TRAVIS LANGNESS: This is the all new 2020 Land Rover Range Rover
Evoque.
We're going to see what makes it more capable off-road, what
makes it better on-road.
And we're going to see how it stacks up
against its competitors.
Before we do that, Be sure to go to edmunds.com/roadnoise
for the full first drive.
And subscribe to our YouTube channel
for more videos like this.
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Now, from first looks you might not
think that this Evoque is redesigned.
It might look like what we would call a refresh,
a little bit of change in headlights, tail lights,
things like that.
But it is completely redesigned.
Land Rover says that 99% of this car is new.
Under the hood, you get a choice of two power trains.
You get the 2-liter 4-cylinder, or you
get that same 2-liter 4-cylinder paired with a mild hybrid,
and that's the car we're driving now.
And that mild hybrid isn't a plug-in.
It doesn't do some of the things you would expect from, like,
a Prius.
But what it does do is fill in the gaps in power
and give you a little bit of stop and go off the line.
It's basically a system that assists with stop-start.
And it doesn't intrude much on the driving experience,
which is a good thing.
And also, one of the things that I like about this car
is that powertrain.
It's a good powertrain to get you off the line,
holds gears well.
It's got a nine-speed ZF automatic transmission.
It's the only one you can get.
And all of them come with all-wheel or four-wheel drive.
So let's talk driving impressions.
I've been driving this vehicle for a couple hundred miles,
a few days now.
And it is really impressive.
There are a couple of great competitors in this class.
It falls kind of between the X2 and the X3 BMW.
And there's some Audis it falls between,
basically a long list of Germans.
But if you're looking for something in this price range,
know that this is not a second-best.
This is definitely something that
is its own unique value set in the class.
Few things in this price range or in this category
can do with this can do off-road.
And it sounds and feels pretty good to drive.
Even though it's just a 2-liter 4-cylinder under the hood,
it's got a nice little growl.
[ENGINE REVVING]
Has a decent amount of pick-me-up too.
And that nine-speed automatic shifts well.
It's crisp.
The shifts are quick.
And you don't really notice it hunting around
for years going uphill.
Now, there are some finicky issues with the sport mode
where you think it's shifting for you,
and then you actually have to shift.
But really, it's nothing that's a deal breaker.
Steering is not ideal.
Yes, the handling on this car is good.
But the steering is pretty vague.
Now, I like the steering wheel.
And I like the on-center feel.
It returns to center well.
But basically, you can't tell what the wheels are doing.
So the steering weight is good, and that's about it.
You're not going to tell when you're
going around these mountain roads just what it's doing.
Now, that's pretty typical for the class.
But with something that looks kind of sleek and sporty
like this, and it does have a sport mode,
I would hope for a little bit more
in the steering department.
Maybe some added weight would help with that.
But again, not a deal breaker.
And what about those safety systems?
Well, they're good, but this might not
have been the best place to test them out.
There are certain areas in Greece
that are kind of missing road lines.
And people seem to move around in the center.
So lane keep assist is not at its best here.
But on the highway, it seems to do well
and nudges you back into the lane
pretty seriously if you're about to go out of it.
So let's take a look at the backseat, at cargo space.
And then we're going to go off-road.
We're going to do what this vehicle says it can do better
than all the other luxury vehicles in this class,
and that's go over rocks, ruts, streams,
and all sorts of other fun obstacles.
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From front to rear, this is exactly
the same size as the old model, a little bit
wider, barely noticeable.
But the wheelbase dimensions change a couple
of things about this vehicle.
It makes the approach angle better.
That rear wheel being so far back allows
for that rear door to have more entry and egress space.
You can get in and out of the back easier.
And it's opened up a little bit of space
in the rear, a little bit more cargo.
So let's take a walk-around and look at all the parts
and show you what the inside looks like.
It's nice.
For the price point, you get a lot of nice materials.
There's recycled plastics and eucalyptus and things in here
that you wouldn't expect to find.
But then there are other things that you'd
expect to find on the interior, like the steering wheel comes
out of other Range Rover products.
And this screen lifted right out of the Volare.
Definitely gives it a high class feel in here when this thing
pops up when you start it.
But these two screens are a bit distracting.
They're kind of hard to see when you're driving
and you just want to change the radio station
or turn on the heated seats, which I still
haven't found the controls for after two days of driving
this car.
But otherwise, everything feels upscale in here.
It doesn't feel like a car built to a price point, which
is great for something in this class.
It shouldn't feel cheap.
You should feel like you're driving
a luxury vehicle every day.
And every time I get in here, that's the vibe I get.
So is it easier to get into the back seat?
Yeah, sure.
This rear wheel is moved back.
So it does help.
There's not as big of a hump here
to get over to get on the inside.
Once you do get inside--
oh, you do have to duck here.
That sloping roof line gets in the way.
But there's plenty of space, lots of knee room.
I have the seat adjusted for me.
I'm 5' 9", so that gives you a little bit of a sense
of how far back this would be.
If you were maybe 6', it'd be a couple inches further.
Still plenty of space back here for adults, at least two
on a road trip.
And we've got some baggage in the trunk.
And there's nothing needs to be inside here.
It's a good interior.
And even with the panoramic moonroof here,
it has plenty of headroom.
It's a nice place to be.
It's quiet.
It's comfortable.
Look, I would take this on any long highway journey
and be just fine.
Trunk space is good for a couple of bags, but it's not perfect.
Basically, you'd want a little bit more with a large family.
But for a small trip, it should be enough space.
And the rear seats fold down 40, 20, 40.
So now we are hitting the dirt.
This is where the Evoque shines.
By shines, I literally mean shine.
That sun hits that center console,
and you get pretty blinded.
But this is the typical kind of stuff
you think of when you think of off-roading a crossover.
Does it handle gravel roads well?
Does it handle ruts and bumps well?
Is it uncomfortable when you get off the beaten path, when
you're leaving the asphalt?
And no, it's not uncomfortable.
Yes, it can handle this stuff.
This is great terrain for this kind of vehicle.
And it can do the more serious stuff.
As we saw yesterday when we did a lot of the deep water rut
stuff and we were going over big rocks,
up hills, down hills, this thing has
a lot of good tech for pretty much every off-road scenario.
One of the cool things we did was we basically
put this thing in auto.
There's a couple of modes you can select.
But we put it in auto and just traversed all those rivers.
Another great thing you can do is select a hill ascent
control.
Then you can change the miles per hour the car's going.
And from there, you let do all the work,
no brakes, no throttle.
You let it figure out the rocks that are underneath you
and crawl up them.
And it's a great party trick, but it's also really useful,
especially if you're not entirely
confident doing some of those off-road maneuvers yourself.
This car gives you a lot of confidence in its abilities
that can make up the gaps where you may not
know exactly what you're doing when you're going off road.
No, this is not Moab.
We're not rock climbing here.
But this is off-roading, for all intents and purposes.
I'm going up the side of a mountain
with a shear cliff on one side.
And this vehicle is handling everything just fine.
Ruts, bumps, yeah, they make their way into the cabin.
But really, you're not tossed around a lot.
There's not a lot of that side to side action, which
is important when you're off-roading.
You don't want to be upset or get car sick when you're
doing this kind of stuff.
And also it feels super-confident.
Even when the surface is gravelly or loose,
it seems like the wheels know what they're doing.
It feels like the car adjusts well to these scenarios.
Now we're going to go up some of the rocky bits.
And we're not getting stuck or hung up on anything.
So the pros of this car, pretty good powertrain,
pretty nice interior, comfortable ride, really good
off-road.
I mean, the stuff we did with this amazed me.
It really was very impressive off-road.
Some of the cons?
It is a little bit limited on space.
Now, that's kind of par for the course with this segment.
But there's plenty of room for four adults.
They're just not all going to be able to bring two
or three bags on a long journey.
And that sloping roof line does give yourself
in and out issues.
You do have to duck a bit in the back.
And the final and the biggest con for me
is this set of screens.
Now, they are really good to look at.
And the functionality is fine.
They work just fine.
As far as I can tell, over the last two days,
there hasn't been really any problems.
I haven't had any glitches with the software.
But the locations of the buttons,
how hard you have to search, doing
a lot of looking down and looking away from the road,
that's a con.
It's just something you can't fix with a system like this.
There are some ways to solve that by using the buttons here
on the steering wheel.
But there are certain things you just have to do down here.
And really, it's a distraction.
Honestly, I think this is a very unique car in the segment.
This is probably the only car that
has is off-road-able in the compact luxury crossover
segment.
And it really does stand out for that reason.
If you want something that's competent on an off-road
and stylish, if you like the look of it,
this is a good choice.
Definitely be sure to go to edmunds.com/roadnoise for all
the details on our first drive of the Evoque.
And if you want more videos like this,
be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel.
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