You have $350,000 to spend – should you buy one Range Rover SVAutobiography or twenty Suzuki Ignis?
- Introducing the 2019 Range Rover SVAutobiography Dynamic
- Suzuki Ignis GLX detailed and driven
- Perhaps these cars aren’t that far apart…
- Why are we comparing them?
- What do they do well?
SUVs come in all shapes and sizes – and for all budgets. But is it honestly possible to justify spending $350,000 for a single vehicle, when you could buy around 20 little’uns for the same budget? In one of Carsales’ oddest challenges yet, we line-up the new Range Rover SVAutobiography Dynamic against the Suzuki Ignis GLX to see how far your money can stretch.
When you’re a high-powered motoring journo like my good friend, Nadine Armstrong – and you’ve been in the game a lot longer than your colleague (me) – it’s your prerogative to call dibs on cars. This week Nads pulled a blinder.
Yep, with two cars up for grabs, Lady Armstrong swiped the vehicle that’s very much up her Albert Park laneway: the $350,000 Range Rover SVAutobiography Dynamic. She tossed me the keys to Australia’s bargain basement SUV, the $19,000 Suzuki Ignis GLX.
Two SUVs at opposite ends of the pricing spectrum might not have a whole lot in common. But is the Rangey really worth the cost equivalent of 20 Ignises (or is that Ignii)?
We crunched the numbers from the heated luxury of the Range Rover’s leather seats.
Introducing the 2019 Range Rover SVAutobiography Dynamic
In Firenze Red paint the Range Rover cuts an impressive figure and is discernibly different from the hoi polloi of $100k premium SUVs.
Including options, the Range Rover SVAutobiography Dynamic costs $346,830 plus luxury car tax and other on-road costs.
As you’d expect from the price, this is luxury motoring personified, with a list of standard inclusions that defies belief. Where regular cars feature heated seats, in the Range Rover all four passengers are heated and massaged with a hot stone effect.
No calling shotgun for the front seat of this vehicle. However, passengers will be falling over themselves for the reclining captain’s chair with extended leg rest in the rear.
All the vehicle’s infotainment controls can be managed from the rear seats with digital TV beamed to the two 10.0-inch rear seat screens, and the front screen when the car is not being driven.
This is vehicle for the seriously well-heeled with finishes verging on the OTT.
Yes, it’s nice to have a detachable vanity mirror for the rear seats, but its not exactly a necessity.
Suzuki Ignis GLX detailed and driven
The inclusions list is cropped a fair bit shorter on the Suzuki Ignis GLX but that’s no surprise considering the Ignis is the cheapest SUV-style vehicle on the market in Australia.
The GLX is the up-spec model and is offered at a driveaway price of just $18,990.
Like the Range Rover it has four wheels (five if you count the steering wheel), but unlike the Range Rover it only has a space saver in the boot, where the well-heeled get about with the reassurance of a full-size 22-inch spare.
Proving comfort features are not the sole realm of the Range Rover, the Ignis GLX features Apple Car Play and Android Auto compatibility, satellite navigation with reversing camera, privacy glass, digital climate control, daytime running lights and push button ignition.
Perhaps these cars aren’t that far apart…
But of course they are. The Ignis is just 3.7m long while the Range Rover SVAutobiography measures a full 5.0m and the engines are so different that in the supercharged 5.0-litre petrol V8-powered Range Rover gets about with an astonishing six times as much power as the 1.2-litre 4-cylinder Ignis.
That’s 416kW against the Suzuki’s 66kW!
Pound for pound, it’s the Suzuki Ignis GLX that offers the better bang for buck. It costs $158 for each of its 120Nm where the Range Rover SVAutobiography Dynamic costs $495 per Nm for its 700Nm.
Why are we comparing them?
This tongue-in-cheek feature test shows there’s something in the SUV-style for every buyer.
The Range Rover SVAutobiography is for the wealthy and will reward its driver and passengers with a cosseted environment most motorists can only dream about.
The Suzuki Ignis GLX on the other hand offers so much value that its hard for the pragmatic buyer to discount, regardless of its polarising boxy-exterior looks.
Using the universal currency of avocado equivalency you could buy the Suzuki Ignis GLX instead of the Range Rover and have enough change for 110,000 avocados based on an avocado purchase price of $3 per unit.
And if we translate our avocado value to real estate, then you can own a townhouse on the outskirts of Melbourne and the Ignis for the price of the Range Rover.
Boiling down the need for vehicle ownership in essence is about getting from A to B conveniently. The Ignis ticks that box, and with such a small footprint you’ll easily find a park when you get to B.
The Range Rover also gets you from A to B, but when you get to your destination, its self-parking functionality will take the work out of your parking. Unless you’re at valet, which is always Nadine’s preferred parking solution!
The price difference does translate to a different driving experience but here the Suzuki does not disgrace itself. Its diminutive powerplant might only generate 66kW but it’s a peppy unit in the suburbs and the continuously variable transmission is quite agreeable while tootling about.
Where the engine and transmission does show itself up is when the car is loaded with a driver and four passengers and is required to tackle any kind of serious incline.
Of course the experience is a whole lot more satisfying when planting the foot in the Range Rover. Despite weighing more than 3000kg unladen, it can still hit 100km/h in just 5.4sec and chews up the kilometres once underway.
One criticism of the optional 22-inch wheels, however, is that they do have a tendency to track the camber on the road, causing a fair bit of wandering on any piece of tarmac that’s less than racetrack smooth.
What do they do well?
Each of these vehicles does what it sets out to do well. The bargain basement Ignis has previously proved its mettle against the popular Mazda CX-3, winning our baby SUV comparison at launch.
Its exterior styling may not be to everyone’s taste but it drives well, gets up and about and still offers the practicality of 60:40 split-fold seats and a large, deep boot that is more than adequate for most trips to the supermarket.
And the Range Rover? Well there’s little on the market that does excess to the same degree.
Designers have thought of all of the things so a trip in the Range Rover turns out to be one of discovery and delight. But all the gadgets and gizmos agitate my servicing Spidey senses.
Everything is motorised or electronic and as I look around the cabin it makes me nervous to think of the trouble the second, third and subsequent owners might have with this vehicle as things start to fail.
The first owner will be the one taking the hit on depreciation but it will be later owners that will have to dig into the avocado fund to spring for repairs.
Nadine will have you believe it’s the Range Rover that wins a straight one-for-one comparison, and honestly, if money were not object, who would disagree?
But the Suzuki Ignis is the vehicle that lets you have your avocados and eat them too. And who doesn’t love a bit of smashed avo?
How much does the 2019 Range Rover SVAutobiography Dynamic cost? Price: $346,830 (as tested, plus on-road costs) Engine: 5.0-litre eight-cylinder supercharged petrol Output: 416kW/700Nm Transmission: Eight-speed automatic Fuel: 12.8L/100km (ADR Combined) CO2: 294g/km (ADR Combined)
Safety Rating: N/A
How much does the 2019 Suzuki Ignis GLX cost? Price: $18,990 (as tested, drive-away) Engine: 1.2-litre four-cylinder petrol Output: 66kW/120Nm Transmission: Continuously variable Fuel: 4.9L/100km (ADR Combined) CO2: 114g/km (ADR Combined)
Safety Rating: N/A
Keyword: Range Rover SV Autobiography and Suzuki Ignis – 20:1