Little smart car with glass roof had similar quality problems when it first came out.
My dealer has assurred me that I won't pay the higher price as I placed my deposit 15th April. Perhaps you are right and LR will stand the "loss" on the first wave of cars and build with the new roof as that would be better than a potential recal in a few weeks/months time.
All I know is that if my roof cracks then I will be straight round to the LR garage for a warranty claim. I cannot believe though that this has not shown up on the prototype testing stage as I know the cars have been ragged around every square inch of Gaydon's off road course, and there are some pretty shocking pot holes around Banbury, Gaydon and the Fosse Way!
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The fixed Panoramic Roof is one option i avoided (and have no regrets),simply because it is just that...fixed, and that really disappointed me, because i have always had,and loved opening sunroofs.
I even offered to pay extra for a conventional sized electric steel or glass sunroof,but they said it could not be done,so will go without. For me anyway ,if a sunroof does not open,then it's missing half the point.
In my current Forester, half the roof is a glass sunroof. Whilst I agree it is great to have it open on a sunny day, it is the light and feeling of space it produces. It is very rare that I close it off with the sun blind, even in the middle of Australian summers. I was a little disappointed it did not open but it was a must tick option for me.
1) I didn't pay any more than the price quoted at ordering
2) After a whole day of gentle off road use I have no cracks in the panoramic glass despite some quite body flexing bumps and potholes
3) After 6 days it's still a brilliant little car!
I'm amazed that LR have offered this option across the range.... In most of their other ranges you need to Sec at HSE level to get a Panoramic roof.... if we order one in the future this will be the first thing ticked .
Although I do joke with a mate of mine who has a HSE D3 that his panoramic roof offers a fantastic view of the underside of his thule roofbox.
Even at £790 it appears to many that the pano roof is a 'must have'. Whilst a few cars have this feature now, the pano roof certainly adds to the special feel and style of the Evoque. Also, it
could be a feature that the majority of second hand buyers are almost insisting on in their search for the right Evoque for them.
All four rear passengers I had during my test drive said it looked great when sat it the back; almost a 'wow' factor.
However, every time the sun came out, they said it was a bit bright and asked if I could close the blind a little! Anyone else had the same issue with their rear passengers?
At £460 it was a 'no brainer'; now at nearly £800 and with the "too bright" comments, it's got me thinking.
I suspect the blind will get a work out pretty regularly down here in Australia....I still think it's worth it given how amazing it looks when it's open...
Well we have clear blue skies and 18c here today, almost the warmest day of summer 2011. I left the car parked on the roof level of a multi-storey carpark in the city centre and when I came back 4 hours later the interior was, to put it mildly, a little warm as I had left the blind open. However I now know of two cars with AirCon powerful enough to blast icicles out of the vents - FFRR's a.c is the coldest I have ever experienced when you set all the sensors and adjusters down to deepfreeze setting. Evoque is the same - set the two adjusters to setting 16 and it was icy inside in about 4 minutes! Well impressed.
By the way folks - big warning here, even in the UK.................. never run for long with your air-con OFF, it is climate control, leave it on auto ALL the time and adjust the temperature dials to be comfortable as you get hot a.c. and cold a.c. - the reason? Well like FFRR the Evoque is laden with clever ECU's and electronics and if you run around with the air con off then you get condensation inside the car which gets into the ECU's and computers and they start to fail. Running with the AC on auto, even with warm air coming out of the vents dehumidifies the air inside the car, reducing the risk of condensation in said electronic units. The increase in fuel consumption is not very big as the modern air-con systems are better designed so they don't sap power and it's cheaper to do run round with warm air-con than to have to replace satnav / audio or ECU's due to condensation inside the car. It also means that on the 6 hot days year in the UK your air-con will actually work when you switch it to a cold setting. The worst thing you can do to air con in a car is switch it off for long periods. I was always told run it for 10 minutes a week on the coldest setting if it is old style air-con as it keeps the gas compressed and also sends refrigerant right through the system lubricating it at the same time. What is 10 minutes a week when potentially you are looking at £400-£500 to fix a system that hasn't run for 300 day out of 365.
Mrs RSK has the opening pano roof on her D4.
I think we've opened twice in two years but having said that we wouldn't be without it and it's a must on my RRE.
RSK