I’m on the hunt for a 4WD SUV due to two dogs, camping gear and bikes.

My bangernomics led me to a MK4 2.5 Legacy which is cavernous, ultra reliable and fun to drive. I’ve had it for 3 years now but unfortunately it’s rotting.

So I’m looking for a newer alternative.

I’m running 3 cars at the moment – an Abarth, said Legacy and an RX-8. So consolidating to one do-it-all car seems like a sensible plan.

I live in the Peaks so this is no Chelsea tractor. I wild camp, I head to Wales and Scotland a lot. So a 4WD SUV is, in my mind, justifiable.

Looking at new cars, I simply cannot understand how people will pay circa £700/month for eg. a new X-Trail.

Nor do I understand leasing a car.

So, as a cash purchase I’m looking at a post 2016 RR Evoque or a LR Discovery Sport of the same era. With the 2.0 engine rather than the earlier 2.2.

I know the answer will be ‘go try them both’. Which is fine, I will do. But I’m keen to hear any experiences of either when it comes to bikes and camping. The Sport has the bigger boot but due to dogs the bikes would be outside the car anyway. Which is why the Evoque is tempting.

To pre-empt… no I’m not a hairdresser.

So. Any input welcome, thanks all.

Suspect you’ll be surprised at the lack of space in those compared to an estate car

I live in the Peaks so this is no Chelsea tractor. I wild camp, I head to Wales and Scotland a lot. So a 4WD SUV is, in my mind, justifiable.

So much wrong, just in one paragraph.
🙂

They do have roads in the Waless and in the Scotlands too 😉

RR Evoque is actually really small inside, we had one for a few years. Much smaller than an BMW X3 inside and boot space. Disco Sport is more roomy for sure.

Do you work on a farm? Defender.

Are you a drug dealer? Evoque.

Just want to spend some money on something to make yourself feel good and satisfy the forums? T6 4WD.

None of the above? Buy an estate car.

An Evoque is just a slightly elevated designer handbag. They’re tiny inside.

They’re fine for carrying your chihuahua down to the beauty salon.

4WD Kuga – doesn’t tick any ‘cool’ boxes though.

But parts are a damn site cheaper than JLR parts!

Skoda Superb estate in 4 wheel drive flavour.

Consider JLRs famed reliability. Isn’t the premise decide what you want to spend on a Range/Land Rover, halve it to buy the car and have the rest in the kitty for repairs?

@honourablegeorge The problem at the moment is that the dogs take up the boot. Which kind of means that any boot bigger than what the dogs actually need isn’t usable space.

I can cram a few things around the crate but it’s not ideal.

@thegeneralist There were a few places on Skye where I needed the AWD of the Scooby. Without it, I’d have turned back.

Likewise, it’s unstoppable on winter tyres in, err, winter. Yes, many FWD cars are also good with proper tyres. Not so much in mud, though.

@continuity An estate is still an option. But I do want 4WD which pretty much leaves me with Subaru (very poor value these days). Audi. BMW. Skoda. Volvo.

Of those, only Volvo is a realistic option. I’ll keep my eyes open.

@sharkattack I thought that might be the case. Time to take a look.

Skoda Octavia Scout

Ah, good shout. Completely forgot about that.

Do you need to tow anything heavy? If not then a Kuga, Octavia or Superb (estates) 4×4 should do the trick at a reasonable price.

If I had a gun to my head and had to choose from the original contenders then I’d go for the Disco but maintenance can be expensive and will be no where near as fuel efficient as the alternatives.

I really wanted an Octavia Scout when we bought our Yeti. I let the Mrs make the final decision as she drives every day. I’d still prefer the Scout.

It’s a shame the Xtrails now come with a lower powered engine than our 13 plate 2.2 & I don’t think*1 there’s a 4 wheel drive option, if there is, I’ve never seen one.
We’d have had another if there was 200bhp (+-)version, great for towing & offroading*2
We ended up with a Jag F Pace with the 240 engine but it’s not as big as the Xtrail cargo wise.
*1, thinking ain’t my strong point & I stand to be corrected.
*2, slightly bumpy, parking on the grass etc.

I live in the Peaks so this is no Chelsea tractor. I wild camp, I head to Wales and Scotland a lot. So a 4WD SUV is, in my mind, justifiable.

I used to spend all my spare time in winter in Scotland winter climbing, drove on snow all the time up there, never once got stuck with a FWD Corsa! Did have to use chains once on sheet ice though…

You don’t need a 4WD.

4wd drives can be terrible in snow if they have wide sporty tyres. Front wheel drive and chains for emergencies or an actual landrover like a 110

A mate use to commute from Kendal to Sedburgh. Chains on and the only thing that stopped him getting to work was if the stuck 4x4s blocked the road.

Why not a full fat disco if you’re after lumping bikes, need 4WD and after boot space ? They don’t do a small engine variant though. The boot is very large and high.

Very good friend was effectively gifted a disco sport for very little money and after 4 months couldn’t wait to exchange it, which he did for a 15 plate disco and hasn’t looked back.

4wd drives can be terrible in snow if they have wide sporty tyres

An Evoque is just a slightly elevated designer handbag. They’re tiny inside

There usually fit a pretty big prick inside

Both will be unreliable. The disco sport was just being introduced around that time with early model year changes. I worked at the halewood factory around then, warranty issues were very common.

But if you choose between either, disco sport is the one as it’s a bigger version of the Freelander and based off the same chassis. Evoque is very small no matter which flavour you get.
Cheap materials used throughout, expensive maintenance but capable vehicles.

If dogs are going inside and bikes outside consider the height.
The extra height of SUVs make is harder for dogs to get in (especially when they get old) so you might need a ramp or to like lifting wet dogs. I had to make a ramp for my dad’s old dog.
Also if bikes are to go on the roof check out how big a ladder you’ll need for an SUV. Some of them are really tall.

In a recommend what you’ve got, Mazda CX5 AWD. Go for the Sport trim. 175bhp, 4×4, 2.2 diesel. great to drive, boot space is decent and seats fold properly flat for a huge load space

The Evoque is effectively a Peugeot 3008 with a different/smaller body plonked on top of you want the same type of car for less money.

My money would be on a Volvo – I’ve bought a cheap high mileage XC90 to run alongside our old V70. They are both amazingly well built and designed cars. Id go for an XC60/70/90 – no later than 2015 before Gealey bought in (teething issues on 2015-2017)

Perfect for doggo transport – some have built in retractable dog guards in the back seats.

Haldex gen4 4wd

Big enough to sleep in

Galvanized bodies

Good forum support

Bulletproof 5cylinder petrol and diesels

Dealership level diagnostics available for DIY (CLONED DICE/VIDA)

Dynamically they are rubbish – heavy/wallowy on flowly A roads but brilliant on long motorway journey’s.

Skoda Kodiaq with the 200hp diesel here with four season M&S rated tyres.

Haven’t actually had it out in snow, except a really minor dusting in the Alps, but in mud it’s been pretty good.

Same size inside as an Audi Q7 but only Q5 on the outside.

Golf r estate 👌🏻 job jobbed

If 4WD is important then the Discovery has a proper low/high ratio gearbox, I don’t think that the Evoque does and is reliant on its electronics
The Discovery isn’t much bigger externally, but is much larger internally

Evoques are terrible cars. Small, unreliable and made from cheese. My in laws looks at getting one a few years ago but after we all test drove one the almost unanimous decision (apart from the MIL) was it was utter SH1T3. It had done 3000 miles and the gearbox felt like an old Mk2 Fiesta I had years ago.

I have a customer who is an independent for Range Rover and he has nothing good to say about them. Apart from the fact that he getting rich fixing em…

RR Evoque’s are tiny inside!

We looked at both the Discovery Sport and Evoque back in 2018. My wife really liked the Evoque but agreed the boot was too small for our Lab, deep and narrow so we got the Disco.

Had it 3 1/2 years and it never missed a beat, it was a lovely vehicle, very comfortable and the favourite car I’ve ever owned. Still miss it now. We had a Kuga before that and the LR is night and day better + much bigger. TBF it’s pretty perfect for what you want, and I’d have another tomorrow.

There are obviously reliability scare stories but as mentioned, ours was trouble free. Looking at the latest What Car reliability survey today and there are plenty with worse reliability than the Sport, including the Skoda Yeti, VW Golf + Toran, Skoda Yeti + Octavia, Nissan X Trail and Audi Q5, A6 + A3.

Oh, and look for a Landmark edition as they came with loads of kit extra.

I tried them both when looking for my last company car in around 2018/19. Neither impressed and the dealer (Derby) was just a dick. Went for a Volvo V60.

Another Kodiaq 4×4 here. Very good car indeed. However had a Superb estate 2wd a few years back and actually think a 4×4 Superb might be a better bet. Mostly because the seats fold up better in the Superb, to give easier use of space for more than one bike or at least easier use of roof bars. Ride height of the Kodiaq is nice though.
Still use my Transporter camper for most weekend trips though.

Had a Disco Sport for 3 years as a work car, absolutely loved it, only changed it (for the full Disco) as I felt it was just too small for what I needed it for.  Plus I wanted the air suspension on the full size Disco!  Incredibly capable car, never once got it stuck anywhere (not for a lack of trying).  But the back seats didn’t go fully flat so it wasn’t great for car camping and the boot wasn’t as big as you felt it should be.  We have an estate as our family car, even with the enormous boot we still need a roof box when we go away with the kids and dogs…  The estate gets far better mileage than the Disco Sport ever did too.  If we only had one car a 4X4 estate would probably be my choice, just for the extra ground clearance over a normal car.  I really, really like the full fat Disco, it’s enormous inside, comfortable and will go anywhere – but it’s a stupidly expensive car to run.

You all slag me off everytime I mention my choice. Series 5 L200 Mits. I love it and had an earlier L200 for 13 years before.

Good 4×4, no silly lp tyres, selectable 4×4 with a torsen diff. 2.4l engine, nice inside, plenty of room for dog cage, and/or camping gear and bikes. I had five mtb’s and five of us in, inc gear last week.

Did 2000 miles to and from Switzerland in August

I passed a LR yesterday evening. It looked great in the sunset with the paintwork reflecting the red, orange…and blue lights…

…the orange lights of the Green Flag truck in front of it, and the blue and red lights of the police car behind as they tried to work out how to recover it from the right turn filter lane in the middle of a fast A road where it had decided to break down with traffic whizzing past on both sides!

Curveball… Subaru outback 2.0 diesel

4×4, roomy, ground clearance but not massive tyres, reasonable mpg, solid build quality, good to drive.

I find mine cheap to run/maintain.

The Evoque doesn’t have any room in the back if you’re going to put two dogs in. But I was amazed by what it could do off-road on a muddy Land Rover off road day. Standard tyres, nothing fancy. I stopped deriding hairdressers after that. (But the Discovery was even better with greater clearance. And they float!) I’ve played with all the clever settings in snowy single-lane country roads near me and, yes, it’s much smarter than I am.
Tow bar for the bikes though, not enough space inside without removing wheels, etc.

I nearly got a discovery sport last time I was changing cars, but ended up going for a Q5, a bit cheaper monthly pcp and a bit nicer inside. Had the tyres changes to CrossClimates by the dealer and a towbar for bikes. Great car and easy wipe clean leather for muddy dog. I’ll miss it when it goes back next summer..