News : AROnline readers vote with their wellies… (or is it Jimmy Choos?)

Keith Adams

AROnline's reader car of the year for 2012: The Range Rover Evoque
AROnline reader’s Car of the Year for 2012: The Range Rover Evoque

After eight days and well over 2000 votes, you have voted the Range Rover Evoque as your British Car of The Year for 2012. In eight days of clicking, it was a two horse race between the MG6 and Evoque, with Solihull beating Longbridge by 0.5%! As polls go, this has emerged as a genuine surprise given the mixed feedback you’ve been giving about the Anglo-Chinese mid-liner…

However, what’s in no doubt that the Evoque is a worthy champion going in to 2012. It’s an attractive car, and one that buyers are clamouring to buy, proving that the British are more than capable of building achingly desirable cars. Naysayers bemoan the Evoque for being an SUV – and therefore a member of a dying breed – but, given that the Evoque is powered by a range of efficient four-pots and will be just as likely bought by down-sizing Range Rover Sport owners or up-styling Audi TT drivers, it’s a more than acceptable alternative.

We talk a lot about the Evoque being a design triumph, and it really is a true British styling master-class, with the team at Gaydon – under the watchful eye of Gerry McGovern – managing to really move forward the 4×4 game. It’s the culmination of the good work started by Richard Woolley’s wonderful Range Stormer of 2004 (and which you can still see at the Heritage Motor Centre at Gaydon). Currently, and most importantly, the Evoque ticks the same ‘classless’ box that the original Range Rover of 1970 did so effectively.

There’s a more basic reason why we also love the Evoque at AROnline, though. It’s a profitable car, and one that Solihull can’t build enough of at the moment – generating wonderful jobs for the West Midlands, and profits that its maker will plough back into the company. That means more future Land Rovers designed, built and engineered in the UK – and that generates future engineering talent. A win-win situation.

Congratulations to Land Rover, let’s now hope they can build enough of suitably high-quality to meet demand, and maintain the honeymoon throughout 2012.

How the voting went

Range Rover Evoque
41.6% (866 votes)

MG6 GT/Magnette

41.1% (855 votes)
Morgan 3Wheeler

8.4% (175 votes)
Mini Coupe
4.9% (102 votes)
McLaren MP4-12C
4.0% (83 votes)
Range Rover Evoque is your winner
Range Rover Evoque is your winner
Keith Adams

47 Comments

  1. Now I’ve seen an Evoque for real I like it more than when I saw it in photos only. Interesting to see the MG6 came 2nd place. In view of its poor sales so far I have a feeling we’ll see more Evoques on our roads than 6’s but the AVIS deal could change that.

  2. That’s a great result! Can any one tell me how many people voted in the poll? I’d love to know how many votes that it won by…

  3. Ermm, has anyone actually driven an Evoque? Kind of like peering through a six foot high leather trimmed letter box…

  4. Thanks Keith. I’m pleased that the Land Rover came first (I drive a Freelander 2 for work), even if I did vote for the last place McClaren!

  5. I’m glad the Evoque won (I voted for it) even though I don’t personally like it. I voted for it because I think JLR need cars like this to survive, and show the world we still know how to engineer and build cars.
    But I’m surprised that the Mac only got 83 votes…

  6. For me, the most encouraging thing is that the MG6 came a VERY close second. Another glimmer of good news following the Avis deal.

  7. Keith, I really can’t add any further to what you have already said about the Range Rover Evoque. I, for one, am delighted that it has won this award and is proving to be such a success story for West Midlands manufacturing interests.

    If those six numbers of mine come up, make mine a 2.2-litre SD4 Prestige Coupe finished in Buckingham Blue metallic with a Silver roof. Such a colour scheme will give me some strange misguided link with the Rover P5B 3.5 Litre Coupe finished in a similar colour scheme.

  8. I’m astonished the MG6 came so close in the voting, seeing that the Evoque is far more British, is a massive sales success and is a real 2011 icon, whereas the MG6 is a sales disaster, is mainly Chinese manufactured and is a bog standard family hatch.

    Probably a reflection of tastes on this website, which tend to be suspicious of ‘fashionable cars’ and anything expensive and upmarket (and hence profitable). I can imagine the same board in 1970 voting the Marina ahead of the Range Rover!

  9. Nice one, I voted for the Evoque too. It will sell way better in the UK than the others, and possibly worldwide too (I imagine the MG6 will beat it in China?). Great to see JLR doing so well, growing the business and generating new jobs in the UK in these difficult economic times. Watch out for much more from the home team!

  10. @ Mikey C 🙂 Nice One
    AS I have said before it’s suprising what people will buy If the right badge is stuck on the bonnet! Has anybody seen the price of an Evoke?
    I hope it does ok even if its just for exports. It will NEVER appear with my name on the log book!

  11. Great result and my choice – pedantic note though, isn’t it built at Halewood? No wonder Solihull can’t turn out enough of them! Excellent result for jobs on Merseyside especially with the Astra being churned out over the water at Ellesmere Port.

  12. Mikey C:

    ” Has anybody seen the price of an Evoke? ”

    Starting at £27,995 for a car with 5 doors, 150 bhp 2.2 diesel, full leather, climate control and a 6 speed manual, that’s less than my Freelander 2 cost 6 months ago and seems like relatively good VFM to me. I’d still prefer the hugely more practical FL2 myself, but then I don’t remotely understand how fashion works anyway!

  13. @Big H comment 12. – I am not a “badge” person, living and working around Halewood I’ve seen a lot of Evoques including badgeless pre-production models. It is one hell of an impressive looking car, whatever badge it wore I would have voted for it, the fact that it is BRITISH only increased my admiration for it, as a design it sits up there with the original R-R, Dolomite and SD1 in my all-time hall of fame.

  14. I’m living out in Sweden and I’ve already seen a few Evoques “in the metal” over here, invariably in white. They look pretty good – like a Star Wars stormtroopers helmet!! Re Mikey C’s post above – made me laugh because I recognise myself in that comment – deeply suspicious of the latest fashionista “must have”, although I think even I would have had the 1970 Range Rover ahead of the Marina (unless it was a lime green TC coupe of course – gorgeous!)

  15. @ Jonathan
    http://www.mguk.org/t420-sales-figures-2011

    It might be closer than you think in China, especially when JLR open their joint venture factory there, as their sales are growing strongly there. According to this web site, the MG6 seems to be averaging 2000 sales a month in China, the smaller Roewe 350 is their best seller. SAIC seem likely to sell 120-150,000 cars in China this year.

    To put this in perspective, VW expect to sell 2 MILLION cars in China this year…

  16. Well done to the RR Evoque winning as AROnline Car of the Year 2011 which doesn’t come to a surprise. What does come to a surprise is the MG6 coming closely behind it in the polls and how the McLaren MP4-12C came last. Bet there would be plenty of schoolboys having posters of them on their bedroom walls.

  17. “SAIC seem likely to sell 120-150,000 cars in China this year.”
    Sorry, to clarify that, 120-150000 of their own Roewe and MG cars, as they produce vast numbers of joint venture vehicles with other Western manufacturers like GM and VW.

  18. Very good results. I think the Evoque rightly won first place, as after a test drive i did to it, i understand that this is a very good driving car with great design. Also very positive is the second place, which won the MG.

  19. I feel the Evoque is a design masterpiece, so well proportioned – and it’s the first SUV I would choose over a saloon – most SUVs are so bulky that I will never get used to them, but the Evoque ticks the SUV box while remaining a 200% elegant vehicle. As for Richard Woolley – is he still with Land Rover?

  20. Clearly most of the 855 people who think the MG6 / Magnette is the best British car are not prepared to go out and buy one.

  21. @22 – Not at all, I suspect that once the diesel launches they will sell really well.

    This is excellent news for MG, let’s hope their publicity machine makes good use of this high approval rating. Respect to the Evoque, the ultimate WAG car.

  22. I didnt vote ive been offline for a few days, but if was simple car of the year I would easily lurch / lunge / gravitate / warp factor 9 to the Evoque. The MG6 doesnt really break any new ground, and neither (in my oppinion) does it look stunning (no ove not yet seen it in the flesh). however in terms of cost and purchase budget, the MG6 would be the only one with the advantage – obviously. ,

    But what you all think, if Jagauar came up with a 320 competitor…and maybe an all new Rover Metro SLiGTiVitesse Pocket Rocket thingy…alex

  23. actually the MG6 doesnt even break any old ground. Mazda 6, Mondeo and Subaru Impezza / Legacy are all available with AWD. One would think an MG of todays pedigree would have AWD or at least RWD Alex

  24. Interesting result – The Evoque narrowly beats something that’s not actually a car in any legal sense. Other contenders are nowhere.

    I have my reservations about the Evoque – it’s very much a victory for form over function – but its instant ubiquity suggests that JLR have got the formula exactly right.

    As an aside, am I alone in thinking it looks like the natural evolution of the TR7, 36(!) years on?

  25. @28 – The MG does break new ground, it is the first chinese car to be sold in the UK, it is the first MG to be designed as a five door hatch and not badge engineered from an existing BL product.

  26. Bet this is the only survey in the world with the Evoque going head to head with the MG6! Two more different cars is hard to imagine. The Evoque has been painstakingly market researched and carefully targetted, it has had huge investment thrown at it and has been designed and manufactured in Britain to very high levels of quality. As a result cars are flying out of the showroom with waiting lists stretching to this time next year. The MG6 on the otherhand………

  27. ……….I suppose the MG6 could be significant in that it will kill stone dead any chance of volume car manufacturing returning to Longbridge.

  28. Living near hale wood, the evoke is a very common and awesome sight, like something out of judge dread.
    It’s also the first suv (defender aside) that I would be tempted by, lottery win permitting.

    The mg6 however doesn’t require a lottery win, and despite a lot of negative ignorance and bias, which is usually about whom ever owns the brand, the slow pace of the launch and/or lack of diesel rather than the car itself. Which by all accounts is bloody good to drive, is handsome in the flesh etc.

    Now the Morgan… Who on earth voted for that?

  29. I suppose when the MG6 diesel comes out all the neysayers will say “It needs to be electric hybrid” and a “suv”. or even “people carrier”.
    Have you seen the ejoke parked next to a freelander?.looks the same only but if it has just driven under a low bridge.

  30. what a lovely car indeed, the Evoque… but where was the XF? and the MG6… I drove several second hand MG’s and now the ZT_T diesel auto with 190000 kms… but would i want one, would i ever buy one(2nd hand???) don’t know…

    please put the MG6 thing on BTCC or WTCC, even an upgraded Daewoo scores there… Chevy Lacetti/Cruze with GM money… and the 6 with MG chinese money?

    nice year for all readers of AR!!!

  31. @Robert Leitch
    My thoughts exactly
    “Starting at £27,995 for a car with 5 doors, 150 bhp 2.2 diesel, full leather, climate control and a 6 speed manual, that’s less than my Freelander 2 cost 6 months ago and seems like relatively good VFM to me”
    What planet you guys on?
    Nissan Quashai Starts @ £16495 goes up to £24000 Just as “British” as any landrover

  32. You miss the point Big H. The sort of people who are buying the Evoque wouldnt be seen dead in a Nissan. They can and will happily pay £4000 for the privilege of owning an Evoque. Land Rover understand this and have capitalised on it. Good luck to them!

  33. Has anyone seen an Evoque that’s been fitted with correctly-functioning indicators yet? I haven’t.

  34. Dave H:

    ” What planet you guys on?
    Nissan Quashai Starts @ £16495 goes up to £24000 Just as “British” as any landrover ”

    Don’t get me wrong; the Quasqai is a very popular car and a lot of people like it. But, do I really need to explain why an entry level 2.2D Evoque is worth £11,500 more than an entry level 1.6 petrol Quasqai? Honestly?

    What I do find amazing is that the Nissan will relieve you of £27,095 (not £24,000, according to Nissan’s own web site) for a top of the range Quasqai, which is within only £900 of the price of a very nicely specced entry level Evoque!

  35. No comparison,.The Range rover Evoque should have won by a country mile, all you MG’ers need to take of your rose tinted specs.

  36. The earlier posts sum the Evoque up quite nicely – I saw my first one in a car park this lunch time, and it does appear like somebody has compressed the top of it.

    Not quite right!

    It is still several leagues above the MG6 though – at least it’s selling a few…

  37. @ Dave
    How about £40,000 for a top of the range Evoke!
    Now thats outrageous!
    Makes a £26K Quashai seem positively good value for money!
    Before i go an further im glad its doing well foe UK PLC
    Along with the MINI another car i Hate!
    How can I write an essay on here? So as I can explain my point of view

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