Discussion in the car park today............

Pulled into the multi-storey that I use in Glasgow City Centre and parked adjacent to an X1 on one side and a Q3 on the other. When I came back I found the X1 driver looking into my car...................... his comment to me was " I ordered an Evoque before production started and changed my mind because of the long lead in time and I had doubts about reliability. Every time I see an Evoque I think I wish I had stayed the wait, since taking delivery of this heap of S**T X1 it has been in and out of the dealership with rattles, it's had two recoveries on the back of a flat bed and now..................... I'm waiting again for a recovery because again it will not start. Then I think to myself how often would i have been waiting for the recovery truck if I brought the Evoque, but I'm so glad I didn't buy one of those (pointing at the Q3)" I asked why he was glad and the reply was " well it looks like................. well nothing, it's just a boring blob but I'll bet you it has never broken down!" I happily pointed out that bar noisy door seals my SD4 has been totally reliable, it has had a few rattles that come and go but otherwise I'm delighted with it. What fuel consumption do you get with the X1?"
All he said to me was "not impressed, might have all BMW's clever tech (and that is what causes all the problems) but I've never seen more than 28mpg and it's a diesel and to make it worse, last winter it's 4WD system failed when I needed it!" So not all X1owners are happy bunnies

1 up to the Evoque then.

Good to hear stories like that. I hate BMW with a passion, so many folk think they actually are the Ultimate Driving Machine they just don't look any further than the end of their nose!

Being a company car driver (and for a German company) swanning around in a BMW, Audi or Merc is pretty much expected and standard fare for our management team. My regular drive up until now was an Audi A6, but when looking for its replacement I test drove a 320ED, new A6 and C220.

I thought the Merc was very competent and actually more frugal with the diesel than the BMW. Problem was, well it's a bit "carpet slippers".

The A6 was just another Audi. Nothing wrong with that as they are also very competent motors, but... Yawn...

The 320ED well, yet again very competent, but not as good as the Merc (IMHO) and certainly not as nice as the A6. But the one thing that really put me off, was everyone calling me "just another BMW wan&&r driver" as I went by.

My Evie caused a bit of a stir in our car park when it arrived, I can assure you. And after 4 and a half months is still the only one there. I get loads of our corporate "hacks" with their "standard" MercAudiBMW wot sits asking me about it, looking over it and asking for a look see inside, before finally walking off saying something like, "yeah but my Audi sits in a lower tax band", or, "but my Beemer gets more MPG".

This is all true of course, but as an ex "hack" driver I also happen to know that I get far more enjoyment out of my Evie every day. Even my daily commute to work, just makes me smile.

And I often wonder when they walk away with their throwaway comments hanging in the air, when was the last time any of those Audi, Merc or BMW drivers ever, had anyone asking about their car?

That makes me smile too...

You are in the wrong job Fuji, maybe LR should recruit you for their Evoque ads.................. Nick are you reading this?

I'm free for voice overs...

(09-10-2012 09:07pm)FujiSan Wrote:  This is all true of course, but as an ex "hack" driver I also happen to know that I get far more enjoyment out of my Evie every day. Even my daily commute to work, just makes me smile.

And I often wonder when they walk away with their throwaway comments hanging in the air, when was the last time any of those Audi, Merc or BMW drivers ever, had anyone asking about their car?

That makes me smile too...

20 + years ago would be when those German cars turned heads & got comments of admiration etc but they are now so common & seem to blend in with all the other stuff even the Korean cars that most folk probably don't really take much notice.

Funny though how the German company you work for uses cars from their own country along with most countries except of course ours!

Would your employers consider a new Mini to be a BMW or a British car? They probably also think that Hondas for the European market are imported from Japan when in fact all Civics and CRV's are built in Swindon and most Toyotas for Europe are built in the UK too........... my last German employer would only allow the managers to have VW's - Passats until under their management system they made a declaration that all company cars had to be Hybrids - all those entitled to a company car got a Prius except the MD's who got Lexus's. They couldn't figure out why the corporate fuel consumption INCREASED until one of the office girls pointed that previously they had run a fleet made up completely of diesel cars and now they were running petrol powered cars and not getting quite the eco effect they really wanted!

Ah but, if I drive a UK built Honda, Nissan, Toyota, Land Rover, Jaguar etc. I am still supporting the UK motor manufacturing industry, just as well as supporting my company's products which are installed in them.

The other corporate "sheep" can't be blamed for the company car tax system literally driving them into the arms of manufacturers who make models specifically for this market segment. The 320ED, A6 and C220 simply would not exist were it not for CO2 legislation. Arguably, neither would the Evoque come to that. And it's not just our car park, a lot of company's crap parks ( sorry, Freudian slip there...) are full of the same, boring Euro boxes.

At least with the Evoque, LR had the balls to do something a little bit different and, I dont mind saying, I had the conviction to get one, despite never having had any exposure to LR vehicles previously, and certainly despite the hefty company car tax penalty over any of the other three candidates.

Still smiling...

It won't affect my Evoque order one bit, but we have an X3 20D MSport Auto here for the weekend as a demo for my wife's next car.

I must say, it's in a different class completely to the X1, Audi Q3 & Q5 but for me doesn't quite match the Evoque. It's also a vast improvement over the original X3.

Not bad at all though, most impressed I've been with a standard (not expensive optional) interior, drive and gearbox since I was testing the Evoques.

All that said, still utterly horrified at the £2k price tag on professional navigation - especially as its screen (like the pure evoque) comes as standard now.