Range Rover Evoque Si4 Review

No matter who starts writing about the new Range Rover, the Evoque, can't help themselves not to talk about its great looks.Indeed this is a new breed of Range Rovers.Contrary to the classic design philosophy that Range Rover kept for the past decades the Evoque looks high tech,futuristic and sporty.In America there's a whole hysteria of everyone wanting to buy this and now the waiting lists have become very long and if you want to buy one you might have to wait until July or August next to get it.

For now the only available gas engine for the RR Evoque is the Si4.The Si4 is a 2.0 Liter 4 cylinder turbo that makes 240 HP and 340 NM of torque.Si4 is a very good engine but the real life fuel economy of this engine especially in a urban environment is quite bad.It only gets around 18 Mpg around town and 28 on the highway.Another disadvantage of this model is the price which is very high.Yes I known this is a Range Rover but its a compact SUV a small Range Rover it should cost nearly as much as a normal Range Rover.To be honest these are the only disadvantages. 





If you rev up the engine the Evoque Si4 sounds like a true sports car.The performance is more than decent for an SUV and the feeling you get is that you drive a sporty car.This version with the Si4 turbo engine gets from 0 to 60 in 7 seconds.At low revs the engine feels very refined with torque always present no matter which gear are you in and its extremely silent.This of course make the car very comfortable for long journeys especially on the highway.Regarding the comfort the version we tested wasn't equipped with neither sports suspension or seats.The standard suspension is much more comfortable and the ride is affected mainly only by the huge rims that make the car look to good.So if you bought a Range Rover Evoque with sport suspension and seats you should also raise money for a kidney transplant.

In Dynamic mode even without the sport suspension the Terrain Response system continues to ensure a sporty handling feeling through tight corners and the difference between this mode and the normal one is pretty obvious.The steering is very well set this model missing just one more ingredient to be brilliant, the recently introduced 8 speed automatic on some Jag models, but the six speed automatic despite the fact that is makes the car be less fuel efficient still works great. 

 Even though the price its higher than it should be its compensated by the level of equipment offered by Range Rover.Okay if you stick your hand in the "options jar" you can easily add 10 G's to the starting price.I strongly advise against the sport seats on the Si4 version.Its just no worth it considering this an SUV powered by a 4 cylinder engine.It might be a turbo but its not the kind of SUV that has sports car performance so go for the comfort.Don't get me wrong its a fun thing to drive but the sport seats and suspension are just ruining the ride with little improvement on the dynamics so its really not worth to pay the extra cash for them.
After spending a little time with the Range Rover Evoque Si4 I can say that to all the qualities of the standard Evoque are added the qualities of the Si4 engine which makes capable and refined.Its fuel economy problem will be easily fix when an 8 speed automatic version will be released probably in six months or a year.The level of equipment we chose was the Prestige.This is the right choice because of the very comfortable seats and the level of equipment offered.We can honestly say that this is one of the most interesting SUV's money can buy at this time.