It"s my car title. Review on Carol

The Range Rover Evoque has been the game changer for the brand since its launch back in 2011. It is the highest selling model in the Land Rover range and would have continued to be so even without this midlife facelift. Still, it has been five years since the Evoque first started plying on the roads and logic suggests it should get a facelift, even if it just to retain the novelty factor.The looks have been the biggest USP for the Evoque. To say the least, it looks stunning.

The SUV has been around for six years and is still easily one of the most stylish SUVs on sale. The midlife facelift here is pretty superficial, but works fine.The exterior changes can be listed in one breath. There is a new bumper with the thin LED fog lamp strips and larger scoops for air intake, new rectangular grille, additional air vents on the bonnet and new-shape DRLs and all-LED headlamps. All of this goes perfectly with the philosophy, why fix something that isn’t broke? The end effect is that the Range Rover Evoque now looks more aggressive and in this new Phoenix Orange colour draws even more attention.

Land Rover has used the modified LR2 chassis for the Evoque, with the intentions of making it sportier than rest of the models. Also it is shorter than rest of the SUVs in the Land Rover range. As expected, there are no changes to the underpinnings in the facelift and all the basic dimensions apart from the length(which has increased by 50mm) are exactly the same.This is where we found the most noticeable difference in the Evoque compared to the pre facelift version. The white interior has been replaced by sporty black with contrasting stitches in correlation with the exterior colour – in this case, orange. The cabin now matches the exterior in terms of image. Even the door trim of the new car has changes; where earlier it had beige with black inserts, the panels now use black and brown leather trims. I particularly liked the soft touch treatment given to the top of the dashboard.

But the black colour and the attached sporty feel comes at a cost. The Evoque has a tiny cabin and it feels smaller with the dark coloured interior. Plus, despite being an SUV, the Range Rover Evoque tries to offer sporty feel, which means you are sitting relatively low in the cabin and that coupled with small windows means, rear passengers are bound to feel claustrophobic.  The saving grace is the ultra large sunroof, which when open, does provide ample natural light. However, in a tropical country like India, that is not the best option, all the time.

We are dealing with a segment, where the occupants’ safety is a given and hence I will talk about the equipment list first. The Evoque gets an updated eight-inch LED screen for the infotainment unit with the Meridian system. It sounds nice, but the interface isn’t too different and not the most ideal. The touch screen requires you to take eyes off the road, additionally there are buttons all around the console and that means extra time and attention in getting the desired result.

It has plenty of features – there are surround cameras, instrument cluster with heads-up display unit, and independent screens for rear passengers, panoramic sunroof, remote to operate the music system from the rear and ambient lighting in seven colours. There are plenty of storage bins in the cabin as well, the glovebox under the dashboard and one under the driver’s armrest are deep. The door pockets on the other hand are not, these are thin and narrow and fitting even a single one litre bottle in here is a task.

The Evoque is available with only one engine option in India; the 2.2-litre turbocharged four-cylinder diesel putting out 188bhp and 420Nm of torque. The numbers look sufficient for a good drive, and test figures confirm the same. The Evoque gets to 100kmph in 10.5 second and way beyond without breaking a sweat. More importantly, with more than decent torque spread and bottom end grunt, in-gear acceleration is good. Getting from 20kmph to 80kmph takes six seconds; 40kmph to 100kmph is just a second more. The Evoque has a firm ride, especially at low speeds. Low speed drive through pot holes, uneven surfaces and even smallest of the speed breakers is uncomfortable. It does flatten out as the speed goes up, but even then, it does not have the plush ride like most of the SUVs in the segment, including the Land Rover Discovery Sport.

Land Rover uses magnetic MagneRide dampers as standard on all variants and it has kept the body roll to minimum. Also the steering is precise and the SUV turns in quickly, making it fun around corners. The only downside is a hint of understeer but that too only comes in if the Evoque is pushed hard.