Name a convertible that is more Los Angeles than the Range Rover Evoque Convertible.
The Evoque is already a tremendously fashionable accessory, flawed in its ability to be a practical SUV but a master at showing up like it looks good just getting up in the morning. Perhaps this is why Southern California’s streets are practically paved with the things.
Actually, LA roads aren’t paved with much depending where you live. They’re cracked and broken and no place for low profile tires and expensive 19-inch wheels. Which is why everyone drives an SUV. But the California dream never involved an SUV – it’s about a convertible you can drop the top on when it’s clear and sunny out and take the Pacific Coast Highway up until there’s some rock slide in Malibu which forces you to get back onto the 101. El Niño is real, you get the point.
The Evoque doesn’t appear to have suffered much in the decapitation. Comparisons to the Nissan Murano CrossCabriolet are rather unfair given that the Evoque Convertible isn’t awkward or ungainly. It just prompts you to ask, “Who would spend money on this?” My guess it’s someone who used to drive a VW Cabriolet. And maybe while wearing Gloria Vanderbilt jeans.
It’s showy in a way another all-wheel drive drop-top like an Audi A5 or BMW 4-series convertible isn’t. But that’s OK, because there’s a place where people just care if they look good, the car looks good, the wind is in everyone’s hair and you can make it down your street after a mud slide.
Maybe I’ve fallen in love with it because it is the new VW Cabrio and a basket-handle of a rollbar just short of perfection. File it under, it’s so absurd it’s fabulous.
Photos: Zac Estrada/Carscoops