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TEME VALLEY TIMES JAN/FEB 2012 19


RANGE ROVER EVOQUE First Impressions - On Road and Off!


The Evoque is one of the most significant recent models. It has created an entirely new breed of crossover: a car that combines coupe style with 4x4 functionality. It evolved from the striking LRX concept car, with the production version remaining remarkably close to the concept vehicle.


Despite the striking looks, this


remains a practical car. There's a choice of four-wheel-drive or front- wheel-drive, so you can either go for off-road ability or lower emissions, and there's a choice of engines, offering from 150bhp to 240bhp, the choice depending on whether you're looking for maximum performance or maximum fuel economy.


All engines have four cylinders and


are turbocharged. The diesel is the tried-and-tested 2.2 litre engine that's already seen in various Land Rovers, Fords and Peugeots, while the petrol option is Ford's relatively new "Ecoboost" unit, already found in a number of Fords and Volvos. Power


outputs are 150bhp or 190bhp for the diesel, depending on which exact model you opt for, with the petrol topping the range at 240bhp.


Two body styles are offered: five- door, for ultimate practicality, or three-door coupe, for ultimate style. Automatic transmission is available with the petrol engine and on some diesel models.


Although the Evoque looks like it was designed as a style icon, it's important to remember that underneath it's still a Land Rover so if you go for a four-wheel-drive model you can expect serious off-road ability.


To try this out for ourselves we took a trip to the Land Rover Experience facility, at Eastnor Castle, Ledbury. Here we drove a 190bhp automatic diesel (4x4, obviously) up and down muddy hills and various other obstacles. If you take a look at the pictures you can see the terrain for yourself. The remarkable thing is how well the Evoque coped. There was


never any problem getting grip and no worries that we might get stuck, though the Evoque's lower ride height obviously means it has less ground clearance than one of Land Rover's more off-road-biased models.


A couple of times the underside of the car could be heard contacting the 'surface' below, but the fact is this Evoque made mincemeat of conditions that many drivers wouldn't even tackle. The 4x4 Evoque has the usual Land Rover 'Terrain Response' system


so the driver can select the program that best-suits the conditions. Other than that, the driver just needs to drive carefully and leave the technology to sort out the details.


We also tried the 190bhp automatic diesel (4x4) on-road to see how it behaved on Tarmac. It's very civilised, but you'd expect no less from a car that has RANGE ROVER on the bonnet. The high-specification model we tried had features such as a reversing camera and Park Assist - with Park Assist the car checks a parking space is big enough, then does the steering for you as you reverse into the space. This worked impressively well.


The camera is better than many, because lines appear on-screen to show where the car will go as you reverse; different lines show the wheel path and the width of the vehicle, so you can miss kerbs or gate posts with equal facility.


Handling is impressive for a 4x4 and plenty of 'ordinary' cars aren't this good. The automatic transmission has a manual ('sport') mode, so you can drive it on the paddles if you want to choose the gears yourself.


Whether you use 'sport' or leave it in


'drive' is a matter of taste, but either way you've got a car that will cruise down a main road at 60 or 70mph in a relaxed and unflustered manner. It's well-controlled on bends, but on more demanding roads, it soaks up the bumps pleasantly, without harshness, and on longer trips the seats felt comfortable.


There are no low-specification


versions - even the entry-level model has a good trim level - so the Evoque range starts at £27,955, for the two- wheel-drive, 150bhp, manual, eD4 Pure 5-door. At the other end of the spectrum, a 240bhp 4x4 Si4 Dynamic Automatic 3dr is £39,995, excluding any 'extras', such as metallic paint.


Land Rover Experience


Land Rover chose Eastnor as an assessment venue in 1961 so 2011 marked its 50th anniversary. It is still used for Land Rover development and the Eastnor Castle Estate has since 1989 also been home to the Land Rover Experience; this allows people to hone their driving skills, with an instructor accompanying them, to give expert guidance.


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