A week in a Range Rover: Living with the latest version of an automotive legend

16 October 2023 , 19:17

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You really don't need me to introduce this car, do you? It's a Range Rover. The last word in luxury, a dependable off-roader, a classless mainstay of the automotive landscape for over five decades and an eye-wateringly expensive way of getting from A to B.

This, the fifth generation of the instantly recognisable Land Rover halo car, has just arrived on my driveway.

And, actually, I'm going to back it straight off my driveway because it's absolutely massive and I can barely walk past it. I've got a courier coming to deliver a big parcel this morning and I don't want him scratching it.

That might have been an odd first impression to make of a car I've been desperately excited to test since it was launched in October last year. You see, motoring journalists often get asked what they think is the best car in the world. And I always respond with "Range Rover". Because it's just a car that does so many things so well. Apart from fitting on a driveway, it appears.

A week in a Range Rover: Living with the latest version of an automotive legend eiqtitidzqinv

The newest Range Rover might be instantly recognisable, but it is in fact all new. Nothing is carried over from the outgoing model, and you only really pick up on the differences properly when you walk around it. Which takes a while.

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The most distinctive feature is arguably those vertical rear lights. They're much more attractive in the flesh than they are in pictures, trust me, and the surprisingly aerodynamic lines just flow into the sculpted but elegant rear.

The front lights follow the Land Rover design language more closely, but they're higher up now, with a large gap between them and the grille. I'm not so keen on the front of it, but everything else about the new Range Rover's exterior smacks of quality, with incredibly tight panel gaps, exquisite details and all the classic hallmarks of the legend it has become.

And that's before I take a good look at the interior. But I've spent so long drinking in the exterior details, my phone's ringing, and I need to go and get on with some work. At least I can see it from my office window. What a view.

DAY TWO

I get up early to take my wife to work. In the Range Rover. How exciting. I've driven every version of the Range Rover now, and the first impression when I climb into the driving seat is how minimalist the newcomer feels. There's a little cluster of buttons to control the basics, two lovely knurled dials for seat and heating controls, but everything else is tucked away in a touch-screen.

Cards on the table, I've always hated this modern fad. I don't want to navigate through a labyrinth of digital menus just to control the temperature. But Land Rover's latest user interface is good. Really good, in fact. And a vast improvement over some of the earlier systems.

My favourite feature is a haptic feedback mode. It means you need to give the screen a firm prod, but you're rewarded with a tiny vibration. It's as close as you can get to pushing a button. I'd still prefer an actual button, but this is a pretty good compromise.

The seats, it won't surprise you to know, are magnificent. They look, feel and smell like leather from the most cossetted of cows, but I'm told they're actually trimmed in something called Ultrafabrics and Kvadrat. These are high-tech, sustainable, vegan-friendly materials that Land Rover says have all the tactile qualities of leather but are 30 per cent lighter and generate only a quarter of the CO2. All I know is they're just rather lovely.

It's the same story in the back. Standard Range Rovers have five seats, and the legroom is remarkable. There are separate controls for rear passengers, along with a three-pin plug socket and plenty of gadgets to keep you comfortable and entertained.

A seven-seater long-wheelbase Range Rover is available for the first time, which I've yet to have a sit in, but the normal version I've been sent is just as luxurious as any Range Rover should be.

Back in the front, the driving position is as imperious as ever. The deep windows give the usual fantastic visibility, a complex camera setup makes parking much easier than you'd expect for such a big car, and the steering wheel controls are back to being buttons, rather than constantly changing touch-sensitive panels. Much better.

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Gone is the knob-o-matic gear selector in favour of a much more conventional stubby gear stick, but the fold-away armrests remain, along with some of the most comfortable headrests you will ever slump into.

DAY THREE

Sod it, I'm taking the day off. I've got some lieu time backed up and I've barely driven one of my favourite cars since it was dropped off.

I did have an idea about driving to Snowdonia in the Range Rover, but that little road trip has been condensed a bit because life got in the way, so I'm going to do one of my favourite local test routes. It's about 50 miles all told.

The first stretch is a network of pretty A and B roads. You wouldn't think the Range Rover, given its size, would be all that comfortable on a rural run, but they've always had a remarkable knack for feeling smaller than they actually are on the road. It's also worth noting that the new Range Rover, while only a little bit heavier than the predecessor, is 50% stiffer.

This makes for implausibly good road manners, especially when coupled with an unimaginably complicated suspension system that offers 48-volt electronic roll control and a GPS system that scans the road ahead for imperfections in order to prime the suspension.

So, in short, it's absolutely incredible on British roads. Honestly, it has a Rolls Royce-like quality which, actually, should come as no surprise, given this car is aimed squarely at the Cullinan.

It isn't long before I reach the dual carriageway, and then I can properly slip back into luxury driving. The Range Rover absolutely devours long journeys. Its driver aids are first class, those phenomenal seats just envelop you and everything feels so effortless. It is, by quite a margin, one of the most luxurious cars out there.

DAY FOUR

I'm going to squander all my remaining lieu time and take the afternoon off to do another road trip. Just for research purposes, you understand. This time I'm picking a varied route with some narrow, twisty lanes and a bit more rural A-road. I just can't get over how well the Range Rover copes with day-to-day driving.

My test model is the D350 HSE, actually quite low down in the pecking order, but it offers a diesel engine (remember them?) with 350hp and 700nm of torque. It's a fabulous engine, and more refined than you'd expect.

It's a three-litre, twin-turbo unit with 48v mild hybrid tech and Land Rover claims you can manage 35.7mpg. I'm not doing quite that well, but it's still comfortably nudging past 30mpg on my mixed routes.

There are bigger engines, there are plug-in hybrids, and even an all-electric one coming very soon, but this oil burner is doing a marvellous job of propelling me along. Somehow it just feels like a good fit in a Range Rover. It's a shame it also feels like a swansong.

DAY FIVE

It's the weekend at last, and we're starting our two days of freedom off with some supermarket shopping. What joy.

I wonder, as I pull in to the car park, how many people rock up to Aldi in a Range Rover. It feels a little out of place, but I'm enjoying the attention it's getting all the same.

Parking the Range Rover in a supermarket space is a fine art. It's easier than it should be, mainly because of the excellent cameras, which even give you views of the river you're about to wade into, but have I mentioned the fact the Range Rover is unapologetically massive?

Before we head out to grab the weekly stock-up I play my favourite game and increase the ride height, which is now done on a screen in the 13.1-inch main display. My wife hates this, because she's only 5ft 2in tall and it means she has to slide down the side of the seat as far as possible and then "jump" the rest of the way.

On our return to the car, however, I open up the fabulous split tailgate and play my other favourite game - lowering the ride height, by the touch of a button mounted on the side of the boot space. I must have looked like such a ponce to the people in the Vauxhall parked behind me, but it makes lugging heavy bags out of a trolley and into the cavernous boot so much easier.

At the touch of another button the two parts of the tailgate softly close up again and we're soon on our way out of the parking space. This is made so much easier thanks to new all-wheel steering. It gives the Range Rover a turning circle of less than 11 metres. Mr and Mrs Vauxhall will doubtless be impressed to see that.

DAY SIX

It's Sunday and we've got to convey some cardboard boxes to the tip. Normally, I'd spend 10 minutes neatly folding them up before squeezing them into the boot of my Fiat Panda. But there's absolutely no need with the Range Rover. At the touch of a button in the boot the rear seats lower and there's absolutely cavernous loading space. So much so, in fact, we decide to clear some rubbish out of our garage at the same time.

Range Rovers might be able to wade through a river up to 90cm in depth, but they can also swallow up an old wardrobe and load of boxes full of DVDs with absolute ease.

It really is the ultimate car. The best in the world? That's subjective, I guess, but I'm sitting here in a queue for the recycling centre, looking around one of the best interiors in the business, having just spent the best part of a week marvelling at how well it handles, fresh from a mundane shopping trip that turned out to be a doddle, and wondering what a car would have to do to out-perform it.

Sure, it might not be sporty, and it might be a bit big for some applications, and it might be a fantastically expensive option, but it is honestly truly magnificent in so many ways.

I'm always surprised how many new Range Rovers I see out on the road, given that they're a six-figure car nowadays. And after spending some time in one I can understand why. If I had £100,000 to spend filling up my dream garage, it would be the first vehicle I'd pick. Range Rovers are still, in my book at least, the best car in the world.

DAY SEVEN

The Range Rover goes back today, and I'm stuck in the office, giving it the occasional fond glance from out of my window before the nice man from Land Rover comes to collect it.

While I'm pretending to do some work, I casually log on to the Land Rover website to see what a Range Rover in my ideal spec would cost. And it's a bit of an eye-opener.

My test model, an HSE, which, as I said, wasn't a particularly special one in the grand scheme of things, would have cost me £124,245 including the £15,000 of options and the taxes.

If I'd gone for my favourite spec, a standard-wheelbase Autobiography with the plug-in hybrid engine, in a posh colour, it would have set me back nearly £170,00.

It's frighteningly easy to spec a Range Rover up to the unhappy side of £200,000. And we don't know yet what the all-electric version will cost.

Then there's the running costs, which won't be great if you go for the diesel, and then there's the tax, and let's not talk about depreciation.

But I guess if you can afford a Range Rover in the first place, those sorts of things don't really matter all that much.

If you are lucky enough to be considering one of these marvellous machines, you only need to know one thing: It's a huge improvement over its predecessor. And its predecessor was absolutely brilliant, too.