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Why The Range Rover Evoque Convertible Is So Great part 1
The darkness was thick, almost metallic.
Even though I had the brights on, their normally powerful light seemed to be completely swallowed up by the shadows on either side of the car.
I was driving the Range Rover Evoque Convertible, I could barely see anything, and that’s exactly how it was supposed to be.
I was headed to a corner of Pennsylvania that most people had never heard of, much less been to, which was entirely the point.
The final destination was Cherry Springs State Park, one of the most isolated spots in the entire United States east of the Mississippi.
While every other spot in the eastern U.S.
has a sky blotted with the hideous light pollution of a thousand suns each night, Cherry Springs State Park is shrouded completely in inky darkness.
It’s the perfect place to see the stars on a moonless night, as I had planned for, and it would be the perfect place – with its abundance of muddy dirt roads – to take an SUV with all sorts of ***-*** off-road settings and no roof.
Or so I thought.
Because all of the advance planning in the world couldn’t control the weather, and the entire time I was there it was either raining or just plain cloudy.
So there weren’t any stars to see at all.
That didn’t seem to matter in the long run.
Because the roads were still pretty damn perfect.
Hello.
Have you heard of the Range Rover Evoque? You know it, we all know it, it’s good and fine and actually not bad at all.
The big leather buckets up front are comfy and supportive enough for driving at long stretches, everything looks and feels very nice, the infotainment and navigation system are garbage, and the two back seats are there.
Right there. In the back.
Maybe they’re useful for small children and/or medium-sized pets.
For the certain someone who either has small kids, no kids, kids who have their own cars, or just a bunch of amputee friends, it makes perfect sense.
The Evoque convertible is based off of the three-door hatchback/coupe version of the original Evoque, except this time it’s wearing a silly hat.
And you know what? I like the silly hat.
Alright, so it doesn’t look as solid as the hardtop, and it doesn’t look like it necessarily belongs on the thing the way a cloth roof appears on something like a Miata, but it’s trying and goddammit, it’s working.
Alright, so there are some compromises made to get this whole convertible thing going.
It’s not like it feels all floppy and flobbery like an old Saab – really, it feels rather tight for what it is – but while the soft-top doesn’t intrude on the trunk space, that’s probably because there isn’t a lot of trunk space to begin with in the Evoque Convertible.
But really who the hell cares? This is a return to a long-abandoned market segment – that of the convertible cruiser – except now you need to look for practicality in other ways.
Does it have a ton of trunk space? Nope.
Could I put the roof down in a scant 18 seconds at speeds of up to 30 miles an hour, brave temperatures in the mid-40s with the help of a heater, heated seats, and nothing but the frosty Northeast wind and the beautiful fall foliage to comfort me? Hell yeah.
So what if it was too cloudy to see any stars.