There’s an old joke about the number of pristine, perfectly clean Land Rovers you see around – looking such because, of course, they’ve never actually been used any place where they might get dirty.
All that 4x4 potency is wasted – aside, of course, from making the driver feel that bit more macho than his pedestrian desk job typically allows. One enterprising company even offered “Sprayonmud”, “to give neighbours the impression you’ve just come back from a day’s shooting or fishing – anything but driving around town all day.
The Land Rover Evoque packs plenty of 4X4 potential but seems targeted towards urban commutes. Photo: Newspress
Drivers of Land Rover’s Range Rover Evoque have no need for such fakery, and those of its new Evoque convertible even less so. The latter seems to be a tacit admission by the car maker that outward bound activities are extremely unlikely. Here is a car that is, if you like, the wonderful Defender’s evil twin. While the boxy, go anywhere potential of the Defender is expressed in all of its right angles (here’s a vehicle devised using a set square), the Evoque is all rakish lines, the fabric roof down only emphasising the car’s sweep up to the rear, and its distinctive, love-it-or-loath-it squashed form.
