Gadgetory

Range Rovers are supposed to be big square broad-shouldered things so what's that badge doing on this let's drive the 2012 Range Rover Evoque check the tech evokes one of those cars that made it off the concept show circuit in pre intact form this is the old lrx we've shown you this in car show videos for a couple of years I think and it arrives looking a lot like that unattainable thing on the floor it's an audacious move by Land Rover because it's the lightest thing that they make the most efficient thing they've ever made I think and it comes not just in the 4-door we have here but also in a coupe you better like attention to drive one of these because people on the street will not leave you alone the whole Range Rover Land Rover thing is a mess just know that at 44k base the Evoque is the sexiest thing the company makes and the second cheapest between the LR 2 and the LR 4 but it's a Range Rover on those other two our Land Rovers though they're all made by Land Rover whose parent is Tata and sister is Jaguar yeah the first thing you notice when you get in this guy is a lot of very nice stylish really British modern luxury super soft materials that are really nicely done top bottom nice brushed aluminum finisher that might actually be aluminium which you almost never see in cars under about 80 grand now our evoke has got the top pack it's kind of the CNET package if you want to roll that way it's $4,000 they call it the Premium Package and that's going to bring you a lot of technology including hard drive based GPS navigation that is not standard on this car somewhat controversial eight you do though get an eight inch LCD touchscreen which is frustratingly inset in the dash why do that if I go to put a finger on some of those buttons it's almost too deep for me to get there without contorting and kind of intentionally digging in there a novel and very useful homescreen they've given you media navigation and phone status almost like a Microsoft Windows Metro look you get a lot in a few amount of tiles I like that here's a button called mode that lets me toggle between my four basic categories of media sources a whole bunch of button pressing it's a whole lot better if I just go to audio video and direct select what I want why would I ever roll through mode it's just a waste of button egde if I go enter a destination I start typing something in every time I type a letter it does a screen flash to black why would you do that it's so noisy and it slows down the execution dumb now once you get past all this stuff when your blood stops to boil and merely simmers you've actually got a pretty good audio rig here it's a Meridian brand system I find the sound is actually pretty good the bass rig is 380 watts 10 speakers plus a sub all the modern sources are here including optical disk auxilary USB for a thumb drive or ipod as well if you want HD radio and satellite though it's a separate add-on those two go together for 750 and that $4,000 premium pack is it also brought us GPS brings us hard drive get this they say the capacity is 10 CDs or DVDs that's like saying the capacity is 10 PS or 10 rutabagas completely different and the Premium Package also brings you five surround cameras as well as DVD playback 825 watts and 16 speakers plus a sub now here's our selector for the transmission this is not enough to control the interface a lot of folks might think that looking at it standard positions including sport which changes your throttle and transmission behavior then down here you've got your terrain response settings with a kind of bizarre use of icon graphics I'd like these to be in English or whatever the market language is because these don't mean a lot to me this one says car this one says car driving in the snow with a lot of weeds this one is apparently stuck in the mud next to a Christmas tree farm and over here is flat tire and next to a cactus electric parking brake control that tells me nothing about whether my parking brake is on or off how did that get by the feds there's an indicator up there buried next to the word Range Rover but why can't I look at the button and say car is going to roll away or car is not going to roll away this is controversial above me here hit the big button huge panoramic glass roof I mean that thing goes from here down to the Cape of Good Hope the problem is you're going to need lots of hope if you want to get any ventilation out of there because it doesn't move now under the hood it's like a Marten and low this reunion landrover and ford back together again because this is Ford's 2-liter four-cylinder EcoBoost motor that means direct injection and turbo charging to red-hot technologies to give this guy 240 horse 251 foot-pounds of torque this vehicle way is an amazingly light for Land Rover 3,900 pounds but gets up to 60 and 7.1 thanks to the nice torque curve on this guy and delivers 18 28 mpg the greenest lightest thing this company makes now one thing a bunch of us on the CNET team noticed is you can't drive this guy real smoothly the power is real Sergey it's basically got a two-position accelerator on and off I hate that that's not to say it doesn't have plenty of power it does that's almost part of the problem an engine like this when it's peaky having really good numbers is really peaking steering's nice and tight and precise and the whole thing feels lighter on its feet than just about anything else Land Rover makes or has made that's because of the low weight and they got a lot of that done by using a lot of aluminum and composites in body panels and doors around the vehicle now one thing that little engined cars can't get around is they make a little engine sound when you get into them and that can take away from the feeling of luxury status or quality when you buy a car like this you don't buy this thing just on its attributes you can get most of this in some kind of Toyota probably and this car probably should feel a little richer than it does at this price and brand point and also thanks to the lightweight and some good suspension engineering this vehicle handles really well very car lock luckily it comes with a backup camera and the optional five cameras we saw because it's got the visibility of a Countach out the back which is to say just about nothing