The Crossover Question: Range Rover’s Evoque or BMW’s X3?
The phrase compact luxury crossover is so drab, so marketing-speak boring, that just typing it makes me want to find the nearest conference room and toss an ergonomically correct office chair through a PowerPoint presentation. A crossover is an amorphous straddler of worlds, neither car nor truck — kind of fast, sort of efficient, basically good-looking, and acceptably luxurious. This all-things-to-all-people formula seems to work, especially when it comes with a prestigious badge. The most popular Lexus is the crossover RX, which shares the guts of the ES sedan but outsells it nearly two to one. The RX is a brilliant execution of mainstream appeal, but so was Everybody Loves Raymond. And what the crossover category needs is a Breaking Bad. Or two.
Thankfully, it appears that BMW and Range Rover have decided to spike the crossover punch with two 100-proof shots of personality. The redesigned X3 and new Evoque cost about the same ($50,000 with some options) but represent the differing worldviews of their creators: The BMW emphasizes on-road performance; the Range Rover majors in fashion with a minor in off-road ability.
I’m probably one of the few people who have had an opportunity to test both machines to their seldom-accessed extremes — the X3 on a track, the Evoque off-road. While the chances of an X3 owner visiting a road course are probably even slimmer than those of an Evoque owner fording a deepwater crossing, it’s refreshing that the vehicles bother to pick up the thread of brand tradition.
The BMW is a covert ass-hauler. Its turbocharged, 300-horsepower motor has two more cylinders than the Range Rover’s turbo four; its eight-speed transmission offers two more gears. A rear-biased all-wheel-drive system helps deliver a scalding 0-to-60 time of 5.5 seconds, equal to that of the BMW sedan. At the track, the X3 really did feel like a tall sports sedan, hitting 110 mph on the straight. When you see an X3 in a school car-pool line, know that it’s a tiger in a cage.
I have no doubt that the 300-horsepower X3 would dust the 240-horsepower Range Rover on a winding road. But venture off that road, and the roles would likely be reversed. I drove the Evoque over hill and dale in muddy Wales, and its off-road abilities do not shame the Range Rover name. The terrain-response button lets you choose chassis settings to match your off-road milieu — and with tires pushed out to the corners, you can drop into ditches without ripping off the rear bumper on your way out. Puddles that sloshed halfway up the doors were no impediment. All of which is important for credibility reasons but as practically irrelevant as the X3’s lack of brake fade after a 100-mph dive into a hairpin. What really matters for the Evoque is how it looks. And it looks like nothing else on the road.
The Evoque, especially the three-door model, blazes new styling territory — a feat in the second century of the automobile. The roof rakes down, and the bodywork races up toward the rear, nearly meeting at the skimpy scythe of a back window. (How do you see out? Learn to use the five exterior cameras.) Any claustrophobia is relieved by the largest sunroof this side of Safeco Field’s retractable dome. It’s a reliably wow-inducing moment when you open the sunshade and it just keeps going, past the backseat. The Evoque is filled with tricks like that, from the shift knob that motors up out of the console (a design borrowed from corporate cousin Jaguar) to the way it projects a sketch of itself on the ground when you unlock it at night. The Evoque’s turbocharged four-cylinder helps earn it a pragmatic 28 mpg on the highway, yet the whole package exudes a strong sense of fun.
So here’s your $50,000 decision: Do you go for the muscle-bound German, single-mindedly bent on honoring the promise of the Ultimate Driving Machine? Or the whimsical Brit, a design study that’s happy to spend weekends pawing through the Welsh bogs? Neither of them tries to appeal to everyone. And in the world of the compact luxury crossover, that’s what I call progress.
Posted by Dania
on 00:34. Filed under