What beautiful car?

[gingerjedi]

Don't know why, just looks a bit different.

[IR35FanClub]

A "what would I buy if I won the lottery" train of thought has led me to seriously consider buy a Range Rover Evoque.

Despite the fact that I have zero need for 4WD and have never liked SUV's, the Evoque has higher kerb appeal than any other car I am aware of, that meets my constraints.

A Jaguar XF would be cheaper and have a better engine and much more advanced gearbox, 8-speed dual-clutch compared to Evoque conventional automatic. I don't care, the Evoque is better looking. (Also the XF is 20cm longer than my car, which is inconveniently long, would like my next car to be shorter. The Evoque is shorter than a Golf, apparently, so it must be its width and height that make it look comparatively gigantic.)

Is there anything else that beautiful on the outside and luxurious inside? I require 4-5 doors, price limit 35K. As a guidline, luxury will usually imply a choice of several colours for the interior. So anyone who offers only black/grey is probably out of the running. BMW do offer beige, which I suppose almost counts as a colour. But it's hardly exciting compared to say having your dashboard and door inserts in dark cherry, one of several colour schemes the Evoque offers.

I thought I'd found a non-SUV that was equally attractive in the form of the Citroen DS5, but the reviews of what's it's like to drive turned out to be poor.

I like Porsche Panamera, but obviously ruled out by cost.

I can't advise you - you have completely differnt taste to me. I think both the Evoque and Panamera are pig ugly, and just manufactureres capitalising on their existing designs into a new market segment.

Try somethibng from Audi. They are usually pretty on the inside and stylish outside. Though they'd started to go from the clean lines and into bendy metal BMW territory. I think the Mk1 TT is one of the best looking cars ever. Took me about 10 years to like it though! I used to think of it as a hairdressers car. But didn't realise they came with a 3.2V6 Quattro with DSG box. That's not a girls car!

Best bet, is you could have a 7 year old : TT, a Defender for when it snows and the day rate makes it wrth getting to work, a Porsche 911 for Fridays (with the right colour interior) all for the same price as a new evoque. And get a Triumph Sprint 1050 for commuting.

If one breaks it doesn't matter - you have 3 more to choose from, and depreciation will be a lot less.

Got me eye on an XF 4.2 supercharged next.

PS If anyone reading the cliamte change thread has spotted me here, yes, I'm a confused eco worrier / petrol head. I'm having some fun before they all get banned. But I take the train to work as it's quicker/cheaper/less stressful.

[Old Hack]

XF 4.2 Supercharged? That was the previous model, this one's 5.0

[doodab]

If one breaks it doesn't matter - you have 3 more to choose from, and depreciation will be a lot less than the insurance, tax and servicing on that lot

FTFY

[nomadd]

A "what would I buy if I won the lottery" train of thought has led me to seriously consider buy a Range Rover Evoque.

If I won the lottery I too would buy a Range Rover Evoque.

I'd use it to tow my Audi R18 between race tracks: Audi's hybrid takes Le Mans victory, twice | The Car Tech blog - CNET Reviews

[IR35 Avoider]

It is possible to get an automatic Evoque will all the options that matter to me for 35K, by adding on to the "Pure" (basic) model. Admittedly to get most of the really exciting interior colour options you need to get a "Prestige" or "Dynamic", which, with the other options I want, would end up costing just over 40K. I'm not willing to pay 5K extra just to have a different colour interior though. (There may be other the differences, but nothing that's hugely important to me.) Two out of three of the interior colour options availabe on the Pure are already significantly better than anything any German company will offer.

Having said all that, despite the downsides reported in various reviews, I'm seriously interested in the Citroen DS5 now. There is a diesel hybrid version that can enter for free the London Congestion zone I currently pay to commute through every day. Unfortunately it's a base model, and I definitely want the next higher trim level, which pops the CO2 up from 98g to 107g, meaning no more congestion charge avoidance. With that incentive gone, might as well forget hybrid altogether and go for the conventional diesel automatic, which is probably the best from a driving point of view. Anyway, all that's a digression. The interiors are amazing. Think I might go for "Hickory Brown" exterior with "Claudia" white leather interior, though the "Azelan" brown leather interior is pretty amazing as well. The "Dstyle" trim level with some controls on a roof console that splits the sunroof into left/right sections contributes to an overall impression of the interor thas been described as being like the inside of a private jet

[Peoplesoft bloke]

A "what would I buy if I won the lottery" train of thought has led me to seriously consider buy a Range Rover Evoque.

Have you won the lottery then?

A
Despite the fact that I have zero need for 4WD and have never liked SUV's, the Evoque has higher kerb appeal than any other car I am aware of, that meets my constraints.

If you don't need 4 wheel drive, get the 2 wheel drive version :-)

I agree it's a nice looking car

A Jaguar XF would be cheaper and have a better engine

Depends which one - you can get the XF with the exact same PSA 2.2 diesel that's in the Evoque (and loads of Fords and Citroens) now.

I thought I'd found a non-SUV that was equally attractive in the form of the Citroen DS5, but the reviews of what's it's like to drive turned out to be poor.

I like Porsche Panamera, but obviously ruled out by cost.

Why don't you try one? Motoring journos drive fancy motors all day and they are sheep - they'd love the DS5 if it had a BMW badge on it.
Agree about the Porsche - it's the only current Porsche that doesn't look like a dated pastiche.

In the end, if I was heading that way, I'd have to buy a Freelander - if I got the Evoque it would always annoy me how much extra I'd paid for a car that is basically a Freelander - just like all the mugs who are paying a premium for their Range Sports - that is a Disco3 with less interior space and in some models identical performance but a huge price premium.

[IR35 Avoider]

(Reply to Peoplesoft bloke.)

Haven't won the lottery, but in the last few months some sort of giant switch in my head has started to ponderously move from "save" to "spend" position. Even if I never earn another penny from working I reckon I need to double my spending just to avoid my savings increasing. I've owned about five cars in my life, and the most I've ever spent is 7K, on my current car. That now is ten years old and worth nothing. It's probably 90% as satisfactory as a new 35K car would be, and could easily give me another five years, but if I don't start spending more I will die rich, and that seems like some sort of waste. (OK I realise that buying one new car isn't going to solve my "problem", but it's a start. )

Back to the subject, after more Googling it seems that the gap between brochure appearance of DS5 and real life photos is much larger than the similar gap for the Evoque, so I think Evoque is back in the lead. (But will keep looking at DS5.)

I know 2WD Evoque is available, but not as an automatic, which I definitely want.

Looks like I was wrong about the Jaguar engine being better, if you say it's the same, but still for slightly less money (in configurations I would choose) the XF does have more. Not just the gearbox, something else I would like on my next car is active cruise control. The Jaguar, every german car I've looked at (except A3 sportback) and Ford Focus all have it, but Evoque (and DS5 for that matter) don't.

Another "mad money" car I've now looked at is Alfa Gulietta. Interiors not quite what I want, but it does have (at 0 cost) an option I really, really want, that no other car I've looked at has: integration of TomTom sat nav. (No manufacturer satnav is any good, they don't have TomTom HD traffic which I use on a daily basis for choosing the best route through London.) It's a bit absurd that I'm willing to spend 35K on a car but, whatever I get, I will still have to stick a £150 computer with trailing wires to the windscreen.

Before pulling the trigger on a new car, if I do at all, I think I'm going to wait and see what the BMW i3 looks like. I love the idea of the technology, but I have a feeling the reality of it's appearence is that it's going to be as boring as any other mainstream car. Nissan deliberately made the Leaf unremarkable, to make it acceptable. I feel something designed from the ground up to be an electric car probably ought to look different.

Not sure if electric or hybrid cars would make any sense for me. They would save a lot of money in fuel and congestion charges if I were working, but if I wanted to save money I'd keep the car I've got. If I stop working then I will be doing 3000 miles a year, fuel costs will be irrelevant.

It's amazingly hard to drop the mindset that optimises for value instead of absolute quality.

[Peoplesoft bloke]

Don't bother with the adaptive cruise - I had it on the Jag I got rid of in March - it's pointless because you can't teach it to anticipate stuff like you would - eg, you are approaching a car in lane 2/3 that's indicating to pull over, the gap is narrowing, but there's no point slamming on the brakes to maintain a gap as he'll have pulled over in a minute - the adaptive cruise does slam on the brakes to maintain whatever gap you've set.

[Scrag Meister]

Don't know why, just looks a bit different.

What do you know another Nissan, they may call it Infiniti but it's a Nissan underneath.

Paying for the brand, they do however have a 3.0l V6 Diesel version, like the Q7, Q5, Touraeg, etc...

(Reply to Peoplesoft bloke.)

Haven't won the lottery, but in the last few months some sort of giant switch in my head has started to ponderously move from "save" to "spend" position.

Had that epiphany a few years back and went out and got a 350Z. Gotta live your life, you can't take cash with you when you die.
Some people call it a mid-life crisis