Once upon a time there lived ...

A freakishly weird looking Range Rover Evoque who was like a hippy-chic in a world of Audis and BMWs being driven by sales executives. One day a Rover Evoque was minding its business when a chainsaw wielding maniac (a.k.a. Range Rover Evoque stylist/designer) came along and chopped of its roof . Much like a hippy ----- the afro. Then this poor car was dragged into the tanning salon (painting shop) and was given a horrendous fake tan (orange paint) and then the Range Rover Evoque convertible was born into existence .

Hello, this review is a continuation of Joseph's review on coupes. After Joseph had written his review we had a little chat and I told Joseph about this. Joseph had never heard of the Range Rover Convertible before so I told to him to look it up. Now we both agree that it is the one of the daftest looking convertible on the market.

Prices start at £47,500 and go up to £52,400. Under the bonnet you can either have a 2.0-litre 240hp Si4 petrol engine or a180hp 2.0 TD4 Ingenium diesel unit. The power is sent through a rather unnecessary 9 speed gear-box.

I actually quite like the look of the roof-down Evoque. With the roof down (but without the agent orange paint) this car doesn't look to bad but with the roof up it is an entirely different story. The roof looks as if it came from a saloon convertible and it just doesn't fit on a 4x4. It is much like a bald man deciding to wear a wig. It looks fine when he doesn't have it on his head but when he puts it on he looks ridiculous. One big problem is to look good you have tom put the roof down and that can have a catastrophic effect on any boot contents. When you but the roof down (18secs at up to 30mph) the boot diminishes into a glovebox .

Inside there is still the ancient multi-media screen which desperately needs an update. The good thing is that the Evoque Convertible even though you would never take it off-road it still has the off-road ability of an ordinary Range Rover and it has the fantastic Terrain Response system. It also features a clever roll over protection system which extrudes 2 aluminium bars to protect the occupants should the car flip over.

One key fundamental problem is that Range Rover is a British car company and the Evoque convertible is useless in Britain where it rains and is cold. This might be the first Range Rover that doesn't work on British soil ! What have they done

Verdict

A great car if you live in a place where there is sun and uneven/only mountain tracks otherwise it is just an orange lump of weirdness. It is a Range Rover that hasn't been designed for Britain (possibly spark the next revolution?) A Range Rover made for warm countries and that throws the Range Rover rulebook out of the window.