Evoque Unleashed London

I'm off to Evoque Unleashed in London this weekend.

Does anyone have any question/picture/video requests? I don't mean things like "please take a photo of a grey/silver evoque" or things where you can google and see lots of pics. But anything specific please let me know.

If you come across the rare and exotic Ipanema Sand Evoque I would love a photo.

(20-08-2011 10:24am)griff Wrote:  If you come across the rare and exotic Ipanema Sand Evoque I would love a photo.

I think you will find griff that it is the same cars doing all the events around the country. The LR staff in Cardiff said that they were off to London next, sorry to disappoint you, the search goes on !!

Thanks MW for brightening my Saturday
Hope you enjoyed Cardiff.

First post from me - another of those sitting in the background for a while
Thoughts having attended the unleashed event in London yesterday (trying to just mention diff stuff):
Drove an SD4 Dynamic 5 door with black interior. Incl roof lining and panoramic roof
Pros. Liked the car still having driven it. Comfortable and I like the Dynamic interior. The dashboard cover isn't as plush as the Prestige, but it's certainly not a cheap plastic. Just wonder how much it'll attract dust n grime as the surface isn't smooth? Acceleration from 30-50ish was good and smooth (I.e. Pulling out into traffic on dual carriageway etc)

Gearbox easy and no unexpected gear changes ( having read a couple of the criticisms on other reviews). Got the hang of the paddles pretty easily, though not sure about holding one for 3 seconds in sport mode to release back to automatic ( seems a bit of a distraction, but would need a longer drive to try it out).

Seeing the rear camera screen come on was certainly welcome when I needed to reverse - not sure if that's an option rather than standard on any of the models, but it's definitely worth having. After the main drive the additional cameras were also demo'ed to me. I really like the front cameras for pulling out of blind junctions / parking spaces. Need to check the cost of that option (unless someone can easily note it here) as that's the one I'm thinking worth adding post event.

Cons Sat nav was not great only warning me 400 yards (and it seemed more like 300 yards) before needing to turn on a 3 lane road at 50+mph (I.e. Gotta cross those lanes in a bit of a hurry - shouldn't the warning distances be speed sensitive?)

Route set for us wasn't much good - rather residential / urban dual carriageway so diff to really assess the car. I tried dynamic mode and could feel the bumps a bit more (deliberately drove over the drains ) but couldn't really test it for it's intended purpose!

Overall: happy with the order I've made (Dynamic SD4 5 door) It's a nice place and drives well. The car gets a huge amount of attention so expect a fair few stares. Wondering whether to get the additional cameras...

Colours: as mentioned elsewhere, Indus Silver gives the car an unfinished look IMHO. The others all looked good.

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Forgot to mention...
Knowledge of LR people variable. One said having windows close using the key button was now illegal ( then another guy demo'ed it!)
Another LR guy reckoned there were no 20" winter tyres available last year - may be of int to those of you who expect to need to switch to them...assuming he was right.
Why does the handbrake switch toggle both back & forth? The lady who demo'ed the car said it did the same thing whether pushing or pulling? As a I recall it didn't.
A customer who took out the petrol version wasn't over-impressed with the turbo-lag. There was some discussion about the car taking a moment to get the right gear if you pull up to lights and they go green just before you stop. One guy reckoned that that's when a quick manual change down using the paddles worked well. Didn't experience this myself to confirm whether it was an issue / solution.

Having the dinner served in the lobby of a car park was odd, but thanks anyway Land Rover - an event well worth attending.

I agree with abcya. I thought the event was very good but they could have held it closer to the outskirts of London to allow a more varied range of driving. We didn't get onto a road where the legal limit was higher than 50mph.

I didn't struggle with the sat nav at all. In fact I thought it was great. The voice commands were kept to a minimum which I prefer...and the options on the large screen (zoomed out map view or combination of zoomed out and zoomed in view) were easy to use. The commands on the small screen also help.

I had a go with the Park Assist demo. Have to say I was very sceptical because in every demo I've seen on youtube everyone does the reverse park at about 3mph or less. Thought I'd give it a proper test at real world speeds and it worked very well. I did manage to park the car just as quick without the system (I ended up a bit further out from the wall but I didn't want to bash it so was over cautious). If cost wasn't an issue, however, I'd tick that box. My only concern is that you have to drive almost a car length in front of the space you intend to park in. In London you'd have someone 'up your behind' before you'd managed to engage reverse.

One thing I did notice was that I spoke to or overheard more than one person say they had driven "the fast one", referring to the Dynamic model and not the petrol engine. It seems there is a perception that the dynamic is quicker than say a pure with the same engine. Clever marketing by Land Rover and perhaps another way they get people to rationalise the higher cost.

In contrast to abcya I thought the Indus Silver with the roof bars and black wheels looked very cool indeed. Will post some pics. I also got a photo of the 'soft touch' dashboard topper in the Dynamic. I think far too much fuss has been made here about the quality of this material. Looked fine to me...and far better than anything you get on German cars in a similar price bracket. Yes, the leather is nicer...but the soft touch material isn't nasty. Will post a pic of that too.

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Here is a pic of the soft touch dash from the Dynamic. And another of the Indus Silver.

Great reviews again. I like reading all these especially as it seems an age to wait until Stow.

Where was the route LP?

We went out on the A40 to Northolt, then we did a loop north ending back on hanger lane. Took about an hour.

The 'off roading' section of the day was very watered down....just one set of ramps.

Suppose it's hard to know where would have been better. Hanger Lane on Saturday morning not much fun.