Range Rover combines a luxury car with off-road ability, but the engineering effort goes largely unappreciated by its owners, writes MICHAEL McALEER
WHO WOULD take a €100,000 new car, drive it along a riverbed and up the side of a mountain? For the few that would, then welcome to your new car.
Range Rover is marking its 40th anniversary and with SUVs seemingly the root of all evil, many would question the brand’s potential to mark another decade. They’d be wrong, claims its engineers and management team.
Despite a seemingly terminal collapse in its market during the recession – Land Rover sales fell by 95 per cent last year – early indicators are that customers are returning to the brand.
What’s more, the luxury off-roader from Land Rover has plans afoot for a host of new models well into the coming decade. Range Rover at 40 is an evolution on the theme.
Initially designed by Charles King, the exterior hasn’t changed greatly from his initial conception. What has changed though, is its audience. King’s plan was for a posh mud-plugger, offering a bit of comfort for the farming set. He publicly derided those who bought it simply for school runs and attacked the “stupid drivers” who turned his highly engineered off-roader into the Chelsea tractor – which translated in the Irish Celtic Tiger era to the Ballsbridge buggy.
So what can we make of the latest Range Rover on its 40th anniversary?
Well, it now has a new engine. Out goes the 3.6-litre diesel in favour of a new 4.4-litre V8. That might sound like the engineers are turning their back on the environmental concerns, but while it offers more power and performance, it does deliver 18 per cent improvements in terms of fuel consumption averaging 9.4 L/100km (30.1 mpg) and a 14 per cent reduction in emissions.
Unfortunately, it’s still a hefty 253g/km which means no savings in the sizeable motor tax bill for Irish buyers. The latest iteration is also fitted with a new eight-speed ZF automatic transmission that gets the most from the 700Nm of torque on tap.
Other features are more to do with the luxury end of the Range Rover offering either practicality or performance. Being a sister brand of Jaguar, it has been able to add the rising chrome gear dial that first featured in the Jaguar XF.
It also shares the dual vision central console screen with Jaguar’s new XJ, while the dial for choosing terrain response has been replaced by a cluster of toggle buttons. There are also optional reclining rear seats, with Range Rover spending more time improving the comfort of rear seat passengers in an effort to cater for the growing chauffeur drives in the Asian markets, where a combination of off-road ability and premium comfort is the desired mix.
And that’s the inherent contradiction in this vehicle.It’s a luxury car, complete with stitched leather trim, video screens and a salubrious cabin, yet it crosses rivers with the water lapping against the side windows, scrambles up stony embankments, over rocks and through muddy escarpments. Its engineers are rightly proud of their vehicles incredible ability and therefore choose some of the most ridiculous off-road routes to prove its worth.
AS JOURNALISTSwe relish the challenge, but you have to wonder whether we'd be as gung-ho to throw a €100,000-plus Range Rover into a river, or bounce along a mountain pass with the polished metallic paintwork millimetres from jagged artifices, if it was our own money that had been paid out for the car. There is, of course, some comfort in knowing that it can be done, but would you really choose to do it out of choice?
If you need a luxury car with the off-road ability of a tractor, then this is the vehicle for you. The questions it raises are really not about the vehicle itself, but whether its owners will ever truly appreciate its worth.
If, like me, that would only occur when Armageddon approaches, then let’s hope we never have to find out. We’re left with incredible admiration for its ability, but a degree of sadness that the vast majority of the engineering effort will largely go unused and unappreciated by its owners.
What's coming next from the Land Rover stable
WHAT DOES the future hold for the iconic British SUV brand? Many an obituary has been written for the SUV but there seems to be plenty of life left in the Land Rover brand. While there was a lot of uncertainty during the change of parents from Ford to the Tata Corporation, the future has become much clearer in recent months.
By November a two-wheel drive version of the Freelander will be launched that’s likely to push the price down to the €30,000 range and pits it against some of the popular models such as Nissan’s Qashqai and Ford’s Kuga.
Over the next two years there will be all-new versions of the Range Rover and Range Rover Sport. Then things really start to get busy for the brand, with seven new models pencilled in between 2014 and the end of the decade.
New Discovery, Freelander and Defender models will be followed up with four completely new offerings – most likely to be crossovers. All these will be accompanied by further engine developments aimed at lowering the carbon footprint of its fleet. It’s a busy schedule for a brand some thought would never survive the anti-SUV onslaught .
Factfile
RANGE ROVER
Power: A new 4.4-litre TDV8 engine putting out 313bhp and 700Nm of torque
Performance: 0-100km/h in 7.8 secs with a top speed limited to 210km/h
Fuel consumption: 9.4l/100km (30.1mpg)
CO2: 253 g/km
Tax band: G
Motor tax: €2,100
Prices: Expected to start at €105,000 for entry HSE version, €109,000 to €114,000 for the Vogue range, and €140,000 for the Autobiography version
