News: All-new Maserati Quattroporte revealed

Maserati's new Quattroporte isn't just a (gorgeous) new luxury saloon, to take on the likes of the Mercedes S-Class and BMW 7 Series; it's also the kicking off of a massive renewal for the Maserati brand with three all-new models and a plan for 50,000 sales a year.

That's a massive increase on current Maserati sales, but Fiat bosses have big plans for its premium performance brand, and to leave clear air between it and in-house rival Ferrari, the three new models (including this new Quattroporte) are going to be as far from mid-engined supercars as is possible.

The Quattroporte, seen here, will make its official debut at the Detroit motor show in January, and will continue with Ferrari-based V8 power; most likely an updated version of the 4.7-litre engine currently found in Maserati's GranTurismo coupe.

The new Quattroporte is longer and more spacious than before, but with more light weight aluminium in its structure in an attempt to keep its bulk under control.

“Maserati stands today at the edge of an unparalleled strategic and industrial growth that will see our presence in the world rise to 50,000 units a year by 2015" Harald Wester, Maserati's CEO told us. This growth is a challenge for which Maserati has carefully prepared itself and that we all welcome with anticipation.

“It is a growth based on those values of style, elegance, quality and performance for which Maserati has always been recognised and praised in almost 100 years of history. This exciting progression will make the new Maserati a true global player with two new production sites in two different continents and a heart solidly planted in Modena, Italy, where our roots are.

“It is a growth that will be based on three new models entering two new segments of the automobile market – and it starts with the all-new 2013 Maserati Quattroporte.”

The two other models? Well, this is where the mouth really starts to water. First up, probably late next year, will be a new Ghibli; but unlike the sixties original, this Ghibli will be a four-door saloon, smaller than the Quattroporte, that will take on the likes of the BMW 5 Series and Audi A6. There may even be a high-po diesel version using a twin-turbo derivative of the VM Motori V6 diesel found in the Ghibli's distant cousin, the Chrysler 300C.

After that will be the Levante, Maserati's first foray into the SUV world and a rival to the Porsche Panamera. Expect a swoopy body atop a much-modified Jeep Grand Cherokee platform with, again, likely diesel as well as petrol, powerplants.

Features: The man who puts the Jaaaaag in Jaguar

This is the man who finally got Jaguar design right, after it had languised for years, unable to break away from a slavish devotion to a classic sixties look that just didn’t work in a modern context. Ian Callum is an astonishingly talented man, with stints at Aston Martin and Ford behind him, he swept away the retro look at Jaguar and ushered in a clean, modern style, beginning with the XK and XF and onto the sometimes controversial XJ. But was that binning of retro the key to Jaguar’s recent renaissance?


“Well, it depends what you mean by retro. I think if it means deliberately copying the past in order to try and capture something from that past, it’s the wrong thing to do. I’m afraid Jaguar had fallen into that trap, a little bit. Not overtly, or even consciously, but just by not moving on quickly enough. From my point of view, it didn’t work very well."

The 2008 XF was the final nail in the coffin that Callum had prepared for Jaguar’s dark days of producing photocopies of the 1968 XJ. Out wen the sixties, in came the 21st century with a car of near perfect proportions and gorgeous detailing. Even without the retro style of the old XJ and S-Type, there was no mistaking the XF for anything other than a Jaguar. But now Callum has another tough assignment on his hands. Styling never stands still and Jaguar has to move on again. Where now?

“I’m going through that very issue at the moment, with the design team, how we go about moving on, having established the foundations. I think the key to this is not copying the past, but what we’ve tried to do with the current lineup of cars is understand the values of what Jaguar stood for in the fifties and sixties, and that’s certainly when I admired them the most, and pin down these values about modernity, about beauty of line, about purity of surface. We’ll continue with those same values; we haven’t changed those, but very much in a 21st century way. I think that this is where we wanted to get to with XF and XJ.

“Where we go to now is probably a continuation of that, we’ve made a big leap into the future, we’re now in the right place, and I think the challenge is now to move on from that in a very positive and hopefully very successful way. It’s very difficult to know how much further to take it. As a designer I perhaps always want to take it a little further than other people feel comfortable with. But we need to find that balance.”

A big move, recently, was the launch of the high performance XKR-S model, which delved into Porsche 911 GT3 territory, with an in-your-face bodykit and aerodynamic performance given preference over Jag’s traditonal GT comfort.

“I have to admit that that car is quite aggressive, although I like to use the word ‘assertive’ more. That car is overt, because it has been designed in the wind tunnel, all these appendages you see are there for a very good reason. It’s to keep the car on the road at 300kmh. Therefore they have a function and so I’m very comfortable with they way they’ve evolved. We wouldn’t do that on a less powerful car,  but you’ll certainly see our cars becoming more assertive, and the simple reason for that is that the visual geography out there in the car world is very aggressive. If you go to America, people out there drive around in great big pickups and you need your cars to have a presence on the road and I think the idea of the cars becoming more subdued and a little more gentle in their attitude and their presence are probably over.”

Certainly, Callum’s latest creation, the F-Type, as fully revealed this week at the Paris Motor Show, follows these cues. Classically Jaguar proportions (long bonnet, short rear) but with aggressive (sorry, assertive) details like the deep side vents and the gaping grille. It’s a looker, that’s for sure.

“Even if a car is fairly ordinary, they need to shout a bit louder these days, and Jaguars certainly will be shouting.”

Road Test: Mercedes-Benz CLS 63 AMG Shooting Brake

Price as tested: €192,000 (approx)

+ Gorgeous but practical, explosive but smooth
– Thirsty and expensive. Do you care?
= Awesome performance matched with everyday usability




It’s all too temping to describe the Mercedes-Benz CLS AMG with the same terminology that you’d use for armaments and munitions. The artillery barrage of noise from the engine, the machine-gun speed of the gearchange, the sheer weapons-grade explosiveness of the performance. A great wall of Prussian might (Swabian might, actually, but Swabia never had Prussia’s PR machine), a steel hand in a steel glove with some small velvet edging.

But it’s not really like that at all. You see, AMG is in some ways a both a victim of its own publicity and a cunning usurper of its own image. The once independent tuner, now long since an official, fully-owned subsidiary of Daimler-Benz, is happy to project an image of tyre-smoking lunacy, V8-powered bombast and a general mien of being the chief of staff car for the Autobahn Aggressor Corps. And if you were to pick one of the more deliberately lairy AMG models, a Black Series C63 Coupe for example, that’s what you’d have.

This, the CLS 63 AMG Shooting Brake is rather a different kettle of seafood, and in many ways a much more pleasing one. One of the nice things about all but the most hardcore AMG models is that, long ago, Mercedes laid down a diktat that no matter how much AMG DNA is injected, the core genes must always be those of Mercedes. So comfort, usability, practicality and refinement are at least as high up the list as sideways shenanigans.

Let’s deal with the CLS Shooting Brake in isolation for a moment. An oddball idea, to take a four-door coupe, itself closely mechanically related to the saloon and estate E-Class, and turn it into an estate, but Mercedes, like so many car makers, is using its manufacturing power and its scales of economy to explore niches in the market that no-one previously knew existed. The original CLS itself was just such an odd idea, and one that proved massively successful. So who knows, maybe there are people out there who want a car with CLS looks and B&Q practicality. Certainly, I can see the appeal myself and that lushly carpeted (or American cherry wood trimmed) load bay is actually quite practical – the 590-litre luggage capacity easily matches the supposedly more upright and practical BMW 5 Series Touring or Audi A6 Avant.

Back to the AMG, and it’s hard not the feel a touch intimidated when you climb aboard first. I recently drove the new 560bhp BMW M5 and pronounced it glorious, but almost impossible to drive legally on the public road. The CLS, with 525bhp, is giving away a touch of power but with 700Nm of torque and a fast-acting twin-clutch seven-speed paddle-shift gearbox, it sure isn’t going to be hanging around.

Like the M5, you can use a series of buttons on the centre console, adjoining the stubby gear selector, to tune the suspension, gearbox and throttle response to your liking. Or you can simply jab a finger at the button marked AMG and get the full-on, full noise performance.

Do so and... and the CLS still feels remarkably docile. Oh, the 5.5-litre twin-turbo V8 still snarls and barks as you’d want it to, and the horizon is reeling in towards you at a massive rate, but it never feels intimidating or overwhelming. The power seems to be delivered at a more steady rate than the all-of-a-sudden thump of the M5. The CLS just feels like it leaves a tiny cushion between you and the serious end of the performance spectrum, and that is all to the good when it comes to driving on the road with some level of sanity.

Of course, start to push a little harder, build up your confidence and things really start to come to life. Suddenly, the scenery is flashing by, the steering, accessed through a small, squared-off, suede-wrapped wheel, is alive with information and devilishly quick at getting the CLS’ snub nose pointed into an apex. The whole car feels delightfully slim-hipped and agile, seeming almost to hang weightless between movements, never exhibiting slack yet also never feeling as if it’s going to turn and bite. Add in some wet surfaces or slippery autumnal leaves, and that may change but the CLS’ demeanour is mostly that of a pussycat.

All of which makes it one of the most bewitching performance cars I have ever sampled. Beautiful, practical, comfortable, refined and yet with the kind of rocket-assisted sledgehammer performance that you subliminally expect from an AMG, all wrapped in a delightfully unusual package. It won’t be to all tastes, and certainly won’t be within the reaches of many pockets (235g/km and 10-litres per 100km how are you?) but as an icon of what can be done with modern high performance technology, it is little short of ballistic.

Mercedes-Benz CLS 63 AMG Shooting Brake
Price as tested: €192,000 (approx)
Range price: €70,000 (approx) to €192,000 (approx)
Capacity: 5,461cc
Power: 525bhp
Torque: 700Nm
Top speed: 250kmh
0-100kmh: 4.4sec
Economy: 10.1-100km (27.9mpg)
CO2 emissions: 235g/km
Tax Band: G. €2,258 road tax
Euro NCAP rating: Not yet tested

Road Test: Opel Astra GTC 2.0 CDTI 165 Sport

Price as tested: €25,495

+ Gorgeous styling, spacious, excellent chassis (with FlexRide), well priced
– Grumbly diesel engine, inert steering
= Best Astra ever

So the question, before we even get started, is; who will buy a coupe in 2012 Ireland? In the heyday of the now-defunct Celtic Tiger, the Opel Astra Sport Hatch (as the previous, slinky, three-door coupe Astra was known) sold like the proverbial heated cakes, making up around a third of Irish Astra sales, when the European average was around 15%.

Now though? Who can say? Opel is making the relatively sensible prediction of “less than 1,000” sales of its new Astra GTC coupe in Ireland next year, which seems a bit of a lo-ball figure for a car as good looking as this.

Being good looking is for a coupe as much of a raison d’etre as it is for Derek Zoolander, and the Astra GTC certainly hits its glamour marks spot on. The standard Astra 5-door hatch is hardly ugly, but this coupe version is really very handsome. 15mm lower, 40mm wider and 10mm longer in the wheelbase, the GTC looks low, lean and very tasty. Some will still prefer the more understated charms of its closest rival, the VW Scirocco, but it’s a clear nose in front, to these eyes, of the over-styled Renault Megane Coupe. It is a bit colour sensitive though. Yellow looks awful. ‘Mineral White,’ which is actually more of a matte pale grey, looks gorgeous on a sunny day, but will likely look dreary and washed out under Irish drizzle. Better stick with red.

It shares only three exterior components with the more family-friendly five-door; the radio aerial, the door handle and the door mirror. While you’d hardly mistake it for any other family line, the two cars are actually radically different. Even underneath, they diverge. The basic mechanical package is the same, but the GTC ditches the 5-door’s conventional McPherson strut front suspension in favour of the much more sophisticated, and expensive, GM-designed HiPer Strut. In simple terms, the HiPer strut is there to make the GTC drive with a great deal more verve than the 5-door Astra.

And it does so. Oddly, it’s rather lacking in true sporting sensations. A car so ground-hugging as this, you would assume, would be rather more direct and to the point about its sportiness. But the Astra GTC instead impresses initially with a healthy dose of refinement and comfort. Lower and stiffer the suspension may be, but the combination of HiPer struts and the optional electronic FlexRide dampers means that the GTC rides with a firm calmness that belies its hot hatch looks. In fact, it feels more like a big, comfy GT car at first.

Show it some corners, and it reacts well. The electric power steering robs you of true road feel (whatever the engineers may claim) but there is excellent grip, sharp turn in and real poise to be found. Keen drivers won’t be disappointed, even if ultimately they would be better served in the Scirocco.

One area where the GTC notably lags behind its rivals is in the engine department. The range topping engine, at least until the 280bhp turbocharged OPC high-performance variant arrives next year, is the 165bhp 2.0- CDTI diesel. With 380Nm of torque working its way through the front wheels, it never feels slow, and its on-paper 0-100kmh time of 8.9secs simply doesn’t reflect its muscular in-gear acceleration feel. The claimed fuel consumption figure of 4.8-litres per 100km and the Co2 emissions of 127g/km mean that even this range-topper will not be too expensive to run. But boy, is it noisy. There’s a constant obviously diesel clatter at low rpm that never really goes away, until it is drowned out by wind and tyre noise at motorway cruising speeds. Even then, the slightest touch of the throttle pedal will have it grumbling away to itself, and a distant turbo whistle, that sounds disconcertingly like a far-off ambulance siren, makes itself known at urban speeds.

At least the cabin plays a strong hand. With a layout and switchgear lifted straight from the impressive Insignia saloon, it could hardly do otherwise and everything looks and feels much more expensive than the entry price of €22,995 (for the 1.4T 120bhp petrol) would have you think. There’s even decent space in the back and boot; Opel engineers’ struggles to make the GTC as practical and useable as the 5-door paying, mostly, off.

So, as we asked when we came in, who will buy it? Younger buyers, drawn by its enticing looks and sporty promise, will likely not be able to afford it, or at least not be able to raise sufficient credit. Older buyers, able to pay the sticker price, will probably shun it in favour of a bigger, more practical Insignia. Which leaves the Astra GTC in an unfortunate middle ground.

Its clever front suspension and sharp-edged looks mean it’s without question the most impressive of the current Astra range. It’s not quite as satisfying to drive as an equivalent Scirocco, but is far cheaper. It’s more expensive than a Megane Coupe, but far more powerful and overtly sporting. Fix the diesel engine’s refinement and engineer a touch more feel into the steering and it could be a world-beater. But, their hands forced by economic realities, few enough buyers will ever realise what a good car it is.


Facts & Figures

Opel Astra GTC 2.0 CDTI 165 Sport
Price as tested: €25,495
Range price: €22,995 to €30,495
Capacity: 1,956cc
Power: 165bhp
Torque: 380Nm
Top speed: 210kmh
0-100kmh: 8.9sec
Economy: 5.9l-100km (58.8mpg)
CO2 emissions: 127g/km
VRT Band: B. €156 road tax
Euro NCAP rating: Not yet tested

Road Test: Jeep Grand Cherokee 3.0 CRD Limited

Price as tested: €54,995

+ Handsome looks, comfy, decent chassis, good quality, excellent engine
– Some cheap trim, body rolls a lot
= One of the most pleasant surprises of the year


Managing a brand is tricky. Every new product has to be good, slightly better than its predecessors, yet not so much that owners of the old one feel gypped. Innovation is everything yet you can’t get too avant-garde, or your risk alienating the technophobes.

And even the best get it wrong. Coca-Cola royally stuffed it up in the early eighties with New Coke. Most of you probably don’t remember it and that’s a good thing. It was terrible, and it nearly killed the company. Likewise, Apple, the most valuable company in the world right now, once (or twice) got it spectacularly wrong. Neither the Newton Message Pad nor the Pippin games console set the world alight. How did these companies recover from such failures? By getting back to what they’re best at and digging deep to create some truly great products.

Which brings us nicely to the Jeep Grand Cherokee. When Jeep first began its trans-Atlantic foray in the early nineties (well, the first since 1945 at any rate), the Grand Cherokee was the star of the show. Big, bluffly handsome and very American in its value for money, it nevertheless had a very real tilt at the vaunted Range Rover’s luxury SUV crown. All that let it down was the lack of a decent diesel engine.

Come the 2005 model and all the omens looked great. A new body and chassis, and a new diesel engine from then owners of Chrysler, Mercedes-Benz. It should have been brilliant. It was actually awful. The engine was fine but the gimpy styling wasn’t, nor was the crummy, cramped cabin and the ride and handling, with those big, hefty live axles, was utterly dreadful. Never mind the Range Rover, launched a year after the Land Rover Discovery III, the Grand Cherokee should have been a convincing rival to the Disco but instead struggled to even be an also-ran.

Combine that with a pretty poor Cherokee and an utterly dreadful double-whammy of 1st-gen Compass and Patriot and you have a brand rattling and creaking under the strain of some pretty serious duds.

But thankfully, the Jeep brand is a strong one and like Coke and Apple, it regrouped, delved deep and started to do things better. Should we expect any less from the only car brand ever to be name checked as a war-winner by none other than Brig. General Dwight D. Eisenhower? Resilience is in the blood.

As with the 2002 Range Rover, the new Jeep Grand Cherokee has been developed under the auspices of one car company and launched under another. In the Rangie’s case, it was developed and prototyped by BMW but Ford swept in the year before its launch to buy out Land Rover and so got the kudos for one of the most iconic SUVs of all time.

For the Grand Cherokee, work began while Jeep, owned by Chrysler, was indepedent, hived off from former owners Daimler-Benz and then under the control of investment fund Cerberus. So, there’s rather a lot of Mercedes DNA deep within the structure of the Grand Cherokee. In fact, beneath its all-American skin, it’s very much a Mercedes ML. And the biggest benefit of that is that the GC now does away with the awful live axles of old and switches instead to a much more car-like construction, with proper, modern, independent suspension with air springs.

The 241bhp, 550Nm 3.0-litre V6 diesel is a Merc job too, and goes about its business with remarkable refinement. It can grumble and moo a bit under heavy throttle openings, but that you suspect is more down to the old-school five-speed automatic gearbox, which simply doesn’t have the spread of ratios that’s required these days. A fix is on the way in late 2012, when the ZF-supplied 8-speed box comes on stream, so you can expect to see improvements in the current fuel consumption and Co2 figures of 8.3-litres per 100km and 218g/km. Still those are good enough for a near-enough 1,000km touring range from the 80-litre fuel tank and at least it’s not in the top band for road tax, so you’ll pay €1,050 a year while Land Rover drivers must pay top whack.

That switch to car-like construction and suspension has brought one of two massive improvements the new GC displays over its predecessor. While before, you had to put up with a truly dreadful ride quality and ponderous handling, now there is serenity. The ride can still occasionally be upset by sudden, sharp shocks, but that’s pretty much endemic to all vehicles that have air springs and big, heavy wheels and tyres. For the most part, the Grand Cherokee displays impressive composure, riding comfortably and dealing with swiftly taken corners with only slightly too much body roll. You can sharpen things up by flicking the Selec-Terrain system into Sport (there are also Snow, Auto, Mud and Sand modes) but that disables the ESP, something we were loathe to do given the recent weather conditions.

Which is a shame, as when you hustle it, the GC responds well. The steering is a touch long-winded, and there’s about as little road feel as you’d expect, but give it a challenging, twisty road, and it responds with aplomb. In fact, it treads an almost perfectly judged line between the two Land Rover products that most closely rival it. It’s not as smooth and refined as a Discovery, but it’s more responsive and rolls less, and it’s not as sharp and tall-hot-hatch-y as a Range Rover Sport but is much comfier and rides more calmly. If that sounds like an uncomfortable middle ground, it’s not. More of a finely judged compromise.

The cabin is a slightly less well judged compromise, but only in parts. Mostly, it’s very good with palpable quality, lots of space and very comfy seats. The boot, at 782-litres, is equally massive, but it does suffer from intrusion into the shape from what looks like the fuel tank. As for the rest of the cabin, a few small details let it down, such as main instruments, some lower-level plastics and a few switches that have no place on a €50K car (mind you, that’s a criticism you could level at rivals from Land Rover and Toyota too) and little touches detract from the overall sense of quality, like a gear shifter that looks and feels cheap and clunky and touch-screen controls for the infotainment system that appear to have been lifted from a Sega NES.

But these are but small quibbles, the stuff of a critic’s nit-picking. The overall effect of the Grand Cherokee is... charm. That’s a dangerous quality, because while charm can cover up a multitude of problems, it can never erase the fundamental failings of a poor vehicle. The last Grand Cherokee had charm, but it was still crap.

This one isn’t. The charm is still very much there, and it’s a blue-collar American charm that means that the GC feels less ostentatious (even net of the big chrome grille and wheels) than a Range Rover Sport. But it has only the mildest shortcomings to cover up for. Honestly, the Grand Cherokee has turned out to be one of the surprises of the year. A thoroughly well-sorted, dynamically capable and above all characterful and interesting vehicle, that’s well-priced in its segment and never less than welcoming and engaging as soon as you sit into the high-set driver’s seat. We just wish every new car could be so charming.


Facts & Figures

Jeep Grand Cherokee 3.0 CRD Limited
Price as tested: €54,995
Range price: TBC
Capacity: 2,987cc
Power: 241bhp
Torque: 550Nm
Top speed: 202kmh
0-100kmh: 8.2sec
Economy: 8.3l-100km (34.0mpg)
CO2 emissions: 218g/km
VRT Band: F. €1,050 road tax
Euro NCAP rating: Not yet tested

Road Test: Land Rover Range Rover Evoque SD4 4x4 Pure

Price as tested: €40,975

In brief: Stunning to look at, excellent to drive and amazingly capable off-road. Hard to see it being anything other than a hit, but it’s not as affordable as it seems.


Well, this is odd. When your brain hears the words Range Rover it still expects to see a towering two-tonne hunk of metal, clambering over rocks and gorges before depositing its tuxedo-wearing occupants at the nearest five-star hotel. You expect big.

You do not expect to see something roughly Golf-sized (or Golf Plus at any rate), that fits neatly within the confines of a standard car parking space and whose roofline doesn’t extend above your eyeline.

But then the Range Rover Evoque is a very different kind of Range Rover, and truly is a turning point for Land Rover as a whole. Before Evoque, Land Rovers were are, obviously, directly descended from the go-anywhere Maurice Wilks original. Post Evoque, the brand is going to be more about watching its Co2 figures and keeping physical bloat well and truly under control.

The Evoque shares much, mechanically, with the current Land Rover Freelander and will be built in the same factory in Liverpool. But while it’s related, clearly there has been some serious re-engineering work going on under the skin. For a start, there’s the Co2 figure, surely the most important co2 rating that Land Rover will ever release. Pick our four-wheel-drive, 190bhp test car and you’ll emit 149g/km and pay €302 a year in road tax. Compared to the previous lowest Land Rover figure, the 158g/km emitted by the front-drive Freelander.

But wait, coming very soon is a 150bhp front-drive Evoque, whose Co2-figure will be good enough for a Band B, €156 road tax rating. Now that is a breakthrough for the Land Rover and Range Rover brands. Who can accuse the Evoque of being a Chelsea Tractor, even if you’ll need the reticence of a saint to match the claimed fuel consumption figure.

But while it might not be a gas-guzzler, is it still a proper Land Rover? Well, yes and no was what I assumed would be the predictably complicated answer. It looks the part. It might be small, but Gerry McGovern’s design team has succeeded in grafting on all of the appropriate Range Rover styling cues, especially the big, castellated bonnet. It also looks great, to these eyes anyway (better in five-door form than as a more-expensive coupe); a curiously enticing combination of bijou but battle-hardened. Like a Chihuahua with an assault rifle.

Inside, it marks the best Land Rover cabin since the 2002 Range Rover. Gone are the too-cheap main dials of the Discovery and Range Rover Sport, and gone too are the acres of tinny grey plastic that blight the Freelander. However much was down to the involvement of Victoria Beckham (hired by Land Rover as a ‘design consultant’ for the Evoque’s cabin) is debatable, but it’s a success in here. Excellent cabin quality is backed up by understatedly fashionable design and a surprising (given that sloping roofline) amount of space. Love the sculpted leather seats (best seen in a natural tan finish) and the main dials that glow cherry red in Dynamic mode. Love too the surround camera system (whose front cameras dip beneath the waves when wading through standing water) and the simple, clear control layout. Hate (well, maybe hate is slightly too strong) the fiddly, annoying touch-screen infotainment system. A big override button would be useful here, Land Rover. Still, it’s a very impressive cabin that doesn’t sacrifice practicality on the altar of  style. Thanks, Posh.

To drive, you won’t be surprised if I tell you it feels much like a Freelander (no bad thing) but better. The steering is surprisingly light, and while the Evoque can be hustled very satisfyingly down a twisting road, you are always aware of a slight numbness to the steering (even in Dynamic mode, with the optional adaptive suspension set to firm) and it makes the already broad-shouldered Evoque feel wider still. There’s also a slight sense of disconnect between the sportily firm ride quality and that finger-light steering. So, while you can feel the hand of Jaguar’s legendary chassis engineer, Mike Cross, as you drive (in fact, it feels surprisingly like the original Toyota RAV4; agile, chuckable, fun) there is an unmissable sense that the Evoque’s dynamic ability has been compromised by the need for fuel-saving electric power steering. In that sense, it isn’t the first, it won’t be the last and it’s certainly not the worst.

Actually, it felt much better in the last version we got to try. In order, we drove a 2.0 turbo petrol Coupe automatic, a 190bhp diesel coupe automatic and, finally, a 190bhp diesel manual five-door. Perhaps it’s down to the weight distribution, or possibly the fact that you’re more in command of the drivetrain, but the manual diesel felt the best balanced of the three.

But can it off-road? Oh buy, can it. Land Rover was doubtlessly carefully controlling the loose surfaces and off-road sections we got to drive the Evoque on, but it climbed and crossed incredibly tough terrain. It will doubtless be stymied by the sort of deep mud and jagged rocks that a bigger Defender or Discovery would surmount, but that is hardly a shame for a car that can trace its chassis roots to the Ford Mondeo. It is in fact startling capable (assuming that you select a four-wheel drive model, of course), even shrugging off the accidental removal of some under-bumper trim on a too-enthusiastically tackled stretch. Ahem.

In town, it feels most at home and that is hardly surprising. SUVs are most commonly used in town, and the substantially female audience that Land Rover is looking to attract with the Evoque is predominantly urbanite. But even in town, in the middle of Liverpool (the Evoque’s home; it’s built in Land Rover’s Halewood plant just outside the Scouse City) Land Rover couldn’t resist demonstrating the Evoque’s urban assault capability. And so, we nosed the Evoque ito a foot-and-a-half of murky brown water inside a 3km disused railway tunnel that runs under the city. It was full of water, mud, slime, rubble and dirt and yet the pretty, urbane, concept-car-look Evoque pushed effortlessly through it all. Perhaps city councils could consider it as a potential congestion-saving measure and open up such tunnels for intra-urban commuting. Land Rovers only allowed.

However, we do have one or two issues and the first is with the pricing structure. €40k for a 150bhp 4WD ‘Pure’ model sounds good, but it’s pretty bare of decent equipment. True, the front-drive model will be cheaper still, but effectively the Evoque is going to be a €50k car if you want yours to have Range Rover appropriate equipment levels. And that is going to make life hard for the Evoque, as it pushes the price above that of an equivalent (but larger) BMW X3, BMW 5 Series Touring, Audi Q5, Mercedes E-Class Estate and many, many more. The Range Rover connection means that, even at €50k, it’s still a bargain compared to full-size RR models, but this is a pricey trinket, be in no doubt.

But a proper Land Rover? Yes, it is, just not as we know it thus far. It’s not a Defender descendant. It’s the start of something entirely new.


Facts & Figures

Land Rover Range Rover Evoque TD4 190 4x4 Pure 5-door
Price as tested: €40,975
Price range: €TBA to €66,920
Capacity: 2,179cc
Power: 190bhp
Torque: 420Nm
Top speed: 200kmh
0-100kmh: 10.0sec
Economy: 5.7l-100km (49.6mpg)
CO2 emissions: 149g/km
Road Tax Band: C €302
Euro NCAP rating: Not yet tested