Comparison Test: Luxury Compact SUVs

Luxury Compact SUV Comparison. Click image to enlarge

Review by Jacob Black, photos by Jonathan Yarkony

When it comes to glamorous luxury compact SUVs, Range Rover and BMW seem to know their stuff. With style-focused offerings in the form of the coupe-like X4 and the ultra-sharp Evoque, Land Rover and BMW have tapped that rich vein of socialites and movers and shakers who know that first impressions matter.

So it was natural that we’d pit these two masters of modern design against each other. They have a similar mission. Look great, perform well, and provide some off-road capability – because winter. But here at Autos.ca, we don’t like anyone to have it too easy. Not even Land Rover or BMW. And it just so happens there is a similarly equipped and powered contender for the luxury compact SUV legitimacy – the 2015 Lincoln MKC. This new Lincoln is the company’s latest source of hope. It packs all the features of the other two, and aspires to provide the same luxury, refinement and pleasing driving experience.

As tested, it is also significantly cheaper. The fully loaded MKC comes in at $55,320 – 13K shy of the $68,490 X4 and $68,590 Evoque. So we have two within $100 of each other, and an interloper some $13,000 less expensive.

Are the continentals really that much better than their domestic counterpart?

Styling

There are few SUVs that evoke (ha!) the kind of lust this baby Range Rover elicits. The aggressive and futuristic character lines, the sloping roof, the well-proportioned front fenders and grille all come together to make onlookers drool. Even the comparatively boring wheels with high-profile tires on our tester couldn’t bring it down. The Evoque is a masterpiece of design.

The X4 ties neatly into the craze for coupe-like profiles. BMW has captured the sweeping roofline that almost every car fan has dreamily sketched onto a high-school textbook. The roofline swoops down to a stubby tail and stubby front – both of which only add to its visual charm. It looks big though, cumbersome even, and that’s its downfall. Besides, who paints a car brown? Yuck.

2014 Land Rover Range Rover Evoque Dynamic, 2015 BMW X4 xDrive35i, 2015 Lincoln MKC 2.3L AWD. Click image to enlarge

The MKC is pretty enough, but lacks the flair of the other two. Kudos to Lincoln designers, this was mistaken for a European car by more than a few, and seems to elegantly portray the upscale cachet that elevates it beyond the Ford Escape on which it’s based.

Inside, the Evoque’s simplicity is given a little visual oomph with red and black accenting, while the all-black Lincoln interior hides some of the more interesting leather sculpting in the door trims and seats. The BMW is classic BMW, but lacked any outstanding visual appeal in this company.

The Evoque wins the styling wars, unsurprising given its singular focus on aesthetics.

2014 Land Rover Range Rover Evoque Dynamic, 2015 BMW X4 xDrive35i, 2015 Lincoln MKC 2.3L AWD. Click image to enlarge

Drivetrain

This is almost not even a fair fight. BMW brings to the party a 3.0L inline-six with 300 hp and the same amount of torque. The upgraded turbocharged 2.3L four in the MKC comes close with 285 hp and 305 lb-ft of torque, while the 240 hp/250 lb-ft 2.0L turbo-four in the Evoque lags behind. You can get almost the exact same Ford-based 2.0L in the MKC, but our tester had the aforementioned upgrade.

2015 BMW X4 xDrive35i. Click image to enlarge

And while you might think the MKC’s raw torque number bests the BMW, it comes on 1,400 rpm later at 2,700, and the result is a less drivable engine. The BMW is superb, it launches quickly, makes little noise or vibration and accelerates from speed with no fuss.

The Evoque left me wanting more, it just isn’t quick enough for a car that looks this good, and while the engine note was pleasing up high and smooth down low, the lack of oomph was disconcerting.

Lincoln has applied this new 2.3L to good effect and it was a satisfying drive, but needed to be worked hard for maximum enjoyment.

Sure the Evoque has a trick, nine-speed gearbox, but it’s no match for the crisp eight-speed in the X4. The Lincoln’s six-speed unit is Selectshift feels sluggish by comparison.

The Lincoln also comes without stop-start technology or an Eco mode – features found on both the BMW and Evoque. Only BMW has a Sport+ mode though.

2015 Lincoln MKC 2.3L AWD. Click image to enlarge

The Evoque pegs back ground on fuel economy with a combined rating of 9.8 L/100 km from the EPA. That bests the identical 11.2 rating for the MKC and X4. Full city/highway/combined ratings for the trio are 11.2/7.8/9.8 for Evoque, 13.1/8.7/11.2 in the X4 and 13.1/9.0/11.2 for the MKC.

It was the X4 that most satisfied my hungry right foot and enthusiasm for overtaking, and the fact that it’s more efficient than the MKC is bonus. Clearly the BMW is the drivetrain of choice here.

Ride and Handling

Despite being fitted with low-profile tires, the BMW X4 offered up the most comfortable ride over rough ground of this trio. The Evoque and MKC were about even on road manners, with neither being noisy or crashy, but still not as silken as the X4.

Turn in is quicker in the BMW too, but the MKC holds its track better and the Evoque has a tighter turning circle, making it more comfortable in tight parking lots. Steering feel is compromised in all three by over-boosted electric steering, so nobody gets the nod in that area.

2014 Land Rover Range Rover Evoque Dynamic. Click image to enlarge

All three had understeer, but only the MKC showed noticeable body roll in corners, the other two were surprisingly flat.

These SUVs are likely to see only rare off-road use, which makes the Evoque’s allegedly superior off-road capability redundant. At best, most will see limited runs on gravel cottage roads, with the occasional bit of snow. We took all three out on some loose gravel for a brief test, and none stood out as a winner. If soft-road use is about as rough as your drive will get, all three will serve you well.

I preferred the BMW in most settings, but not by much. Your results may vary.

2014 Land Rover Range Rover Evoque Dynamic seating, sunroof, cargo area. Click image to enlarge

Interior and Practicality

What light through yonder window breaks? Geez, I don’t know but there sure is a lot of it! The Evoque doesn’t so much have a sunroof as an entire glass panel where the roof would usually be. It lets in copious amounts of light and turns the quite cramped rear seat into an open-plan oasis. The BMW by comparison has a sunroof so pitiful it reminds one of a machine gun slot in an APC. The MKC splits the two with its dual-pane effort which would be dazzling if not compared to the Range Rover.

Much has been made of the Evoque’s visibility issues, and there are plenty, but it’s not actually as bad as some would have you believe. In fact, rearward visibility was better than in the X4, where the C-pillars bend inward as well as being wide. Shoulder checks in the Evoque are a joke though, so you’d better make sure you have your mirrors set the SAE way. The MKC has the best greenhouse of the lot making it the easiest to see out of.

2015 Lincoln MKC 2.3L AWD seating, steering wheel, centre stack. Click image to enlarge

The MKC also has the largest cargo area with 714 L expanding to 1,504 with seats folded. The Evoque at 575 and 1,445 L officially has more than the X4’s 500 and 1,400, but the volume comes from height. The cargo area itself is extremely shallow and narrow. I couldn’t fit my packed up pop-up marquee in the Evoque without folding at least one seat down, the MKC swallowed it easily and the BMW took it with a bit of finagling. Numbers it seems, do lie.

The MKC also has more interior cargo space. The Evoque’s shallow cargo area gives it more rear legroom than the BMW, but not by much. Only the back seat of the MKC was truly comfortable for my tiny 5’6″ frame.

So while I enjoyed being in the driver’s seat of the Evoque far more than the other two, the MKC is far more livable overall, and so wins this category by a country mile.

2014 Land Rover Range Rover Evoque Dynamic steering wheel, touchscreen, centre stack with shifter retracted & extended. Click image to enlarge

Infotainment and Features

One of my favourite things about Jaguar/Land Rover products is their convenience. In almost all of them, if you stop, put the car in park, and then remove your seatbelt the car will automatically shut down all by itself. It’s genuinely helpful, efficient and is one of those things that can endear a car to a person.

The Evoque also has a visually stunning and truly helpful driving coach screen in the seven-inch touchscreen, which will help you drive more efficiently. The instrument cluster is simple, elegant and attractive with easy-to-read outputs for all the simple things – average fuel economy, fuel, speed, tachometer. Finally, the Bluetooth pairing runs car to phone, not phone to car, so you only need to touch your phone once to pair it. Passengers can also do this, and they can input navigation commands while you’re driving. Hooray for the lack of nanny controls!

Little features like this help you forgive the touchscreen-based HMI which takes more time and concentration than it rightfully should to operate, and which is sometimes slow to respond. The inability to tune stations via any other method than the slow buttons on the touchscreen. You can tune presets using the steering wheel controls, but that is useless for those of us who like to jump around a lot.

2015 BMW X4 xDrive35i steering wheel, iDrive menu, shifter, centre stack. Click image to enlarge

The BMW’s HMI is infinitely better. Every action can be performed with a few milimetres of finger movement with the one, large HMI control wheel and a set of hard buttons. The display is a glorious, eight-inch wide in-dash screen and the dials are complemented by another TFT and the head-up display. Tuning stations is a breeze with the scroll wheel on the steering wheel, and current song playing is shown in the head-up display. If you like to listen to music and focus on the road, the BMW has you sorted.

BMW only just bests Lincoln in the equipment department, and that’s only because of the head-up display. The MKC and X4 leave the Evoque way behind by applying adaptive cruise control, lane-keeping assist, and mobile Wi-Fi to its list of features. The MKC is the only one in this trio that gets cooled seats too.

However, MyFord MyLincoln Touch still suffers from a choppy screen, slow response times, the dreaded “system update” and convoluted screen options. I also experience a dodgy satellite radio signal in the Lincoln – it cut out far more often than any car I’ve been in recently, with any tall building enough to send Sirius XM into conniptions. It does provide a traditional tuning knob for changing stations though – so that’s one positive.

2015 Lincoln MKC 2.3L AWD driver’s seat, MyLincoln Touch, media & HVAC controls. Click image to enlarge

The Meridian sound system in the Evoque is better to my ears (and comes with prettier speakers) than the Harman/Kardon in the BMW or the THX in the Lincoln, but not by enough to claw back any ground.

BMW wins the features and infotainment battle ahead of Lincoln.

Quality

I’m going to spoil this one up front and tell you that BMW claims this category. The Germans have this down pat now, while the Evoque is still British and Lincoln still America. In the Evoque I found some loose panels and large gaps, but most annoying the sunglasses holder door kept jamming.

2015 BMW X4 xDrive35i gauges, 2014 Land Rover Range Rover Evoque Dynamic dashboard, 2015 Lincoln MKC 2.3L AWD rough metal trim. Click image to enlarge

That’s a small complaint next to those of the Lincoln, whose finish in some areas was so bad it caused me a physical injury! Okay, a small one, but an injury nonetheless. Right in the curve of the rear door, at the exact spot you’d put your fingers to open the door further is a clump of badly finished metal, complete with a sharp shard that cut my finger. It could be this individual example but to have the door skin sent out with that part rough and unfinished is a bad omen for the rest of the fit and finish.

For the cleanest execution and the best-smelling leather, I’m awarding this one to the Beemer.

2014 Land Rover Range Rover Evoque Dynamic, 2015 BMW X4 xDrive35i, 2015 Lincoln MKC 2.3L AWD. Click image to enlarge

Value

This is the final round, and also the opportunity for the Lincoln MKC to sock one to the established front-runners. If you value looks and prestige, the BMW or Land Rover likely already has your vote. If your decision-making process is entirely practical, the Lincoln offers almost every feature found on the X4, minus head-up display, more room than either, and comes with a better engine than the Evoque.

And as a final, drop-the-mic moment, it is $13,170 cheaper.

From a pure dollars-for-stuff perspective, the MKC smashes this category.

Winner winner, chicken dinner. Click image to enlarge

Conclusion

This one is hard. You see, there is a big part of me that likes pretty things, and the Evoque is a very pretty thing. Very, very pretty. Easily pretty enough to forgive its flaws. Especially when you catch the admiring glances of pedestrians and fellow motorists.

But I also like things that drive superbly and that in this instance is the BMW X4.

Lastly, I enjoy getting a lot of stuff for the least possible amount of money – and in that instance, you can’t look past the MKC.

But ultimately, it is the driving experience that matters most to me, and the BMW delivers the best in that regard. The inline-six is a cracker of an engine, and the seats make even the longest drive feel like a short hop to the shops. The head-up display is a thing of beauty and the HMI is geared to satisfy the busy professional. Plus, the roundel on the bonnet provides instant credibility for the go-getters of the world.

For achieving more of its goals, better, this comparison test goes to the 2015 BMW X4 xDrive35i.

Pricing: 2015 BMW X4 xDrive35i
Base Price: $54,950
Options: Premium Package (comfort access, rear-view camera, auto-dimming mirrors, park-distance control, lights package, surround view, BMW on-board navigation, Sirius XM) – $5,300. Executive Package (universal remote control, lumbar support, heated rear seats, head-up display, Harmam/Kardon sound system) – $2,800, Technology Package (active blind-spot detection, lane departure and collision warning, driving assistant plus) $1,500), Connected Drive Services (internet, concierge, BMW apps, extended smartphone connectivity) – $500, metallic paint – $895, speed limit information – $350.
A/C Tax: $100
Freight and PDI: $2,095
Price as Tested: $68,490

Pricing: 2015 Lincoln MKC 2.3L AWD
Base Price: $49,650
Options: Technology Package (active park assist, adaptive cruise control, forward-sensing system, lane keeping system – $2,250, enhanced THX audio – $995, Class II trailer tow package – $500, premium reversible cargo mat – $75.
A/C Tax: $100
Freight and PDI: $1,750
Price as Tested: $55,320 

Pricing: 2014 Range Rover Evoque Dynamic
Base Price: $60,985
Options: Metallic paint – $1,050, Sirius XM – $450, 19-inch Sparkle Finish Alloy – $500, Cirrus headliner – $275, heated rear seats – $500, contrasting coloured roof (black) – $730, parallel park (with parking exit/perpendicular park) – $750, gloss black Strata Wood Finisher – $400.
A/C Tax: $100
Freight and PDI: $1,470
Price as Tested: $68,590