is the 4wd towing capacity of the Evoque, and the fact you can get a 3 door, with some style, just like the GTi.

Hopefully a 240ish BHP diesel will be available in the near future?

Dave

The reason not to buy the Golf is that they are everywhere. RREs will not be uncommon but you will never see a bunch parked together, aside possibly from Tesco in Cirencester.