It really wasn’t that long ago, when SUVs really meant ‘sport utility vehicles.’ They were designed to go anywhere and do anything, and bring the whole family with you. Sometimes, even the dog had room to join in the fun. And SUVs were usually so large, you could fit a 4-man tent, a cooler box, and supplies in the boot, irrespective of Fido.

God, they were glorious. And no SUV was more glorious than the Range Rover, which was plush enough to keep you and your dog in boundless comfort as you make your way to the fox hunt. And even though the habitat of the Range Rover changed from Herefordshire to Hammersmith, its capabilities were never questioned, as it never needed to be. The Range Rover was the end-all SUV, and that was that.

But then, in 2005, the Range Rover name saw itself diluted, into what was billed as the ‘Range Rover Sport.’ As motoring personality Richard Hammond once said, it was neither sporty, nor a real Range Rover. Beneath the bulky exterior was the chassis from a Discovery, and its sporting pretentions meant it was never as capable as a Range Rover ought to be. But the first generation Range Rover Sport, the abomination that it was, sold in droves, so Land Rover saw it fit to dilute the brand further: 6 years later, the Evoque was born.

Of course, in many ways, the Evoque fixed a lot that was wrong with the Range Rover Sport. Where the Sport never really captured the essence of Range Rover, the Evoque had. It was far more capable over the rough stuff than the Sport, and it had an interior so brilliantly fresh, and yet quintessentially Range Rover. It created a more approachable image to the Range Rover brand, and its price point endeared it to so many, having sold nearly 90,000 units within the first two years.

The unit that was generously loaned to us by Jaguar-Land Rover Malaysia is a facelift model, which sees a lot more going on under the skin than what might usually be constituted as a facelift. The 2.2l turbo diesel is no more (which was very disheartening for me), but the 240hp 2.0 turbocharged unit from Ford continues to soldier on, paired with a brand-new 9-speed automatic gearbox. For the aesthetics, JLR took a ‘if it ain’t broke’ approach, choosing to refine the design that has brought it such success, rather than revamp it. It would take a trained eye to notice the changes, like the new head- and tail-lights, the new bumpers, and LED fog lights. Because really, that’s about it.

Out and about, the Evoque is a very difficult animal to categorise. It was introduced prior to contenders like the Macan and the F-Pace, and its conception undoubtedly created this mini-luxobarge segment. Driving around, you wonder if the Evoque can cut the mustard next to a Porsche Cayenne, while feeling effortlessly more imperious than the chap in his Mercedes-Benz E-Class. But let your eye wander toward the interior, and you’d feel right at home. Leather adorns every possible surface, while more hard-wearing parts of the dash are coated in very soft plastics. This attention to detail continues to the switchgear, where everything is beautifully crafted and expertly weighted, as expected in a Range Rover.

I was tempted, as one can be, to take the Evoque off road. There have been many accounts of people going where some fear to tread in the baby-Rangey, but somehow, it didn’t seem right. I have personally driven Range Rovers through fields in the English countryside, often for the purpose of hunting. And there, they seem perfectly at home. But in the Evoque, capable though it may be, it just didn’t seem like getting it all dirty and muddy was what it was intended for. So I spent the 4 days I had with it almost exclusively in town, where so many of its brethren ply the motorways.

And on the road, it seemed perfectly civilised. Quiet, refined, even agile. The Evoque was so happy in a traffic jam, darting from one gap to the next, that I briefly forgot I wasn’t in the hatchback I usually drive, but a big, hulking SUV. And when the roads opened up, the Evoque remained eager to please, with the all the motorway manners of a limousine. Even the small four-pot 2.0l engine came good, disproving my assumption that it might be a bit gutless in this application.

To summarize the Evoque, is surprisingly difficult. I want to call it a luxury hatchback on stilts, much like I do the Volvo V40 CrossCountry, or the Mercedes-Benz GLA. But, it really isn’t. On one brief occasion I put the Evoque to the test on a rutty, unpaved path, and it came good, going forth where some of its competitors would end up stuck. So it isn’t a pretender, the way the first-gen Range Rover Sport was. No, the Evoque is very much the Range Rover of the 21st century, where we worry about tight parking spaces and fuel economy.

What it is, is a baby Range Rover, in every sense of the phrase. What it is, is absolutely bloody brilliant.