New Range Rover: the group test
A new Range Rover means renewed efforts to steal its crown. The king in waiting goes to war with Bentley’s Bentayga and the Porsche Cayenne
Genuine icons? They’re few and far between.
Porsche has at least one, and so too does Land Rover. Its flagship, the luxurymeets-utility Range Rover, may be more than half a century old but it’s only now into its fifth iteration. Trends, corporate owners, rivals, Prime Ministers – they come and go yet the Range Rover remains; aloof yet desirable, aspirational yet practical, contemporary yet timeless.
Tempting though it must be to consider your icon a creation beyond compare, Land Rover has resisted such complacency, and with good reason: the luxury SUV sector heaves with quality rivals and glittering debutants (here’s looking at you, Lotus and Ferrari).
We know from our first drive that this new Range Rover is much more than a cut-and-paste exercise in marginal gains. Instead it looks, smells, feels and drives suspiciously like a masterful re-interpretation of a half-century-old formula, one that retains the type’s trademark style, comfort and off-road ability while also fixing the only real chink in its armour, namely its on-road driving dynamics. Can it really be that good?
Today we’ll find out.
Where just an hour ago the Peak District was devoid of colour –a monochrome wilderness under a slate sky – dazzling spring sunshine has since brought the place to life. The myriad ochres of the moors pop with the vivid yellow of flowering gorse and the emerald green of fresh growth. It’s a landscape of remarkable beauty and one in which it’s easy to lose yourself, particularly from the Range Rover’s throne-like driver’s seat. There I am, left arm on the armrest, happily lost in peaceful contemplation, when two bombastic V8s roar past in a wall of stereo noise. The Cayenne (here to put the Range Rover’s new-found on-road flair in perspective) and the Bentayga (for most the definitive luxury SUV), bored of my pedestrian pace, lunge ahead before bobbing out of view over the next crest. Game on.
TEST 1: PORSCHE’S CAYENNE
Being a diligent sort of chap, I was sure to drive the outgoing Range Rover before meeting its replacement. It was as I remembered, lovely, but only after I’d recalibrated. For time immemorial Range Rovers have demanded a certain driving style, one that needn’t be slow but should blend a slow-in, fast-out strategy with inputs smoother than Jenson Button in baby oil.
To an extent this remains true of the new car, certainly in this hard-hitting company. But swift road driving is no longer beyond Land Rover’s storied flagship.
‘The body control is night-and-day better than the old car,’ agrees Alan Tay
