More info on Land Rover Range Rover
► First drive of the Land Rover’s all-new flagship► With V8 petrol power and mild hybrid petrol and diesel sixes
► New technology, new structure, newfound dynamic flair
It’s easy to underestimate a new Range Rover, and this new Range Rover in particular. Like a good new Porsche 911, a new Range Rover doesn’t, at first, tend to look or feel like revolution. After all, you don’t create an icon by ripping up the blueprint with each new iteration. To do so would upset the faithful and kiss goodbye to the kind of continuity and sustained excellence that forges dynasties.
So, when the covers were pulled off the new L460 Range Rover much was familiar, even if everything had changed: new structure, new electronics architecture, new hardware and new electrified powertrains, with PHEV variants imminent and the battery-electric Range Rover, Land Rover’s first BEV, due on sale come 2024.
Given new Range Rovers only come around once per decade, there were fears the L460 hadn’t done enough. After all, everyone from Bentley to Aston Martin, Lotus to Lamborghini, now contests the luxury SUV space, each with their own take on the luxury/utility combination that has seen cars of this kind usurp the big saloon at the apex of automotive luxury.
I can confirm those fears were unfounded.
This is still a big, 2.5-tonne behemoth though, right?
The L460 is many things but no, Land Rover has not made a featherweight of its flagship. Kerb weight for the D350 version (the range starts with the lesser D350, priced from £99,375) is a stout 2505kg. But this is an all-new car bejewelled with most every bit of mass-hiding chassis tech imaginable, not to mention thousands of hours of dynamic calibration work by Land Rover’s artisan engineers.
Bringing the magic is a body structure some 35% than that of the outgoing car’s, a new electronic anti-roll control system (rated to an eye-watering 1032lb ft of torque, applied in milliseconds, and both faster-acting and more CO2-efficent than the old hydraulic set-up), rear-wheel steering and new five-link rear suspension. The latter is part of a packaging work of art that delivers the outlandish wheel articulation the Range Rover needs for off-road duty while also incorporating the powertrain components of both today (a differential) and tomorrow (the rear e-motor of 2024’s twin-motor battery-electric version).
On the move, on the kind of roads Range Rovers have traditionally endured rather than enjoyed, the L460 is effortless, even at speed. You sit high, of course, with fantastic visibility. The steering is nicely weighted, neither scary light nor pointlessly heavy, and with the precision to help shrink the car. Body roll is well controlled, particularly in Dynamic mode, the Range Rover moving a little on its suspension on turn-in before settling and holding a line with its physics-defying combination of anti-roll control, torque vectoring and intelligent all-wheel drive. Get clumsy or greedy and it will protest, of course, and the ESC is clumsy if it feels compelled to step in, but drive the Rangie with the appropriate sensitivity and this new L460 is a revelation; swift, enjoyable and almost entirely undemanding. The rear-steer is key to this newfound dynamic flair, but also to a new, more approachable and less intimidating character. Yes, this is still a big car. But it’s easier to drive, easier to manoeuvre in tight spots, easier to live with.
Has the comfort baby been thrown out with the bathwater?
Not in the slightest. This new Range Rover is good in corners not because it’s suddenly been set-up like a board-stiff racing car but because of progress in materials, systems and engineering beneath its mighty fine metallic skin. There’s more handling and more comfort.
Almost regardless of speed and surface, this thing cossets like a Range Rover should. The ride is pillowy soft; the refinement breathtaking. Smaller wing mirrors, active noise cancelling via microphones in the wheel wells and the cabin speakers, that stiffer new body structure and details like the front differential being mounted directly to the engine, to use the motor as a mass damper – it all adds up to a sumptuously near-silent car on the road.
Will the interior give Bentley sleepless nights?
Yes and no. Quality is a big step on from the old car, and the SV derivatives (integral to this programme from the beginning) offer the scope for detailing, paints, finishes and individualisation to rival that of Crewe’s Mulliner cars.
But the style is very different to Bentley’s. The aesthetic is more restrained, almost stark, though it never feels anything but welcoming thanks to the the artfully chosen materials and the abundance of light and space. There’s another 75mm between the axles on this version, and it makes for decadent accommodation for front- and second-row occupants alike.
Talking of which, there are myriad seating options this time around. The core car seats five. Go long wheelbase and you’ve the choice of two rows (seating four or five, and starting at £124,975) or three rows, seating seven (from £107,675). SV versions of the core car and the four- or five-seat long wheelbase version are available.
The Pivi Pro infotainment is driven via a 13.1-inch landscape-orientated touchscreen and it’s a joy use, with clear, crisp graphics, no lag and intuitive functionality. It also interacts seamlessly with the physical controls clustered around the gearlever. The digital driver’s display is equally beautiful to look at and to use, and while it offers a choice of display set-ups, anything racier than an old-school twin pair of dials just feels wrong in a Range Rover.
What’s the best engine?
Honestly? The D350 diesel mild-hybrid six. The headline news is the arrival of a BMW-sourced twin-turbo V8, dubbed P530, and there’s much to like about it. It sounds good, pulling with a refined V8 gargle, and its hefty combination of twist (553lb ft) and punch (523bhp) serve to make the Rangie feel lighter than it is.
But the D350, with 345bhp and a handy 516lb ft, is majestic, and suits the car down to the ground. It’s barely any slower out on real words, incredibly civilised for a diesel and lends the car a wonderfully laidback character. That it’s also more cost-effective both to buy and to run just adds to the appeal. With a wry smile, Land Rover’s engineers admit that, as diesel’s popularity continues to nosedive, it’s only gone and crafted its most compelling diesel installation yet…
All engines drive through a pretty faultless eight-speed auto, and the four-wheel drive system is equally fluent on-road and off it, where its low-range ratios give the Range Rover the kind of loose-surface ability rivals can only dream of.
The PHEV powertrains weren’t available to test at the time of writing but they look strong on paper, with oodles of power and an electric-only range of up to 70 miles. Form an orderly queue…
Have they given up on the whole off-road thing?
Far from it. A few taps on the Pivi Pro system and the Range Rover’s transformed, with the air suspension able to boost ground clearance to nosebleed-inducing heights just as the diffs can be locked, low-range selected and the Terrain Response 2 software set up for whatever hostile surface you find yourself upon.
We tested the car on a steep, rocky trails which, though not easy, barely scratched the surface of the car’s ability. Rivals would have surely floundered nonetheless, lacking as they do the Rangie’s formidable arsenal of off-road-ready systems.
Range Rover: verdict
This new Range Rover has taken great strides over the outgoing car, itself no slouch. Easier on the eye inside and out, the L460 is also infinitely more capable and rewarding to drive on the road, no less capable off it, roomier, more practical and quieter.
Its place in the world is much the same as that occupied by its predecessor, but it now occupies that space with an imperious confidence that borders on swagger. Expensive but more affordable than most premium rivals and now without any obvious weaknesses, this is a Range Rover both to admire and to desire.
Keyword: Range Rover (2022) review: long live the new king