Fans of high-riding, luxury-branded, two-door SUVs were saddened this week to learn of the demise of the Range Rover Evoque Coupe.
Aged six model years, the Range Rover Evoque Coupe is survived by its five-door and convertible brothers. It was preceded in death by any semblance of off-road capability and the proper use of turn signals.
Sales of the coupe have apparently fallen into the nether regions of RR’s monthly reports, dipping below numbers shown for the five-door and even the extremely niche convertible version. Total sales for the Evoque in America generally hovers around 1,000 units per month.
Base prices for the three-door Evoque started around $45,000 but were often optioned up with a Civic’s worth of add-ons to a sticker far north of its base price. The five-door and convertible will live on in the American market for 2018. All three variants will remain available in other markets, such as Europe.
Aston Martin once toyed with a tall coupe but ultimately cast the idea aside. As we know, plenty of spendy customers exist for sport-ute “coupes,” they just want them to have four doors — y’know, in true coupe style.
Among other changes, the 2018 Evoque and Evoque Convertible, soldiering on without their Coupe brother, get the four-cylinder mill found in the new and fantastically-named Velar. The new engine, by the way, is a honkin’ unit, said to make 237 horsepower in proletariat-spec and near 300 horses in fancy-pants Autobiography models. It’ll be paired with JLR’s nine-speed automatic and all-wheel drive.
The next-gen Evoque is expected to appear in 2019, likely with some sort of plug-in hybrid option. Reducing the lineup to a brace of models will allow the company to focus its efforts and finances on the remaining pair.
Related to the Evoque Coupe’s death is the demise of Good Driving, recently found unresponsive on the hard shoulder of L.A’s 405 freeway. Officials declined to speculate on the situation but did mention roving groups of smartphone-wielding drivers, most of whom were found behind the wheel of machines like the Evoque Coupe.
[Image: Jaguar Land Rover]
Good riddance. That is one ugly car.
Counterpoint: The 5-door is uglier. This really worked best as a 3-door. 5-door may be more practical, but it looks like someone shrink-wrapped an Isuzu Axiom.
The 3 door is gorgeous to me; what a pity I cannot find a low mileage in used market :(
Quite the snarknado here!
I think I’ve seen two coupe versions ever.
At least it was a coupe with only one door per side. I’d take it over BMW’s “coupe” utility vehicles.
Indeed, or the compromised headroom and cargo Mercedes options.
I have been thinking more about Baruth’s review. It confused me a little, because the title promised dirt I couldn’t really find in the article. But it still made me sad for something ‘lost’. Then I decided to bring some gender analysis to the situation. I decided that what he was really saying is RR lost the virtues that made it a car for men doing masculine things – go off-road, drive fast, etc. So maybe the new mediocre car does things women want to do, and that’s fine for women that want somewhat of a modicum of style and class beyond the ‘breeder’ image of Honda CR-Vs and whatnot. That made me less sad. From that perspective, this development makes sense. I suppose those women wouldn’t want a coupe.
This is a lot smaller than a CR-V, but I get what you’re saying.
I guess I’ll admit that the 5 door never really did anything for me. It appeared to be nothing more than a tarted up Escape. The Coupe version was actually quite a cool vehicle for those that lacked children and wanted something “a bit different”. I also just now learned that they made a convertible. Now that… that’s just a crime against humanity. I’d burn it alongside a Murano Cabriolet.
Kill the whole model. Yeech.
And the trophy wives who in their hearts believe themselves to be Carrie Bradshaw, shed a tear and pour out a mimosa for the passing of this model.
The Coupe was about the only redeemable version of the Range Rover Evoque in my mind. It seemed inspired in part by the brand’s handsome 2004 Range Stormer concept—which West Coast Customs successfully replicated by taking a Sawzall to a Range Rover Sport—and I thought it was a treat when it came to fruition.
I liked the 3 door best as well. Figures its the least popular and will be cut, lol.
It would probably sell as well as space heaters in July in Phoenix, but a two door Edge would be cool, IMO.
A two-door Edge? Don’t tempt them. They’ll do it and call it the Bronco.
They would sell at LEAST six Edge Coupes.
@Corey
An edgier Edge would be ideal for DINK couples.
(I got to use that acronym after googling it after seeing it in the comments on today’s QOTD article.)
But yeah, a massive sales success it wouldn’t be. Unless their goal was to top the total sales of the ELR.
@Kyree
Nahh, Bronco is spoken for. Despite the cries of a writer on Autoblog, there is 0% chance it’ll be a FWD unibody mall crawler.
I know. It was a joke.
TOO SOON
I always thought it should have been a targa. Though I always wondered why the droptop version did not have a Cabrio like roll bar for structural integrity.
I’m going to buck the trend and say that I actually dig the Evoque in all iterations. We toyed with getting one as the family rig, but it wouldn’t work well with my giant toddler and his equally tall father LOL
Still, I would consider the three door or the convertible.
I briefly considered the coupe when I was shopping last year. Wider front doors would have been a plus for me. The local dealer had five – three black, two white. All five were “strippos” – none had any added packages or options. Just as well, that’s all I could have afforded anyway, but when you’re looking at Range Rover you want all the kit you can get.
I’m sure the remaining models are paragons of reliability as befits anything British with a four-cylinder engine turbocharged to 300 hp.
Hey! All the parts falling off this car are of genuine British manufacture!
One less toy poodle in the car world. Too bad the five-door will still be polluting our roads.
One down, two to go.
Give me a two door Bronco or Jimmy, please.