Evoque TD4 - Running Report

Hi all,

Here is my running report for the Evoque if anyone is interested! We bought the car back in March but still haven't got around to taking in photos yet, but thought I'd post anyway before the report gets too old.

I keep a log of all of my car writeups on my journal site http://www.motorcloud.net, so updates will be on here as well - along with running reports for my other cars.

Anyhoot... here is the Evoque!!

Well here it is! After a 6 month wait (which worked to our favour, so didn’t mind the delay at all), our Range Rover Evoque has arrived.

The Backstory
This is our family car, which will be replacing our Ford Fiesta (great cars by the way). When we bought the funky Fiesta three years ago we went for the better looking three-door model. However, as we now have a new addition, turning us from a 30-something couple into a 30-something family, the lack of rear doors was becoming a pain – clambering in and out whilst balancing your leg against the front seats (which roll back all the time!), all the while ensuring not to bash the car next to you in a car park made up our minds to change cars. Time for a 5-door and our search originally took us to the Ford Kuga. A very nice car and was the one most likely to take us – and our ever increase amounts of baby luggage - through the next chapter in our lives.

Looking elsewhere in the market, we discovered that Audi had announced the imminent launch of the Q3. A 4x4 that looked car-like and Audi’s cabin quality is always nice. The launch wasn’t due for a few more weeks, so I suggested we have a look at an alternate in the meantime - the new Evoque. “I don’t want a big farmers car” was the reply from my good lady. I convinced her that is was worth a look and as we arrived on the forecourt, it was pretty much a done-deal as soon as we arrived.

A white Evoque was sat proudly at the entrance and wowed Mrs. Paul O on sight. We went in and had a closer look - the interior was just as good as the exterior. It appeared nicely put together with lovely materials. The test drive was an enjoyable experience, with ride comfort being just what we were looking for. The amount of standard equipment was substantial, compared with the Kuga and the A3 – which to spec to a similar level became very close price-wise.

We put the idea on ice for a few weeks, to check out the Q3 when it arrived, but compared to the Evoque it looked very bland inside. As a result, a deposit was placed on the Evoque with a six-months wait.

The Dealership Experience.
This was something of a mixed bag. Our salesman was the head sales guy in the dealership and it wasn’t hard to see why. A through-and-through Land Rover enthusiast with a friendly, relaxed personality made him very easy to deal with. Unfortunately, he was highly in demand so call-backs were difficult and the chance of talking to him via an on-spec stop were nigh on impossible.


Collection day!

But not nearly as impossible as the receptionist, who would be better suited at a doctors surgery as getting past her was a task in itself. Underneath the well turned out exterior was a real snake tongue, with some of the comments including “I’ve got my own job to do” (I hadn’t asked her to do anything, merely asked if the cars outside were unlocked), and the phrase “As I’m sure you can appreciate…” was used on an occasion when I was asking why none of my calls had been returned in the past few days.

That particular conversation was around the fact my salesman was busy with another customer at the time. I asked when he would be free, which she didn’t know and followed up with “As I’m sure you can appreciate, you wouldn’t want to be interrupted if you were that customer”, (I didn’t ask for him to be interrupted) to which I reminded her that I was already a customer and if, after putting down ones deposit you were unable to actually talk to the salesman to complete the deal, it puts one in a difficult position. “Well, I don’t know about that, you’ll have to speak to him”. Errmmm…!! Was there anyone else I could speak to perhaps? “No” was the curt reply.

Anyhow, we carried on despite concerns around communication and it all came good in the end. Call backs are still a problem – the finance guy took several attempts to get him to ring us back, and we only got a call back from the servicing team around the packages that they offer after feedback in my post-purchase survey said I’ll be taking my business to Sytner if I don’t get a call that day. The Dealer Principle called a few hours after posting the survey to apologise and the calls from there where expectedly prompt.


Collection day 2!

But, that minor niggle – and moan over, let’s get onto the good stuff… the actual car itself!!!

The Evoque
We went for the Evoque Pure TD4 model. A 2WD is available (called “eD4”) – but we were buying a Land-Rover so made sense to get a 4WD model. Plus it means I can do some off-roading if I’m ever allowed (unlikely, but the 4WD should be a little safer in poor weather conditions).

The 4WD is an electronic gizmo, with settings for Road, off-road, Sand and snow (I think!). Off-road switches on hill-decent control as well. We received a free voucher when we collected the car to do the Land Rover off-road experience to really learn how the 4WD functions work, so are looking forward to that!

We were on the fringe of affordability with this car as our daily driver, so the optional spec is relatively sparse. Plus, as a Yorkshireman I couldn’t justify some of the outlandish prices for some of the fancier stuff. SatNav was about £1,500, so that was out in favour of my £100 TomTom, as was the automatic gearbox, which was only available in the higher powered engine – meaning an additional £3,500. But to be honest, the manual box is a peach and I’m not disappointed with it.

The trademark Daytime Running Lights (DRLs) are also absent from the lower range cars (including ours). All Evoques come with DRLs as standard, but for the full-on aggressive effect that you see in the marketing-material, you have to spec Xenon lights at around £800.

The options we went for were bigger wheels (the middle option to balance looks and ride comfort), front fog lights and the fantastic panoramic roof. Metallic paint was optional (naturally), as was the black headlining, which looked better, as we went for black leather.

The standard equipment is excellent; heated leather interior, partial electric seats, a wonderful Meridian sound system, full iPod connectivity, Bluetooth and touch screen audio system. DAB radio is also standard – that means Planet Rock and Absolute 80’s -- Fantastic!

The boot is nice and big and can swallow all of our paraphernalia – but it isn’t enourmous. Coming from the Fiesta it is a breath of fresh air. The ride is lovely and comfortable, it is quiet inside and the engine is punchy enough, with that diesel torque making it feel faster than it is.

It is a wonderful car and feels like one that we will grow into as we get older and our daughter gets bigger. As things stand – assuming it doesn’t have oodles of problems, this car is planned as a long term keeper.

Are we happy with it? Absolutely!! The only caution to prospective buyers is that this is a wiiiiiide car. It is about the length of a Ford Focus, but the width is extraordinary. To say it is tight in my garage is an understatement –parking it in there means getting out of the boot!

I think it is time for a bigger house…


Our Evoque

Choosing a colour
Initially, my other half chose white - it was the one in the showroom and it looked fantastic. With the black panoramic roof and black interior, the whole thing would have been a funky black-and-white combo. However, my good lady has always preferred cars in colours that are less likely to be chosen and when she saw one in the lime green we immediately swapped for this, citing that more people will be buying a white one than the green. The green also looked really good under the studio lights and it was this colour until the 11th hour, when we went in and the dealer had a white, green and red one all lined up in a row! It was a long deliberation, but we went in the end for the red as she thought she'd be happier with this colour for longer (we had spoken about running this car for a very long time if we were to buy one).

So, red it was!! And we've seen a lot of white ones on the road, so this was a good choice I think. Its nice to stand out.

Driving

The handling is good around town, but I regard this more as a comfy cruiser than a sports mobile so haven’t tried it to its limits. Realistically, if you want something to throw into corners with a huge smile on your face, you are unlikely to be at the Land Rover dealership anyway. The seats are very nice and comfortable and the lofty driving position feels good; one does feel very relaxed when driving this car.

Despite being the lower powered engine at 150bhp, it still has plenty of poke for a big car and it feels more than quick enough for day to day running. The torque-y diesel makes overtaking on motorways a straightforward affair, the car picks up quickly around town and 6th gear ensures a quiet ride.

1 month on.
Having owned the car for a month now and covered 500 miles, there are a few things that we’ve noticed. The first is that the MPG is way off what is quoted (circa 50mpg). We have been getting around 32mpg on a combined cycle, although the car has been used much less than usual on the motorways. A very recent motorway and city drive however returned a computer indicated 36mpg but this is still way short of quote figures.

The stereo system sounds excellent – lots of punchy bass and plenty of clarity through the mid and high ranges. We have an older generation iPod which was initially not recognised by the Evoque, but I have since found the solution to this (update the software via iTunes!).

In terms of options, there is one that we would definitely spec if we bought again – that is front parking sensors. For less than £300 it was an oversight to miss this off the list, as the car is very big and those sensors would have been extremely handy. Possibly the electronic boot closure too, as it requires a good old push to get it to close first time. More often than not, I have to re-open and then slam down if I’ve taken an occasion to let gravity take some of the weight on my behalf.

Other than that, we are overjoyed with the car. A great looking big-small car with a prestigious interior and lots of gadgets to play with. Turns lots of heads too!

3 months on.
Still loving the car, its bloomin’ marvellous. Very comfortable and a relaxing drive. I’m not sure about the stop-start functionality though. On my daily commute, there isn’t a lot of opportunity for this function to really work as traffic generally moves at crawling pace, as opposed to fully stopping for long periods. I’m told that the system benefits you financially after only three seconds of being stationary, but all too often I find myself holding the clutch as I can see the traffic will move in less than this. If the Eco mode turns off the engine and you need it to restart immediately, it does get caught out and you get a message on the dash saying to re-engage neutral and start the process again.

But it does have its benefits, especially in the town centres. Leeds is particularly bad at rush hour and you can spend an age not moving – it really comes into its own in areas like this. I do worry about the longevity of a function such as this. In heavy traffic, the car stops and starts a lot. Should it be a concern? Only time will tell!
Everything else is spot on!

5 months on...
hmmm... I think one of the rear lights might have a minor hole in it, as washing the car last week I noticed it was condensing up from the inside. Need to get that checked out....

Paul O.

Great write up.

I'm sure many have had similar dealership experiences, which does sour things up to the point of collection.

We can only hope for future buyers that JLR are reacting to negative feed back from customers.

You make some very valid points for potential buyers re specs and options for Pure models. Many have added loads of options as the list is large, but making the right choice is difficult.

Having had stop start on other cars I'm quite happy with it but some understandably hate it.

Keep up the reports.

Thanks, I really enjoyed your write-up. Better than many articles in motoring journals.

After 8 months of ownership I've just noticed condensation in my rear light unit. Hopefully a minor issue to resolve (although probably a whole new unit).

Condensation in the lights is a feature. It is in the manual.

Sounds as though you got your car from wakefield Land rover ??

Hows the mpg ?

(06-08-2012 08:49am)Jonathon555 Wrote:  Sounds as though you got your car from wakefield Land rover ??

Please tell me it isn't... I was reading your review thinking 'thank God I've not ordered from a dealer like this', but that's where I have ordered mine from! Never even been there and they're 100 miles away from me, it was just they were promising the earliest delivery date of all the dealers I asked.

(05-08-2012 08:09pm)IKM Wrote:  Thanks, I really enjoyed your write-up. Better than many articles in motoring journals.

Thanks IKM, and Evo-King!

(05-08-2012 10:39pm)LP Wrote:  Condensation in the lights is a feature. It is in the manual.

Thanks LP - nice one!

(06-08-2012 09:47am)NightFox Wrote:  Please tell me it isn't... I was reading your review thinking 'thank God I've not ordered from a dealer like this', but that's where I have ordered mine from! Never even been there and they're 100 miles away from me, it was just they were promising the earliest delivery date of all the dealers I asked.

NightFox... yep, its from Wakefield...! Hopefully your experience will be better than mine. Don't get me wrong, my sales guy was excellent - he was just too busy. To give it some balance, when we got very close to collection date, we nearly had to pull out of the deal when some of our investments went a bit sour - during that time, our sales guy really came through in putting us at ease (although that took a couple of calls and emails too) - even if we couldn't go through with the purchase. Things all worked out in the end though, but when the chips were down he did come through strongly in my view. Just the callbacks. arrrgh!

I suspect the Evoque is having a similar impact to the market like the Boxster did for Porsche; it made a niche company into one that has mass-market accessibility, desirability and attainability and consequently the LR dealers are struggling with the sudden increase in demand. Just a suspicion, but hopefully Wakey has got their act together now.

Great, thanks !!

(06-08-2012 01:02pm)Paul O Wrote:  NightFox... yep, its from Wakefield...! Hopefully your experience will be better than mine. Don't get me wrong, my sales guy was excellent - he was just too busy. To give it some balance, when we got very close to collection date, we nearly had to pull out of the deal when some of our investments went a bit sour - during that time, our sales guy really came through in putting us at ease (although that took a couple of calls and emails too) - even if we couldn't go through with the purchase. Things all worked out in the end though, but when the chips were down he did come through strongly in my view. Just the callbacks. arrrgh!

I assume you dealt with Craig, the same guy I'm dealing with (and who other members seem to rate quite well). I'm just a bit concerned that looking at the dealer's web site, he doesn't even seem to exist! http://www.guysalmon.wakefield.landrover.co.uk/About-Us

Great review always very helpful