Rear visibility in the Mini Paceman is pretty dismal. In the Evoque it’s laughable. As Jeff noted, when someone in an SUV is riding your bumper, all you see through the rear slit is the part of their face between their upper lip and their eyebrows.
But we must not forget the Evoque’s other major attribute that is often overshadowed by its stunning looks. Being a Range Rover, it has honest-to-gawd off-road credibility thanks to full-time all-wheel-drive, selectable terrain response and approach and departure angles that put all other cute utes in the wannabe category.
In this contest, the win goes to the Evoque.
  2013 Range Rover Evoque & 2013 Mini Paceman. Click image to enlarge |
Style, Jeff Wilson
One of these crossovers is a natural beauty; the other is fun and has a good personality. From any angle, the smallest Range Rover is as sexy as you will ever find a crossover vehicle.
Seldom does the world see a concept that transitions so untouched from auto show styling exercise to production as the Evoque has done. Sleek, squinty headlights sweep back into muscular arches stretched over 19-inch wheels (or optional 20s).
The steeply raked windshield meets a roof that slopes to an impossibly squat backlight. The side windows are so short that my three-year-old son perched in his car seat has a view of only the windowsill. Nothing else looks like the Evoque, and with the R A N G E R O V E R word mark tattooed to the snout, it’s got the brand cachet to match its over-the-top looks.
On its own, the Paceman appears to be a successful styling improvement over the pudgy and awkward-looking Countryman on which it’s based, but parked next to the Evoque, the Mini is merely a goofy-looking caricature with wide eyes and gaping maw. Peter described the Paceman as a “sad guppy”, an apt mental image I couldn’t shake for the rest of the drive. Mini fans that have outgrown their Cooper S hatchback will likely forgive the Paceman’s styling, but for the rest of us urban style mavens, we simply see a brand that’s being stretched too far.
 
2013 Mini Paceman & 2013 Range Rover Evoque. Click image to enlarge |
Inside the Paceman, the fashion faux pas continue with love-it-or-hate it ergonomics comprised of toggle switches and a dinner-plate-sized speedometer that houses the nav screen in its inner ring. More distressing, though, are rock-hard plastics and generally cheap-feeling trim textures that wouldn’t pass muster in a Kia these days. Quirky cool might work on a twenty-four-grand Cooper, but the Paceman Cooper S All4 you see here is nearly 40 large.
Despite its rebellious outward appearance, the Evoque’s posh Range Rover lineage shines throughout its interior. Equipped with the Pure Plus Package, the aroma of rich leather abounds. The dash-top has a pebbled grain to the soft-touch plastics and the centre stack presents all the key controls at hand. The rise-to-greet-you shift rotary knob found exclusively on Jags and Land Rovers is a cool touch to impress friends.
That’s 2-0 for the Evoque.
