Evoque on long-term test

(24-03-2012 05:50pm)XFullFatTim Wrote:  One thing that would be very useful in all What Car? group tests would be to compare like with like for the costs of the cars when they are all brought to the same equipment level. For example, your previous tests have claimed that the Evoque is very expensive compared to it's rivals from BMW and Audi, yet when you add the extras onto the BMW or Audi to equal what is standard in the Evoque they are more often than not somewhat more expensive than the RR.

I'd agree with Tim there, obviously the cars you get for testing won't be of similar spec as it's whatever you've been provided with at the time, but when doing side by side paper comparisons, the standard fit/options are often what adds cost (or not if standard), and suddenly the comparison can seem very different. Most people have features they like and would buy whatever car they choose, be it Air-con, leather, keyless entry, rear seat entertainment etc. So comparing like for like spec (as near as can be) when it comes to Price is very important.

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Just speced an Audi Q3 to as near as I could to my Evoque, But couldn't get the higher horse power with manual gearbox, so 140hp engine came in under £2000 less than my Evoque. So starting price may look attractive and make it available to people with a lesser budget but comparitively very little difference once the cars become equal spec, didn't see electric tail gate or panoramic roof either.

Oh it looked damn ugly too

(23-03-2012 11:10pm)johnwhatcar Wrote:  Donny,

I'll get our tech team to investigate when I return to the office on Monday morning - thanks for pointing out the fault!

Regards,

John

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Evo-king,

You're absolutely correct. As I said in an earlier post, we collected our car from the Design Studio at Gaydon. I know it's a five-door, not a coupe, but with it being white and with the similar tan interior, we thought it'd be nice to pick it up from literally right beside the original LRX.

LRX isn't in perfect condition; it lives at the Design Studio these days, and LR are pretty sensitive about it being used for pics etc. But we managed to persuade them, just this once...

I do have higher-res images, yes, and I'll post a couple here pretty soon.

The LRX is of course smaller - the roof line of the five-door production car is taller than that of the coupe, which in turn is taller than that of the LRX. So it's not surprising that it looks a bit shrunk beside a white five-door.

Kind regards,

John

Really glad someone mentioned this as I'd been told the same that LR have gone to great lengths to not show the two side by side - something about sharper lines on the LRX but it would be great to see that photo!

Hi all. Just a quick note to say that I posted a brief update on the USB interface this week, on What Car?'s website.

http://bit.ly/yDxL6S

Am working on something that could get forum members involved - and in print, possibly - in the near future. Will keep you all posted!

Regards to all,

John

(01-04-2012 08:57pm)johnwhatcar Wrote:  Hi all. Just a quick note to say that I posted a brief update on the USB interface this week, on What Car?'s website.

http://bit.ly/yDxL6S

Am working on something that could get forum members involved - and in print, possibly - in the near future. Will keep you all posted!

Regards to all,

John

Interesting thanks John, I put on the software improvement list about Album art and also not being able to play at a folder/album level, Have you had any drop outs or tried the usb stick interface rather than I pod?

(23-03-2012 03:35pm)johnwhatcar Wrote:  Hi all,

Thought I'd make a quick post here and say hello. I'm the editor of What Car? and the lucky custodian of our long-term Evoque. We went for a five-door Prestige Sd4 Automatic, in white with black panoramic contrast roof and 'Spirit' interior (closest to the original LRX concept's tan cabin, I reckon).

We'll be posting monthly reports on the car in the magazine, of course, and we've just started our short, weekly updates at http://bit.ly/GTwekc

I'll be popping in here quite regularly, I hope, so it'll be really interesting to see how fellow Evoque users are getting on.

Regards to all,

John

Good to hear from you John and welcome to the forum. I'm afraid that I just cancelled my subscription because I thought you were going all German on us but I'm sure because they do make some good cars. I'm looking forward to see how you get on with your new charge but when you do any comparisons tell the authors to to test the BMW's and Audis without the optional ride gadgets because without them they are different cars.

I've had mine since mid September and it's proved reliable if a little thirstier and noisier from cold than I'd hoped. That said I do feel it's a good car and if they can change the ageing auto-box for something more in keeping with its general modernity then I'd be rating it as very good. Kind regards YT