Review
Making your Range Rover Evoque truly your own will involve choosing from a long list of optional extras.
However, the price of personalisation could prove costly thanks to some very tempting toys being offered by the bods at Land Rover.
Standard features include: intelligent stop/start; tyre pressure monitoring; electric parking brake; emergency brake assist; heated front seats; five-inch colour driver information centre; and an 11-speaker Meridian audio system.
But our Range Rover Evoque 2.2-litre eD4 Pure has been fitted with several optional features, which have added more than £4,000 to the basic price.
For example, the heated steering wheel costs an additional £185, privacy glass a further £100, the powered tail gate an extra £400 and the fixed panoramic roof comes in at £950.
However, the entertainment pack, which includes an 825W Meridian surround sound 17-speaker system with radio and single slot CD player, surround camera system with towing assist, an eight-inch high resolution dual view touch screen, a set of WhiteFire headphones and an analogue/digital television, costs a hefty £2,600.
Nevertheless, the sound from the 17-speaker system, which includes a subwoofer, is exceptional, while the surround camera system offers you the confidence to manoeuvre in the tightest of spots.
Even the ability to watch the TV while parked up in a lay-by, or for your front-seat passenger to take advantage of the dual view screen while on the move, is more than impressive.
However, would you be persuaded to part with more than two grand to watch a re-run of Top Gear on Dave with the sound delivered through 17 speakers?
Taking into account the optional extras on our version, they would add around 14% to the P11d price, which would inevitably incur a higher tax bill.
The 150bhp 2.2-litre eD4 Pure version, without optional extras, has a P11d price of £29,020 and emissions of 133g/km, putting it in a benefit-in-kind tax bracket of 22%. However, including the optional extras featured in our test version would make the P11d price £33,255.
For a 20% tax-payer that would equate to an extra £200 per annum and to a 40% tax-payer an additional £400 on their BIK tax bill.
Gareth Roberts
