Car Review; Range Rover Evoque (2017)

It was late on in my – enjoyable – time with the Range Rover Evoque Convertible that I discovered in the little cubby hole between the front has a special manual emergency kit for raising and lowering the roof, that is in the event of some electrical or mechanical failure.

I didn’t know quite what to make of this.

I wasn’t sure whether it was indicative of a maker so nervous about the reliability of its product that it left you a spanner to fix it yourself; or if it was simply a practical and realistic answer to the fact that, sometimes, things do go wrong, in the same way as you’d need a spare wheel in case of a puncture.

Anyway, I had no need of the emergency kit and the Evoque performed flawlessly during my time with it.

I had considered it a particularly pointless sort of confection before getting acquainted.

It is a sort of automotive equivalent of those “designer” cross-bred dogs that are so popular these days, like the Labradoodle, bred from a Labrador and a poodle, in case you didn’t know.

The Range Rover Evoque is itself seething a hybrid mix of a full-sized Range Rover and, say, a Mini; and the Evoque Convertible a further cross breed with a sports car. Except of course that you’re not “down there” as with a Fiat 124 or an MGB, but “up here” as with any of the mini SUV’s on the market now.

So, roof down, you feel a little as if you’re driving a pram, by which I mean a proper upright perambulator of the old school, not one of those modern buggies. It’s novel and you get used to it quite rapidly. Although I didn’t have the opportunity, or the nerve, to try it out, I thought it might work well as a king of beach buggy, that is if you avoid the tide coming in, or to go off road somewhere where you’d be unlikely to tip it up.

In that sense the Evoque Convertible is the spiritual successor to the original open “Series”/Defender Land Rovers, now sadly out of production. There was also a semi-convertible “softback” version of the original “baby Land Rover”, the 1997 Freelander, a little bit of a modern classic I’d say. So this little Range Rover does have plenty of pedigree.

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As with Labradoodles and the like, a puppy Range Rover doesn’t come cheap. Following the traditional car industry maxim that “less costs more”, an Evoque with no roof and a somewhat shallow boot starts at nearly £45,000.

I could argue that you could thereby have three cars in one – a 4x4 SUV, a five seater saloon and a lively convertible, but I don’t think you’d believe me.

On the other hand it does make for as happy a compromise as it can, given the constraints of its parentage, and you shouldn’t feel that short changed with its stylish lines and quality interior.

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It has style and the high-up/roof down combo gives its driver exceptional visibility, whether for sightseeing or parking.

It is still a fresh-looking face, and the 2-litre diesel “Ingenium” unit lends it all the power it needs on or off road, with admirable fuel economy and acceptable refinement (if it were my own money I’d prefer the petrol version).

The real point of the Evoque Convertible is of course to make Land Rover lots of money, and, judging by the runaway long term global success the Evoque has enjoyed, having been around for six years already, it has certainly delivered that.

It has few, if any, competitors and it has an extremely strong image which hasn’t been dented by seeing so many Evoques around.

If they keep breeding them like this then Jaguar Land Rover have as bright a future as anyone could hope for creating and then occupying unthought of niches; all they need now is to mate their new creations to some modern electric propulsion…