2012 Land Rover Range Rover

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It doesn't have the raw power or the handling precision of its German competition, and America's plushest, biggest SUV offerings have more room. Still, the 2012 Range Rover is one of the most capable, most luxurious sport-utility vehicles available, whether it's used on-road or off-pavement.

Sleek in its slab-sidedness, the Range Rover artfully adapts its heritage cues to a spare modern style--and that makes it a unique and eye-catching piece, one that's recognizable at first glance.

Performance is excellent, in a straight line or around corners, on dry roads or wet, muddy trails. It seems up for any task, and it's one of the few truly capable SUVs left when it comes to the "utility" part of the equation, its off-road technology the most sophisticated in the class, and clearly oriented around its maximum capabilities, not watered down.

The Range Rover's also downright opulent inside, with excellent fit and finish and plenty of room for five passengers. It won't seat seven, though, and the cargo space can seem a little small to anyone who's used a GL-Class or an Escalade for more than profiling.

There's no crash-test data in its corner, but the Range Rover has a standard safety package strong enough to recommend it--with the newer frills like rearview cameras and blind-spot monitors much appreciated.

Luxury and entertainment features abound, as you'd expect for the class, but sometimes the Range Rover's high-tech pieces trip over themselves with kludgy functionality. In some ways, it's a rolling supercomputer, but the displays from its foot-wide touchscreen could move along faster. Its harman/kardon 720-watt audio system? Nearly perfect.

The big Achilles heel of the Range Rover is in gas mileage. At 12/18 mpg, it's low even for the class, and we've typically observed real-world numbers closer to its combined 14-mpg EPA rating. So long as you budget in some fuel along with its $80,000 purchase price--$170,000 if you want the ultra-luxe Autobiography edition--the Range Rover won't fail to proceed, nor will it fail to please.

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2012 Land Rover Range Rover Evoque

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BMW X6s and Infiniti FXes of the present, AMC Eagles of the past--the coupe-like crossover vehicle is a trend that's been in gestation a long, long time. And man, has it produced some ugly offspring.

Now it's spawned the 2012 Range Rover Evoque, and finally, at long last, it makes hot sexy sense. 

The Evoque may be the first truly sensuous SUV in history. It's a captivating stiletto heel in a closet full of Land Rover earth shoes. Some loose family features are appliqued on its taut, angular body--one that, you won't be surprised to hear, has a fan in the form of taut, angular hominid Victoria Beckham. But those are mostly for show, little geocaching leftovers of Range Rover's past. This soft-roader is all about tomorrow, and it lives to be seen with every hair in place, not covered in muck.

Erase some of the Rover-bred notions you've applied to the Evoque's performance, the ones that imply trucky handling and rustic V-8 torque. There's even less Landie here. Derived from the LR2, the Evoque throws down an entirely fascinating new gauntlet with its 240-horsepower, turbocharged four-cylinder. It's coarse on the go, with plenty of drivetrain noise and noticeable turbo lag, but the smallville drivetrain gives up nothing to the heavier, less strong LR2 and it sets the Evoque apart from the bigger Rovers that luxuriate in eight-cylinder streams of torque. It's an urgent, attention-craving piece, as whizzy as an Acura RDX, with similar fuel economy of 19/28 mpg.

All-weather traction is a forte, given its Terrain Response dial-a-mode all-wheel-drive system, and the Evoque's steering does a great imitation of the units in compact Volvos and Fords. The light touch follows through to the most dynamic model, with its magnetically-controlled suspension and muted, supple ride. And it still has more than eight inches of ground clearance, should you get high-centered on some of the last-season stuff stacked on the curb at Saks.

If you expect to give up a lot, other than extra cash, to fit into the Evoque lifestyle, you may want to try one on for size first. There's less room than the LR2, but the Evoque is wider, so overall interior volume isn't intolerable. Up front it's quite comfortable for adults, a little less so in the back seat but not objectionably so, so long as you've bought into the coupe-like premise. What's not easy to swallow is a big adult gut, if you have to clamber into the back seat of three-door Evoques. Meanwhile, the car itself can tote almost a couple dozen cubic feet of luggage, no matter which body you choose.

Land Rover's tackling the brand-stretching Evoque launch with three models and those two body styles. The five-door comes in Pure, Prestige and Dynamic models; the two-door skips Prestige trim. All versions have the standard-issue power features, entertainment features like Bluetooth, USB, and an LCD touchscreen to drive the Meridian audio system as well as phone and optional hard-drive navigation systems. Opt for Pure or Dynamic versions if you want splashy colors with twists of Alexander McQueen; get into a Prestige if your turn-ons include libraries, mahogany paneling, and anything by Laura Bennett. By any means possible, spend up for the panoramic roof, and let it light up the cocoon-like cockpit.

It's toyed with hybrid concepts, but now Land Rover can lay claim to the greening of SUVs, since the Range Rover Evoque's slimmed-down body and downsized drivetrain pay it forward with better gas mileage and, by extension, a happy planet. But the Evoque does something even more historic: it shifts the whole Range Rover brand out of the SUV muck, and pitches it into the future on a savvy, fashion-forward bias.

View the original article here

2012 Land Rover Range Rover Evoque

See What the
Rest of the Web Says We've gathered reviews from Edmunds.com, Cars.com plus live Tweets on this car. See What We Found »

BMW X6s and Infiniti FXes of the present, AMC Eagles of the past--the coupe-like crossover vehicle is a trend that's been in gestation a long, long time. And man, has it produced some ugly offspring.

Now it's spawned the 2012 Range Rover Evoque, and finally, at long last, it makes hot sexy sense. 

The Evoque may be the first truly sensuous SUV in history. It's a captivating stiletto heel in a closet full of Land Rover earth shoes. Some loose family features are appliqued on its taut, angular body--one that, you won't be surprised to hear, has a fan in the form of taut, angular hominid Victoria Beckham. But those are mostly for show, little geocaching leftovers of Range Rover's past. This soft-roader is all about tomorrow, and it lives to be seen with every hair in place, not covered in muck.

Erase some of the Rover-bred notions you've applied to the Evoque's performance, the ones that imply trucky handling and rustic V-8 torque. There's even less Landie here. Derived from the LR2, the Evoque throws down an entirely fascinating new gauntlet with its 240-horsepower, turbocharged four-cylinder. It's coarse on the go, with plenty of drivetrain noise and noticeable turbo lag, but the smallville drivetrain gives up nothing to the heavier, less strong LR2 and it sets the Evoque apart from the bigger Rovers that luxuriate in eight-cylinder streams of torque. It's an urgent, attention-craving piece, as whizzy as an Acura RDX, with similar fuel economy of 19/28 mpg.

All-weather traction is a forte, given its Terrain Response dial-a-mode all-wheel-drive system, and the Evoque's steering does a great imitation of the units in compact Volvos and Fords. The light touch follows through to the most dynamic model, with its magnetically-controlled suspension and muted, supple ride. And it still has more than eight inches of ground clearance, should you get high-centered on some of the last-season stuff stacked on the curb at Saks.

If you expect to give up a lot, other than extra cash, to fit into the Evoque lifestyle, you may want to try one on for size first. There's less room than the LR2, but the Evoque is wider, so overall interior volume isn't intolerable. Up front it's quite comfortable for adults, a little less so in the back seat but not objectionably so, so long as you've bought into the coupe-like premise. What's not easy to swallow is a big adult gut, if you have to clamber into the back seat of three-door Evoques. Meanwhile, the car itself can tote almost a couple dozen cubic feet of luggage, no matter which body you choose.

Land Rover's tackling the brand-stretching Evoque launch with three models and those two body styles. The five-door comes in Pure, Prestige and Dynamic models; the two-door skips Prestige trim. All versions have the standard-issue power features, entertainment features like Bluetooth, USB, and an LCD touchscreen to drive the Meridian audio system as well as phone and optional hard-drive navigation systems. Opt for Pure or Dynamic versions if you want splashy colors with twists of Alexander McQueen; get into a Prestige if your turn-ons include libraries, mahogany paneling, and anything by Laura Bennett. By any means possible, spend up for the panoramic roof, and let it light up the cocoon-like cockpit.

It's toyed with hybrid concepts, but now Land Rover can lay claim to the greening of SUVs, since the Range Rover Evoque's slimmed-down body and downsized drivetrain pay it forward with better gas mileage and, by extension, a happy planet. But the Evoque does something even more historic: it shifts the whole Range Rover brand out of the SUV muck, and pitches it into the future on a savvy, fashion-forward bias.

View the original article here

First Drive: 2012 Land Rover Range Rover Evoque

The Go-Everywhere Gang Evoques a Sportwagen Land Rover's crystal-ball department reckons the global lux-ute market is going to expand by 35 percent over the next five years, and it wants a big bite of this widening slice of profit pie. How best to get it? Expand the Range Rover brand while shrinking its footprint, both physically and environmentally. This could have been accomplished lickety-split and on the Tata-Nano cheap by pounding the LR2's sheet metal into the shape of the similarly compact LRX concept vehicle, but that's evidently not how the new Indian parent company rolls (praise Vishnu!). No, the LRX is being developed into the Range Rover Evoque the hard way -- by reimagining every detail to perform in a way that befits its bucks-up branding, while remaining faithful to the popular concept car's initial design and packaging. First, the basics: The Evoque will be available in the U.S. as a two- or four-door, with the two-door seating four or five passengers. In place of the LR2's Volvo-designed 230-horsepower, 234-pound-foot I-6 is a Ford-built 2.0-liter turbocharged direct-injected engine good for 237 horses and 251 pound-feet. (It was developed alongside the Explorer's EcoBoost mill.) Power flows to the ground through a six-speed automatic transaxle and a standard Haldex Gen-IV all-wheel-drive system. Other markets will get the option of a 2.2-liter diesel that can be teamed with a manual transmission, auto start/stop technology, and front-wheel drive for max fuel economy. Get a free and easy new car price quote in minutes.

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