Land Rover Range Rover Evoque eD4 Pure 2012 review

If we judged content before appraising appearance, the little black dress and Zegna suits immediately would be obsolete.

Expressions such as “love at first sight’’ would be redundant and we would choose products and partners by delving into their intimate specifications. Which sounds more like a life not worth living. For without being captured by the looks, the style and the individuality of a person or something less innate, we would all live in grey concrete boxes and drive grey Trabants.

The Range Rover Evoque is one of the most desired moving metal objects on the market. It has the hallmarks of a product you just want to own - style, individuality and function within its pretty form. It’s just damn expensive - in fact, it’s more expensive than can be justified by the sum of its parts. Which is why no-one spotted this test car as the cheapest Evoque and one that doesn’t even come with the Range Rover hallmark of all-wheel drive.

Value

Poor. This is the Evoque eD4 Pure manual that costs from $49,995. It has front-wheel drive, good - but hardly excessive - equipment levels and five doors. Amazingly, the three-door Evoque is $1500 dearer. Because people pay for style and it’s presumed that the less number of doors makes it more desirable.

The money buys an interior with partial leather upholstery, eight-speaker audio with Bluetoth, 125mm information touch screen, cruise control, rear park sensors and 17-inch wheels. The tester added the Pure Tech pack ($4500) then added 19-inch alloys (another $1000), metallic paint ($1300), contrasting roof colour ($955), premium sat-nav $3400) and rear vents ($190) which helped bring the total price to $61,340 plus on-road costs. But it looks good.

Design

Amazingly, this car looks almost identical to the LRX concept car shown at Detroit in 2008. That’s a good thing and the reason why it’s still in such huge demand and, cynically, why Range Rover can charge so much for it. It’s a basic Freelander body from the waist down with a wedge-shaped turret above, highlighted by narrow side glass.

It’s a big car - much more than the photos indicate – and impressively wide. But it’s not efficient in its cabin area mainly because it is designed to be a luxury car rather than - in the case of the AWD versions - an off-road machine. Cabin design is similar to the bigger Range Rovers, with striking good looks, simple switchgear design and good use of high-quality materials.

The dash material in the eD4 is soft-touch plastic with contrasting colours - in this case, a tasty coffee and cream. The rear seats split and fold almost flat, there’s a space-saver spare under the floor and there’s plenty of room for four adults.

Technology

Range Rover follows the leads of others by lopping off the drive shaft to the rear wheels. The engine is a 110kW/380Nm 2.2-litre turbo-diesel - as fitted to the Jaguar XF and Freelander, though maybe in different power outputs - which drives through a sweet six-speed manual gearbox. Pity is that almost no buyer is going to get the manual. There’s a six-speed auto as a $2480 option. All the running gear is from the Freelander and this includes electric park brake, independent suspension, four-wheel disc brakes and electric-assist steering.

Safety

The Evoque carries over the Freelander’s so-so four-star crash rating. It also gets seven airbags and a host of electronic aids including roll and trailer stability on top of the electronic stability and traction control. The spare is a space-saver. There are rear park sensors but no rear camera as standard.

Driving

If you think the Evoque is all about style, wait until you drive it. Clearly it is made for the driver who places comfort above other factors. Yet that doesn’t mean the Evoque is slow or a wallower through the bends. In fact, you have to push the 2WD Pure quite hard before you know it’s not an all-wheel drive. The handling is very good and the body roll is minimal.

The electric steering could have a bit more feel but it’s more than adequate for the car’s role. Ride comfort is very good and road noise is minimal, and this despite it being a diesel. The gearbox is smooth with crisp, short throws and the clutch action is light. But the market still wants this as an automatic. But it’s not perfect. The visibility is poor to all sides, worsened by the huge side mirrors. Yes, they’re great for lane changing but they mask a huge area alongside the car.