Prestige TD4 in Belgium (Fuji / Element)

Hi there

11 months after placing my order, my Evoque arrived 4th of January 2012.
It's a TD4. Fuji White exterior, Element interior. Prestige Tech pack, Cold climate pack, Pano roof, Parallel Park.

It's simply fantastic to drive around in this car. Not only because it drives well, but also because of the attention from other people. It's a real head-turner and people come and have a chat, this never happened to me even with my Mini Cooper which was also rare back in 2002. This will surely fade out after a while, but for now there are very few Evoques on Belgian roads and I'm enjoying the fact that it seems to make other people happy as well.

Here are my first thoughts after +/- 750 km.

PRO

- Overall driving experience. Direct steering, good manual gearbox with short travel, stable car altogether. Very quiet and smooth engine too.

- Parallel Park works great. Needs some getting used to, but very clever. One time I had difficulty getting out of the space after parking - that's how good it is in parking the car in tight spaces.

- I'm getting 36 mpg (8.0 l/100km) in normal driving with min/max of 7.5-8.5 l. Good result already (same as my Lexus IS diesel) and I expect this to get better over time.


CON

- Satnav input / auto-suggest is very slow

- Copying entire cd's to the HDD is slow (7 - 10 minutes depending on the contents)

- The rearview camera is way too slow to boot

- Element is bright and great to be in. But there are plenty of marks already, including some blue dye from jeans (after one week), even though the jeans has been washed plenty of times and I never had problems with them in my Lexus which had +/- the same interior colour. There were even some tiny marks on the leather when I picked up the car. Not sure if the RR Windsor leather is inferior to Lexus leather, but I'm not very impressed and I kinda regret chosing Element. On the other hand, I'm looking at Gtechniq leather sealing now, hopefully this will make me change my mind.

I agree with all your cons. Everything about the screen/audio/satnav is so damn slow.

Nice car by the way!

Very nice car! Good write-up.

I got mine a week before our annual trip to visit my wife's parents for New Year in Gent and it was great to take it to Belgium - got a lot of curious looks!

A lot of people say the rear view camera is slow - is that when you first start the car? Whenever I put my car into reverse the camera seems to be instantly on for me. Maybe I'm not noticing because I tend not to use it much, dunno but whenever I do glance at the screen to see it, it's there!

Nice Car, Must say I do like those wheels!! They also look much bigger in the flesh

Interior looks nice, was very very tempted by the Element, but chickened out and went for the safe Vibe Black option!!

Hope you are enjoying

My rear view camera doesn't boot that quickly so I tend to stick it in reverse then stick my belt on by which time it's working. Don't find it too problematic though.

Glad you're enjoying the car.. It certainly gets attention.

Thanks guys.

(13-01-2012 09:51pm)Coolbanana Wrote:  A lot of people say the rear view camera is slow - is that when you first start the car?

Yes especially when starting the car. First the radio comes on, then some other functions, then the satnav and then the rear camera, which can be 20 seconds after starting. While driving it usually takes only 3-4 seconds so then it's not a problem any more.

@THEMACS: I very much like the wheels too. They're already a bit dirty but I like the contrast of the outside parts (shiny silver) against the dark grey non-shiny inside parts. Very "up-to-date" look without too much bling.

Nice car! I've seen 3 on the roads in Brussels so far. My order went in on 30/12/2011, so I'll have to wait a little longer to get mine.

Also went with the Prestige TD4 but an automatic gearbox. So 8L/100km is quite a bit for a manual! Is that mixed driving?

I took one like that for a testdrive and tried the camera during the trip. At that point it was instantly on, bu they shouldn't have saved money on the cpu and memory in the satnav unit.

As far as cd copying is concerned, I think I'll put cd's on an external harddrive. Just need to figure out naming/playlists.

Have fun with the car

Thanks Cedric. I've seen three cars on the roads as well, but two of them were the cars that you see in all Belgian magazines these days. One black, one white car, license plates 1-BRO-...

Yes mixed driving. On motorways you get 7-7.5l while in cities it's hard to stay below 8.5l. So unless you only do long distances and don't go over +/- 130 km/h, it will be difficult to stay under 8l. I suppose the auto gearbox will need an extra litre on top of these figures.

As I said, the camera is almost instant once you've started the car and you're on the road. But in a cold start it seems like the last thing that's operational...

My external hard drive works great, but sorting is not ideal. I prefer to use my iPod as it gives you playlists, browse by artist, etc.

Congrats !!

(13-01-2012 04:18pm)vision*R Wrote:  I'm looking at Gtechniq leather sealing now, hopefully this will make me change my mind.

yes do it! also get some Gtechniq for your exterior plastic and maybe wheels also, am very happy i did.