All generations and engines together · 181,334 MOT tests in the 2025 data · typical mileage at age 7: 61k
Middling among SUVs, by age and by mileage. Watch suspension and lights & electrics. A fair used buy, provided its MOT history has no repeating suspension advisories.
Split by first-registration year. Cars registered in a changeover year can belong to either generation.
Owner folklore from forums and the motoring press, with how well each report stands up. Most of it never shows up in an MOT, which is why this section exists at all.
Early Evoques (roughly 2012-2017) use three aluminium bolts to hold the electric power steering motor onto the rack. Road salt gets in, the bolts corrode and can shear, and owners have reported the motor coming loose with a sudden loss of steering assistance. Land Rover ran a recall (campaign N642) covering this, but forum threads describe cases where steering trouble returned even after the recall work was done, so a completed recall isn't a guarantee.
A recurring owner complaint on both generations: clonks over speed bumps and rough surfaces, and creaking at low speed, usually blamed on bushes, drop links or worn struts. This tracks with the measured MOT data for this class, where suspension is the standout signature fault for large SUVs generally. Owners rarely pin down one culprit before replacing parts, so budget for a proper diagnosis rather than guessing.
On diesel Evoques the EGR cooler can crack and let coolant into the engine oil, and the DPF can struggle to regenerate on cars used mostly for short trips, triggering warning lights and, in some cases, oil dilution. EGR cooler replacement has been quoted around £925-£1,500, with dealers sometimes contributing on goodwill rather than under a formal recall. DPF replacement has run to £2,500-plus when regeneration failures are left unresolved.
Cars with the 9-speed ZF automatic have a history of shudder and hesitation pulling away from low speed, occasionally followed by an abrupt, harsh gear change. Land Rover has issued software updates for it, which help but don't always cure it completely on every car. Worth doing a longer test drive with several stop-start junctions rather than a five-minute loop.
On manual cars, owners have reported the clutch and dual-mass flywheel wearing out unusually early, in some cases from as little as 15,000-19,000 miles rather than the 60k-plus you'd expect. A slipping clutch, a shuddering biting point, or a rattle from the flywheel at idle in neutral are the tells. Replacing both together is a four-figure job at most independent garages.
On second-generation cars with the 2.0-litre Ingenium petrol or diesel engine, a brief rattle on cold start-up that clears once oil pressure builds is reported repeatedly by independent specialists as an early sign of timing chain or oil pump wear. It isn't officially acknowledged by Jaguar Land Rover as a defect, but several specialist garages treat it as a known weak point worth catching early, since a stretched chain left alone can mean a much bigger repair.
Ranked from this model’s own MOT record, then from what owners report.
Saveable checklistThe physical checks its own defect data says are worth your time, most telling first.
These judge the seller’s upkeep rather than the model, and they are where the haggling money is.
The physical checks its own defect data says are worth your time, most telling first.
These judge the seller’s upkeep rather than the model, and they are where the haggling money is.
The physical checks its own defect data says are worth your time, most telling first.
These judge the seller’s upkeep rather than the model, and they are where the haggling money is.
Drawn from the reports above rather than the MOT data. These are the model-specific ones.
Computed from DVSA MOT results, all of Great Britain, 2025. Nothing here is opinion.
Share of tests where each item was recorded. The dark tick is the class average across all tracked models; bars are scaled within each group.
The rows that judge the model rather than its keeper. 81,355 tests in this band.
Tyres, pads and stone chips say more about how the car was driven and maintained than about how it was built.
Same segment (Family & large SUVs), best MOT record first. Compare before you shortlist.
Head to head with the other popular cars in its class on reliability and common faults.