The Range Rover Evoque is held back by its high price and relatively small interior. As a car to tow with, though, it’s very good indeed.
We’ve tested the Evoque before, but now it has the new ‘Ingenium’ engine and a nine-speed automatic gearbox. It’s a moot point whether a car with 317lb ft of torque really needs nine forward gears, but the ‘box certainly swaps ratios smoothly. Sprinting from 30-60mph took 12.4 seconds.
High-speed stability is every bit as good as we’ve come to expect from Jaguar Land Rover products. Travelling at 60mph feels like no test at all, and even when slowing from 70mph even the Al-Ko ATC sensors could hardly detect any movement.
In the lane-change test the stability control kicked in on the fastest run as the caravan got badly out of shape, but the Evoque stayed on course and pulled the caravan straight again.
So, our drivers were won over; but our practicality testers weren’t so sure. Two of the more awkwardly shaped items from our testing load of luggage wouldn’t fit in the boot, and the 13-pin electrics were tricky to access.
There’s also no getting away from the Evoque’s cost. With a price tag not far short of £50k, you can buy many much larger and more practical tow cars for similar money.