Month: April 2013

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Friday – Style At A Price

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Jeremy Anyone who thinks the Evoque is just a squashed Range Rover should consider this – despite the low roofline, I’ve discovered that there is enough room inside for five adults to sit comfortably.

Admittedly, the glass, full-length glass roof (a £1300 option) helps reduce the feeling of claustrophia if your rear-seat passengers are over 6ft tall and don’t like the narrow side windows. But overall, the leather-clad cabin in the SD4 is a very relaxing place to be.

If you are wondering how Land Rover designers managed that, well, it’s probably at the expense of a decent-sized boot. It’s best described as adequate – but as Malin the Viszla will tell you, it’s nowhere near as big as a Freelander either.

And then there is rear visibility. The small back window really does hinder vision, not helped by the sloping roofline at the back. (a standard issue Labrador will have his head pressed hard against the roof).

Loving the Evoque but all this style does have to come at a price…

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Thursday – A Range Rover For The New Generation

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Jeremy My late friend Tom Love was one of the first people in the country to own a Range Rover. He began a lifelong obsession with the 4×4 in 1970, when the original Rangey was only offered with three-doors and vinyl matting on the floor to make it easier to wash clean with a hose pipe!

Back then, Tom would be invited down from his home in Scotland to collect his new Range Rover from the factory. He would stay for lunch with one of the directors and then drive back home. The top brass would often ask how Tom thought they could improve the Rangey – to which Tom told them ‘add two more doors and an automatic gearbox‘. Strangely, enough, it wasn’t long before Land Rover did just that…

I’m not sure what Tom would have made of the Evoque. He certainly wouldn’t have fitted in it, being a large man who liked red wine and only ate steak, just steak – without potato or salad. I’m pretty sure he would have disapproved of the bling wheels and red seats but he would also fully understand how a brand like Range Rover needed to evolve to survive.

With starting prices at around £30,000, the Evoque has truly brought Range Rover ownership to a whole new market. It is beautifully put together too – with a first class interior, quality fittings and doors that shut with a reassuring clunk. Tom would have liked that, if he could have squeezed in…

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Wednesday – Fishing For Compliments

wheelJeremy Why is it fisherman drive weird cars? I shouldn’t put them all in the same pool but walking around my favourite lake this morning, there was an oddball collection of vehicles surrounding the Range Rover. Think Mitsubishi Pajero, 4×4 Nissan vanette and the obligatory Subaru Impreza import.

Quite what people get out of watching a lifeless float on a grey, April day is beyond me but when I returned to the Evoque later, two of them were admiring my wheels instead. By that I mean the fully chromed, 20-inch alloys that come as standard on the SD4 Dynamic.

I’m not a huge fan of sparkly wheels – even chrome spokes look naff on an E-Type – but I am starting to warm to the Evoque’s set of four. You would expect them on a BMW X5 but on a more introverted Range Rover, it doesn’t smack too much of horrifying bling.

Maybe it is because the Evoque sits so low, or possibly the Firenze red paintwork but I’m with the fishermen in living them.

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Tuesday – In The Mode

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Jeremy My 1972 Series 3 Land Rover has a lot of metal rods poking up from the floor. Apart from a rather vague gearstick, there’s one for overdrive, two for high and low ratio gears, with a handbrake position in a pretty awkward spot too.

I mention this because the Evoque has none – not even a conventional handbrake. Gears are selected via a rotating dial, the handbrake is push button, and to select different suspension settings, a selection of buttons is provided. It’s totally foolproof – provided you read the instruction manual.

This is all designed to make using the baby Range Rover on various terrains a much simpler process. Pressing a button is easier than wrestling with a stick but for some reason, it doesn’t feel as intuitive. Jump in the Evoque and you might want to know what everything does before attempting to go off-road.

Despite its short dimensions, the Evoque is comfortable on city streets in ‘Normal’ suspension mode but for more spirited driving, the ‘Dynamic’ setting is better. I imagine most drivers won’t even touch these buttons unless they are going off-road proper but the choice is there.

So far, the Evoque is proving the perfect vehicle for all driving conditions. Only Malin the Hungarian Viszla is finding the boot a bit small – but then he has been used to a Series 3 for five years…

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Monday – The Evoque Has Landed

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Jeremy Let’s face it, SUVs don’t often come out of the design studio eye-catchingly beautiful. The need for all-round ability means good looks often have to be sacrificed for load capacity and extra ground clearance.

Which is why the Range Rover Evoque has genuinely broken the mould. At last, here is a compact SUV that you don’t need children, dogs or an interesting sport involving Lycra to justify ownership.

Our Firenze red Evoque has just arrived and already I’m looking for excuses to drive it. Low, squat and purposeful, the slim side windows and low roof give this Range Rover a thoroughly modern appeal.

The contemporary shape makes other SUVs look positively old-fashioned by comparison. We also have some suitably bling chrome wheels on our test car – let’s see how they look after seven days of Wiltshire mud and dirt…

Not quite so sure about the red leather interior but I’ll let Jessica have her say on that later in the week.

 

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Sunday – A Car For All Seasons

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Jeremy It’s the last day for our 6 Series Convertible and, predictably, it’s raining! The soft-top has been down for about 20 minutes in ten days. What the hell happened to spring?

Despite the climatic challenges, this is the most accomplished convertible on the market today. It is an outstanding grand tourer, eating up the miles on our trip to Le Mans, as well as coping with cobbled streets and twisty A-roads en route through Normandy.

Big convertibles can look clumsy and awkward (just consider the Mercedes E-class) but the BMW is eye-catching from every angle. A sophisticated and elegant machine, can you think of a cabriolet that ticks quite so many boxes?

Jessica The BMW is so refined that for a convertible, you wouldn’t know it was a soft-top. The rear end is much prettier than the previous version, with a much more sculpted boot line. It’s a convertible that works on every level, with so much technology, refinement and style that it more than merits the price.

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Saturday – Toys For Boys

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Jeremy It’s cold, wet and almost halfway through April. The only good news is that Lewis Hamilton is on pole for the Chinese Grand Prix. Ever wondered what a Formula 1 racing driver does when they are sat in on the grid for endless minutes before the start?

I asked ex-driver Martin Brundle the same question a few months back – he told me it was all about focus and concentration. At least when I’m stuck in a traffic jam, the 6 Series has plenty to keep me entertained.

This morning, I discovered the iDrive infotainment system can log on to the internet when the car is stationary. You can then use Google Earth information to request photographs of any destination you have keyed into the satellite navigation system. How clever is that?

The sat nav screen can be split to show a route on one side, and other information on the other – or you can have one giant screen showing the route instead.

Of all the information on tap, my favourite has to be the car status page, which uses a picture of the BMW and numbered areas around the bodywork. Select a number and you can clock through to everything from tyre pressures to the windscreen washer bottle level.

Sadly, there is nothing to adjust the miserable British weather, so the Convertible   may be collected before we can really enjoy the power hood and sunshine and report back.

 

 

 

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Friday – Don’t Mess With My BMW

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Jeremy It’s a typically French thing to do. Having lived in the Midi Pyrenees for 18 months I feel justified in saying that many French people have no respect for cars.

So perhaps I shouldn’t have been that surprised when a woman on the Brittany Ferries ship lazily opened her car door against the bumper of the 640d and didn’t show a trace of remorse. Even though I was sat in the driver’s seat and at least four other motorists saw her do it, no apology was forthcoming.

The upshot? Well, if you are going to whack the door of a Citroen Picasso against a robust BMW, chances are you will come off worse. Her year-old MPV now has a lovely crease in the paintwork and the Beemer is unblemished.

It’s ironic that we took the 6 Series Convertible to France hoping for sunshine. It poured down for most of the trip! Today I’m hoping to finally drop the roof as England sees the first signs of spring. Will let you know how it goes tomorrow…

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Thursday – 6 Series Motoring Masterclass

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Jeremy After 25 years of driving cars for a living, a milestone has been reached with the BMW 640d. A brief calculation suggests I’ve tested some 1200 new models and owned at least 30 – few of which have lasted longer than six months in the garage (2012 started with a 5 Series Touring, which morphed in to a Boxster, then a new style Beetle and finally became a 630d Coupe).

Apart from a Porsche 993 Targa in 1997 and a Caterham 7 in 2001, only the 630d has come close. So, as CarCouture waits on the seafront at Caen for the ferry home, the new 640d we have on test is going straight to the top of the pile – it’s one machine I don’t want to part with.

Why? Well, I thought my own 630d was one of the most competent, well-built and equipped cars I have ever driven. Sure, a 911 goes faster, a Caterham is more fun and a Ferrari turns heads but as a package, the 6 Series takes some beating.

Compared to the old 630d, the 640d feels very similar. The technology has advanced, with head up display, keyless entry and even more seat adjustment but otherwise, I wouldn’t say there is an awful lot of difference between them. And I loved the 630d – so the 640d is just that little bit better.

It’s a very grown up, sophisticated and stylish convertible that wants for little, apart from easier access to the rear seats and better rear view visibility. I still have the weekend to fall out of love with the BMW but it just isn’t going to happen….

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Tuesday – Singing in the Rain

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Jessica We have left the contrasting elements of Le Mans behind, from the medieval city with Roman walls, cobbled streets (frequented by Hollywood filmmakers for movies such as Cerano de Bergerac), 14th Century stained glass in the cathedral on an epic scale, to the vast expanse of the Le Mans 24 hour circuit poised for the next pilgrimage and we are off to visit Giverny the home of Monet and his garden.

The BMW takes us with absolute ease and comfort through very British driving rain across expanses of open countryside on roads which, despite the conditions, are hugely enjoyable to drive on, overtaking (with a handy co pilot for vision) is a breeze and the heads up display keeps you up to date with your speed it feels very Top Gun fighter jet.

Sadly due to weather we did not speed drive around Le Mans in a Bugatti or have the roof down on the BMW for any length of time but the car was no less appealing and satisfying to drive as a result.

My only difficulty with this car so far is planning my seating position with the seemingly infinite buttons to be pushed, pulled lifted or pressed, I found being a passenger most testing as somehow I could not get the ideal position for a long drive. (Could be my build of course, however you would have thought with all that choice, being above average height would not be an issue).