(15-07-2014 03:19pm)Paul O Wrote:  Evoque Clean!!anyone want a badgeless grill i have one for sale. change mine to a dadged one.

Our Evoque is regularly treated to a £5 hand wash special at the local petrol station, but the inside is only ever cleaned out occasionally. It was beginning to look a little too ‘lived in’, so I put a call in to Tony Spears who owns Autoshine specialist detailing. He has worked on my cars in the past. As the Evoque is only 2 years old, and a daily workhorse I didn’t want the full detailing package, but just a spruce up inside and outside. Tony completed the work in the day and our little red off-roader is now fully polished and protected with the inside looking good as new. Particular note is the cup holders, which seem to attract all kinds of micro dirt, and they looked positively sparkling again. Here are a few pictures (apologies they aren't great quality, these are iPhone snaps as I didn't have my camera on me):













A couple of days later it was covered in grass on the inside again, after my good lady wife did a sponsored charity ‘muddy run’ across a large field on a particularly wet day. Armed with passengers that day too, it is now due another clean, which I’ll sort with the Dyson over the next few days. It won’t be as good as Tony’s efforts, but at least it’ll be nice again. J

If you need yours either valeting or full detail restoration, give Tony a call. http://www.autoshinespecialistvaleting.co.uk

General

The Evoque is still going great guns so far, with no issues to report. Perhaps a minor point is the boot squeaks a bit when you close it, which I assume is the hydraulic ram jobbies. I’ll get that looked at next service as it isn’t a big thing.

I’ve also noticed that the newer Evoques all have the Land Rover badge jutting out of the centre grill. Personally, I think it looks a bit naff as it isn’t flush with the grill. Thankfully mine is an older model and doesn’t have this cosmetic feature. Does anyone also prefer the cleaner look?

(16-02-2015 09:47pm)Paul O Wrote:  An ownership update.

Three years. Blimey. It's hard to believe that we've owned this car for getting close to three years now. It has been a great, reliable car so far - and contrary to Land Rovers legendary 'reliability' of the past, nothing has fallen off yet - great stuff!

The boot is back to squeaking again when you close it, so I wonder if that was missed on the last service. It's a minor point though and something that I'll get looked at on its three year service in a couple of weeks’ time.

On that point, it’s time for a little reflection and recap. We bought our TD4 in 2012 and we spec'd bigger wheels, panoramic roof, front fogs, black headlining and nothing else. We also purchased the 3 year servicing deal, so this years’ service will be the last before we start stumping up the going rate each year.
I was looking a few weeks ago at the price of a possible replacement Evoque and there are still only two things that I would spec if we were to 'upgrade'. Those options are front parking sensors (not because we've hit anything - quite the opposite, we are always miles away), and an automatic gearbox - purely because I'm getting older and more lazy on the commute.

However, my daily commute has shrunk significantly in the past year or so and so the want of an Auto is nowhere near strong enough to justify the exuberate cost demanded by both shiny-new-thing and our evil friend 'depreciation'. The latter however, hasn't been too nasty when it comes to Evoque ownership. We Buy Any Car are offering strong money for quick trade-in, and a quote last month was (if memory serves) actually higher than what Land Rover offered me as a part-x almost a year ago. Something to think about there.

When it comes to not crashing into things, the front sensors don't warrant the hefty uplift either. So, basically, the current car will be staying for now. I find it is very comfortable and on long commutes - a monthly 6-hour round day-trip is a killer, but I arrive there and back relatively relaxed - a stark contrast to doing this same journey in my 17 year old Audi A4 Shed, last year.

Lights out
One of the headlights has blown. And my word that’s a mission and a half to fix. You have to remove the grill, and take out the headlight in order to put in a new bulb following what appears to be some back-of-the-fag-packet type instructions. So much for the Euro requirement of having a spare set of bulbs in your car, when it comes to the Evoque, you need a full spanner set and tool box too. Ridiculous, Land Rover! Another job for the upcoming service as we rarely use the car in the evening so I’ll avoid an afternoon of swearing at the car and several cut fingers.

Blind Spot monitoring - Retrofit
Now, this is one option that I flatly refused to pay the Land Rover Ransom. Hundreds of hard-earned Great British pound notes of an electronic 'blind spot' monitor was, at best, ridiculous. Most - if not all - other cars these days come with the divided wing mirror, where it elongates the field of vision towards the outer of the mirror, thus reducing or eradicating any dangerous blind spot for the casual, unsuspecting motorist.

Unfortunately, I have found that, despite having mirrors so large that it would put a superstars dressing room to shame, the Evoque features a gargantuan blind spot in which comet landings and earthquakes have been known to occur at the side of an Evoque driver, without him even having the slightest hint of the cataclysmic chaos engulfing the world around him. OK, perhaps not that extreme (perhaps), but I have noticed that it is entirely possible to join a motorway from a slip road onto lane one and that elements of traffic in both lanes two AND three are completely absent from your field of vision. And as the flow of the road continues along as you join, if you wish to momentarily join lane two you can easily find yourself parked on top of an unsuspecting fellow motorist if you don't check over your shoulder.

In an effort to remove this issue once and for all, I have chosen to retrofit a blind spot monitoring system. The great news is that you can save hundreds of pounds from Land Rovers finery - a trip to Halfords is all you need and less than £8:



OK, it might be a little nineties, I agree. But I'd much rather listen to "2 Unlimited" than hang out with Dick Turpin.

In other news
For anyone who cares, or follows my blog (http://www.motorcloud.net), I've had a bit of a change around in the fleet. The aforementioned Audi has gone, as has my Porsche 911. We've now got a Mini Cabrio, with something sporty joining the fleet later this, possibly next, year. The Evoque though, that will continue truckin' so stay tuned for more updates.

And if you are planning on buying an Evoque too – my recommendation is the Panoramic roof is a must. It's great. And don't forget the front fog lights too - they are truly fantastic on dark country lanes at night.

(09-03-2015 11:20pm)XFullFatTim Wrote:  Just think how many fines that you have saved your partner by not having the front fogs that she can drive round with them on unnecessarily then!

(09-03-2015 11:05pm)Byhorsebytram Wrote:  As someone new to the forum (Hello, everyone!) but not to Landrover (got a FL2), thanks for this piece. Some very helpful thoughts I'll consider having picked up my shiny new Evoque last week. Haven't noticed the blind spot issue yet, with few miles under my belt in it, but I'll be especially careful.

I'm kicking myself about not speccing front fogs. It was expensive enough to add the pano roof and a few other extras; FFLs never got a look in. Then when we collected it, my partner moaned that she loved the FFLs in our FL2 and "uses them all the time". Well, I didn't know, did I? Wonder how much to retro-fit... any idea?

No news to those on this forum but the Evoque is the best car I think I've driven to date. Gutsy and quiet, refined and unlike many commenters I've read elsewhere, I think the satnav is great.

I found out about the planned model update in 2016 after ordering but hey-ho.