One of the best I have driven this year

WOULD you buy a second hand car from an

‘Arthur Daly’
type of character? Or would you buy a new car that has been designed by
Victoria Beckham?

Ms Beckham may
be too posh to dirty her hands under the bonnet, but her design work on the new
Evoque from Range Rover has been confined to the interior of the car.

She may not
have had much success in her singing career after the break up of the Spice Girls,
but Victoria definitely has an eye for fashion and was recently named Designer
Brand of the Year at the British Fashion awards in London.

With Victoria’s
input Range Rover has produced a beautiful car, definitely one of the best I
have driven this year.

No surprise
then that the Evoque was recently voted Irish Continental Executive/ Luxury Car
of the Year. At the launch earlier this year Land Rover executives said that
they expect the Evoque will attract people who have never driven a people
carrier before. They are optimistic of winning over former Audi and BMW owners
and expect to sell around 300 units next year.

This is a very
neat, stylish motor that is not very long; in fact it’s a few millimetres
shorter than your regular Ford Focus. The roof slopes ever so slightly from
front to back and the windows get smaller the further back you go. If you are
in a two-door car you may feel a bit claustrophic with the small rear windows,
but thankfully my test model was a four-door. What my passengers really liked
about the car was the spacious back seats; I tried them myself and they are
really cozy.

Headroom could
be tight for a tall person getting in, but I had no such problems. It’s very
easy to find a comfortable driving position and there’s an array of gadgets for
the driver on the dash and on the steering wheel. The dash is dominated by the
eight-inch touch-screen right in front of you.

Overall the
interior décor is very bright thanks to cream and grey coloured seats. Overhead
the interior lights come on once you touch them. The side mirrors dip down a
few inches when you are reversing and fold in when the car is locked.

On the open
road the Evoque seems to glide along; I drove a 2.2 litre diesel 4×4 model and
it was really powerful, yet as quiet as a mouse. I loved the high driving
position and fuel consumption is very low thanks to the stop-start technology.

Naturally Range
Rovers are meant to be taken off-road, but like most buyers I didn’t go
anywhere rougher than a country boreen. But be warned that if you are going
off-road there is no spare wheel, just a repair kit. It makes the car lighter,
but I think most people thinking of driving up to high ground with a few bales
of hay this winter would like the comfort of a spare wheel. But then maybe this
car is

‘too posh’ to carry bales of hay in the boot.

This is the
smallest car ever made by Land Rover, but it really is gorgeous and right up
there with the Mercedes CLS 350 I wrote about a few weeks back. Prices for the
Evoque start at

?¬42,540, while the Dynamic version I drove will cost you

?¬50,295.
I drove a black model, red also looks good and I see that Amy Huberman drives a
white version. The Evoque is probably aimed at urban buyers and could be very
popular with the female driver.