Item: Land Rover Range Rover Evoque 2011-2018
Rating: 4

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If you want a compact SUV that looks great and makes you feel good when you drive it, the ultra-chic first-generation Range Rover Evoque is a hard car to overlook – and more so when you can pick one up for just £3000.

Indeed, the swish and swanky Evoque hit the ground running in 2011, with modern styling that was a faithful translation of the striking LRX concept unveiled at the Detroit motor show almost 20 years ago.

The Evoque racked up more than 800,000 sales worldwide before Jaguar Land Rover rolled out the second-generation model in 2018, and plenty of first-generation cars of varying age, mileage and price have filtered into the classifieds.

Fashion-focused buyers are likely to be tempted by this cut-price baby Range Rover. If you’re looking for one at a bargain price, you will probably end up with a diesel, because they dominate used car buying sites.

The 2.2-litre diesel was offered in two states of tune, but while the front-wheel-drive eD4 and four-wheel-drive TD4 produced only 147bhp, they’re not as staid as you might expect compared with the 187bhp SD4, which came with four-wheel drive as standard.

The SD4 has a wider breadth of capabilities and is more competent both on the road and off it: that four-wheel drive might come in handy when you drop the kids off at a muddy football field, but for daily jaunts the eD4 is fine.

Even with 40bhp more, the SD4 only feels much faster when overtaking or pressing on uphill, but at the same time it’s about as economical as the lower-powered eD4.

Waving the petrol flag is the 237bhp turbocharged four-pot Si4, which is smooth but rather thirsty. One of the oil-burners will serve you better if you’re doing big miles.

Aim for a post-2014 Evoque, too, because then you will also get the benefit of the slicker and more economical ZF nine-speed automatic gearbox.

It’s smoother than the early six-speeder and, with its low first gear, it’s far more sophisticated when you’re towing or venturing off road.

Indeed, off-roading in an Evoque might feel a bit like running a Tough Mudder endurance race in a tuxedo, but don’t let its suave looks deter you.

It’s fitted with Land Rover’s familiar Terrain Response system, which has modes for mud, snow and ruts to help it perform far better than its rivals off the beaten track. Its approach and departure angles are impressive, too, and it can even wade through 500mm of water.

A facelift in 2015 brought styling and interior revisions, but the biggest change was the introduction of JLR’s Ingenium engines.

The 2.0-litre diesel unit, this time offered in 147bhp TD4 and 177bhp SD4 forms, was punchier, cleaner and more economical than its 2.2-litre predecessor but also far less reliable.

Faulty diesel particulate filters can lead to oil dilution and engine damage, and the weak timing chain can lead to all manner of issues.

If you’re taken by the post-2015 car’s sharper looks, a petrol will serve you better: you can have a potent 285bhp version or the 237bhp Si4.

Predictably, the Evoque is upmarket-feeling inside. The trims are endless (confusing, too), so keep it simple and aim for a Pure Tech, which gets a neat 8.0in infotainment screen, cruise control and trailer assist.

Pure Plus is pretty good value for money, with its powered tailgate, leather upholstery and 19in alloy wheels.

Later cars have a slightly bigger 10.2in screen, and from 2016 you could even buy a soft-top convertible version. Three-door Evoques look even more swish, but we would stick with the five-door for its roomier cabin and better visibility.

Verdict

Model tested:

Rating: 8

Used Range Rover Evoque 2011-2018 review

Attention-grabbing looks, a classy cabin and a pleasing drive. It might be for the followers of fashion but its more than good enough for the keen driver's among us.

Good

Bold, striking looks

Good handling compromise

Off-the-scale desirability

Bad

Fidgety ride

Lofty price

Disappointing fuel economy

DESIGN & STYLING

Pros

Striking design was close relation to LRX concept

Three- and five-door body styles both have class

Cons

Rakish roofline did little for cabin space

Small rear window

A car’s styling often merits no more than a few cursory mentions in our road test, but the Range Rover Evoque demanded an exception.

Supercars aside, only the Citroën DS3 (2010-2015) and some retro hatches could draw so heavily on their design as a selling point.

The Evoque was born out of a desire to make Land Rover appeal to a more youthful audience. After a number of design studies were created, they were finally honed into the LRX concept car, which saw daylight at the 2008 Detroit motor show.

Even then, its future was uncertain; part or all of it could have become a premium Land Rover, or it could have been left as a show car. In the end, the whole design was adopted and given the Range Rover moniker.

The Evoque was, as much as possible, the LRX in production form. Land Rover was coy about having the two cars – concept and reality – photographed together, lest the production version look limp by comparison.

Little chance of that, we’d have thought. To our eyes, the Evoque was a brilliantly successful interpretation of how relevant, approachable and striking a contemporary 4x4 could look.

INTERIOR

Pros

Classy, upmarket cabin with high quality materials

Broad mix of trims with good levels of equipment

Cons

Limited room for adults in the back

Front seats not as comfortable as they look

The Range Rover Evoque brought fresh dynamism and sparkle to the Range Rover marque inside.

The dials enhanced the dashboard, and the centre console – throughout Land Rover history as upright as the car’s nose – raked steeply down towards the transmission tunnel.

There sat the rotary gearlever dial, which had first been a feature in Jagaurs before being embraced by all automatic JLR cars.

Land Rover had trodden a careful path with the Evoque’s cabin. It would have been easy to over-glamorise it. Instead, it just erred towards the classy, without being overly bejewelled.

Perceived quality was broadly very commendable; plastics, leathers and textures were all outstanding. The seats looked appealing to but were a little too flat for our liking.

They were a compromise somewhere between the upright ‘command’ driving position of which Land Rover was proud and the conventional low-car driving position most Evoque buyers would be familiar with.

A widely adjustable steering wheel meant that most were able to find a comfortable driving position.

The rear cabin was respectable for adults, but the three-door variant put headroom at a much greater premium. With a high floor, low roof and a stubby rear overhang, you'd have expected the boot to be small, but it was respectable, at 550 litres.

However, it dispensed unforgivably for an SUV, with a spare wheel. Throw the rear seats forward and you could create 1350 litres of volume.

There were some 10 trims over the course of the original Evoque’s life across three-door, five-door and convertible models. Early models were badged Pure, Prestige and Dynamic, names were changed to SE, HSE Dynamic and HSE Dynamic Lux with small spec changes.

The entry-level Pure was adorned with heated front seats, climate and cruise control, rear parking sensors, and an 8in infotainment system with Bluetooth. Later SE models got an improved infotainment system, DAB radio and AEB, although only Tech Pack models came a sat-nav.

Prestige models had larger 19in alloys, Oxford leather seats, xenon headlights and a reversing camera; HSE Dynamic models added a 380W Meridian audio system.

Dynamic cars got 20in alloys and adaptive suspension, kit that was supplemented with a panoramic roof, a powered tailgate, lane assist, autonomous emergency braking, traffic sign recognition and a 16-speaker Meridian sound system on later HSE Dynamic Lux models.

The range-topping Autobiography models came with adaptive LED headlights, thick carpet and Oxford leather upholstery, ventilated front seats, heated rear seats and JLR's InControl Connect Pro pack.

Completing the standard Evoque range was a limited edition Ember model which included all the equipment found on the HSE Dynamic Lux model plus a snazzy black body and red roof paint job.

The convertible models were available in HSE Dynamic and HSE Dynamic Lux trims, which mirrored their coupé and five-door siblings on the equipment front plus an all-terrain control mode and protection against rolling over on the former, while the latter added a Meridian sound system plus a wind deflector to the package.

ENGINES & PERFORMANCE

Pros

Petrol turbo brings genuine dynamism

178bhp diesel has more than enough grunt and pace

Cons

Automatic gearbox can get a little flustered when you ask for more power

Lower-powered diesel is a little staid

Beneath the revolutionary skin, the Range Rover Evoque was a rather more evolutionary tale. Because it rolled down the same Merseyside production line as the Freelander, the two cars’ architectures were inextricably linked.

The Evoque’s engineering was its own, true, but without the Freelander links, which extended to about 30 percent of the architecture, there’d have been no Evoque.

The Range Rover was up to 100kg lighter than the Freelander, though, partly because it was much shorter (at 4355mm it was shorter than a Volkswagen Golf) and partly because of more extensive use of aluminium, both in its body panels and suspension, and plastics in the body.

That was part of a drive for greater efficiency, as was the Range Rover Evoque’s electric power steering system, which was fixed to the front subframe, rather than the body, to improve steering feel.

The 2.2-litre diesel used in the Freelander, and in a raft of Ford, Peugeot and Citroën models, was replaced with two versions of its Ingenium 2.0-litre oil-burner.

Thumb the starter of the early 2.2-litre diesel and you'd be pleasantly surprised by the relative absence of clatter at idle. For initial refinement, it felt to us on a par with the engine’s application in the Jaguar XF.

To haul 1815kg, the Evoque’s 178bhp was on the modest side. At our test track, that power and 317lb ft of torque propelled the Evoque to 60mph in 9.5sec and dispatched 30-70mph in 9.5sec. The claimed maximum was 124mph. These weren't poor figures in the slightest.

The Evoque featured Land Rover’s Terrain Response system, which affected not only how the hardware and stability software reacted to different road surfaces, but also how much accelerator movement you needed to make progress.

Left in either ‘no program selected’ or Dynamic, both intended for road driving, the response was clean and smooth. There was a little creep from rest, step-off was clean and the six-speed auto felt refined.

Smooth progress was easy to make, with the ’box shifting mostly intelligently. It returned its best economy in its Drive programme, so sometimes it was a little flustered if you asked for slightly more power than it was expecting.

There were shift paddles on the steering wheel if you wanted to make the decision yourself – something we found ourselves doing a touch more often than we would have expected.

The 148bhp eD4 variant was available as the two-wheel drive model.

Thanks in part to its 75kg weight saving from the deletion of the four-wheel drive gubbins, the two-wheel drive Evoque emitted just 109g/km and could return as much as 67.3mpg.

The other available engine was the 237bhp 2.0-litre turbo petrol, mated to 4WD and an automatic gearbox only. It dramatically altered the Evoque's character, playing to the strengths of taut, agile handling overlaid with proper off-road ability.

It took just a few hundred yards to sense this fastest Evoque's eager pace and the crisp revvability of its engine.

The convertible models were only available as automatics powered by the range-topping diesel or petrol engines.

RIDE & HANDLING

Pros

Adaptive dampers intelligently tune suspension to iron out lumps and bumps

Dynamic mode ties the body down well for spirited driving

Cons

Not as capable off-road as its stablemates

Steering was a mixed bag with slight inconsistency with weighting

As with the Freelander, the Range Rover Evoque rode on MacPherson struts at the front, with a multi-link variant (a strut with lateral and longitudinal control links) at the rear.

There was a very tough compromise to be made here. Any Range Rover was, after all, a Land Rover vehicle and so it must be capable of reaching places that were unusually difficult to drive to.

Yet it was also the smallest, most efficient and road-focused Range Rover yet and would be bought mostly by people whose idea of a green lane was a leafy side street.

In the end, this car was for them, and Land Rover admitted that the Evoque would not go quite as far off road as others in the line-up, although it would still go further than any rival.

Was it a sell-out? Not at all. A car must be fit for its purpose and the Evoque retained an extremely broad set of parameters; it was just that the width had shifted at both ends.

Nonetheless, compromises were still evident. Riding on 19-inch wheels and tyres, the Evoque was far from an uncomfortable urban car, but if you expected the kind of ride isolation you would have found in one of its bigger brethren, you would be searching for a long while.

The Evoque was coil sprung, with magnetorheological dampers (an option) that, in their Normal mode, were set up to retain good body control in what was still a relatively tall car.

The adapative dampers could stiffen to reduce body movements which helped to keep it tied down on poorer surfaces or at higher speeds. It was more refined than the BMW X3 – and could go further when the going got rough.

You could tie the body down further by selecting the dampers’ Dynamic mode, which made it an even more spirited hack. This came at the inevitable expense of more nobbliness over poor road finishes.

And the 2WD model? Was it a proper mud-plugging Range Rover? From our experience in comparing it with the four-wheel drive cars, it did of course possess lower limits off-road.

However, the gap in ability between the two wasn't as wide as we expected, and the 2WD Evoque was certainly more capable off-road than its more road-focused rivals at this price.

The Evoque’s steering was – only occasionally – slightly less convincing. For the most part, the electrically assisted system had all the smoothness, linearity and consistency that we had come to expect from a Jaguar or Land Rover.

At 2.4 turns lock-to-lock, it was quicker than that of other Range Rovers, and pleasingly so. But there was an occasional stiction around the straight-ahead and a slight inconsistency in weight at manoeuvring speeds.

It was still one of the stand-out systems in the class, but a touch less polished than some of its JLR siblings.

MPG & RUNNING COSTS

While the Evoque’s touring economy was poor for a 2.0-litre diesel, it was not bad by the standards of most cars costing £40,000 when new.

Of course, if economy was more of a concern, the 148bhp eD4 Evoque, with only two driven wheels, was the car of choice.

The introduction of the nine-speed automatic transmission in place of the six-speed box brought better fuel economy and CO2 enhancements than when the Evoque was first launched.

Another key addition to the Evoque line-up was Active Driveline, a system that decoupled the four-wheel drive at steady driving speeds above 22mph, sending drive to the rear axle when it was needed.

This system, which saveed fuel and reduces CO2, was initially only available as an option with the Si4 petrol engine.

VERDICT

Verdict

Model tested:

Rating: 8

Used Range Rover Evoque 2011-2018 review

Attention-grabbing looks, a classy cabin and a pleasing drive. It might be for the followers of fashion but its more than good enough for the keen driver's among us.

Good

Bold, striking looks

Good handling compromise

Off-the-scale desirability

Bad

Fidgety ride

Lofty price

Disappointing fuel economy

In some ways the Range Rover Evoque called to mind its Freelander stablemate. Not in the way it drove, looked or felt, but in the impression it left on you.

When we drove it back in 2011, some of us were merely satisfied with the small Range Rover – neither disappointed or blown away.

Like the Freelander before it, we anticipate that the Evoque will have lasting appeal
Jim Holder
Editorial director

Yet the same was true with the Freelander, and it's true appeal and enduring qualities only really told later. It was a four-star car when we tested it, and its rating hasn’t diminished at all with time. The Evoque has followed suit.

Many of us fell for the Evoque completely; its showroom and visual appeal were second to none and its dynamics were able enough to make it the premium compact SUV of choice.

Rivals like the Audi Q5, BMW X3 and Volkswagen Tiguan weren't as appealing, and lacked the same sense of occasion that the Range Rover imparted.

Sam Phillips

Title: Staff Writer

Sam joined the Autocar team in summer 2024 and has been a contributor since 2021. He is tasked with writing used reviews and first drives as well as updating top 10s and evergreen content on the Autocar website.

He previously led sister-title Move Electric, which covers the entire spectrum of electric vehicles, from cars to boats – and even trucks. He is an expert in new car news, used cars, electric cars, microbility, classic cars and motorsport.

Sam graduated from Nottingham Trent University in 2021 with a BA in Journalism. In his final year he produced an in-depth feature on the automotive industry’s transition to electric cars and interviewed a number of leading experts to assess our readiness for the impending ban on the sale of petrol and diesel cars.