Still posh, now with less spice
Is the Evoque actually a competitor to the T-Roc R? Going by price alone, Volkswagen would probably argue not – a basic P300 HSE R-Dynamic like you see here is £51,050, 10 grand more expensive than the Volkswagen, and that’s before you tuck in to the extensive options list. This example has the Yulong White metallic paint (£640 extra), the black contrast roof (£535), Adaptive Dynamics suspension (£800), and most expensive of all, a non-opening panoramic roof (£1100). Altogether, we’re testing a £55k car here, which is really quite chunky for a ‘premium compact SUV’.
But look at it another way: if you’re in the market for a compact, premium, ‘lifestyle’ SUV, are you saying the Evoque wouldn’t be on your list? Of course it would – since it was launched in 2011, the baby Range Rover has been the archetype of the posh, urban, compact 4x4 and they’ve shifted hundreds of thousands of the things.
Then last year the Evoque underwent a major ground-up revision, improving everything from ride quality to rear legroom without radically altering the tried and tested design. Not that you can’t tell old and new apart: the facelift honed what was always a handsome car (love it or loathe it), and it brought a new minimalism to the details, with Velar-inspired lights and those fancy retractable door handles. Everything is flush and exact, like the kitchen units of a particularly obsessive architect. That simplification allows your eye to appreciate the overall shape, with those muscular arches and swept-up glasshouse.
Like the T-Roc R, the Evoque’s 2.0-litre turbo petrol engine puts out 296bhp and 295lb ft. Unlike the Volkswagen, the Range Rover has full-time four-wheel drive through a nine-speed automatic gearbox. The Evoque is bigger and 350kg heavier than the VW, so you get fewer fireworks from that 296bhp: 0-62mph takes 6.6 seconds, compared with the VW’s 4.8 seconds.
But the Evoque is still useful in this test, because it’s the benchmark for premium, compact SUV interiors. I love this cabin: the seats are finished in an unusual half-and-half fabric trim (a no-cost option): the upper part is Range Rover’s Kvadrat cloth in Dapple Grey, which contrasts with the ebony Dinamica suedecloth below. It’s unusual, contemporary and cool.
Overall the cabin has a laid-back lounge feel – your seat is naturally more reclined than in the T-Roc, the dashboard slopes towards you, and ahead the windscreen is raked like a sports car’s. It feels much more like a coupe than the T-Roc.
At the centre of the Evoque’s dash lie two glossy 10-inch touchscreens, giving the occupants more of an iPhone/Samsung experience than the more analogue Volkswagen. In comparison to the Range Rover’s slick modernity, the new T-Roc R feels a generation out of date already (and arguably it is, seeing as it borrows hardware from the outgoing Gol¤).
So altogether the Evoque interior is way ahead of the T-Roc’s, and it’s a massive part of the Range Rover’s appeal. Let’s face it, when you’re not thrashing down that dreamy B-road, in reality you’re schlepping up the motorway; and when you’re not exploring Iceland’s interior, your fourwheel-drive SUV is actually going to be stuck in tra¦c. So in the real world, I’d rather be in the Evoque than a T-Roc R.
So the Range Rover wins? Not yet. Because just when you’ve fallen in love with the clicky rotary dials or the elegant door-pulls (mmm…), you then have to drive it.
Now, in principle there’s nothing wrong with the way the Evoque goes: it rides well, the engine is hushed unless really extended and the nine-speed gearbox keeps a low profile. But pile on speed and the Range Rover’s limitations quickly start to show – it feels an intentionally more comfort-focused car than its predecessor. Even if you put it in Dynamic mode (ludicrously represented on the screen by a racing helmet, ha ha), the Evoque’s movements become more wallowy, like a water bed compared with the tight jiggling of a freshly-made jelly, straight out the fridge. (The T-Roc R is the jelly in that metaphor, in case that wasn’t clear.)
It’s not that the Evoque can’t press on – it has 295bhp and all-wheel drive after all. But trust me, you just won’t want to. The steering wheel is a twirl-with-one-finger affair, offering zero road feel, and when you turn in there’s a noticeable amount of bodyroll. Whip the Evoque through two or three corners in quick succession and you’ll soon realise it’s no fun driving it like that, and you’ll slow down.
So the baby Range Rover is very good at what it does; but what it does is not the same as what the T-Roc R does. ⊲
Everything is flush and exact, like the kitchen units of a particularly obsessive architect