Range Rover: If It’s Good Enough for the Crown Prince
Here’s the current state of our finances, speaking exclusively for the 1 percent: Luxury handbags are getting smaller and cheaper, while luxury SUVs are getting bigger and pricier. According to the Wall Street Journal, $3,000 Gucci handbags aren’t selling like they used to. Coach admits it stocks too many high-ticket purses, and even Burberry has been pressured to drop prices to under $1,500.
On four wheels, it’s just the opposite. Within two years, brand new SUVs from Bentley, Rolls-Royce, and Lamborghini will debut for $200,000. Right now, only if you check every single option at your local Porsche dealer (don’t forget the leather air vents) can you walk out with a $200,000 SUV. Step down a notch to the $100,000-plus 4×4 market—of which there are already many choices—and you’ll be treated to yet more SUVs from Maserati and Jaguar. So many choices.
Not even the Range Rover pictured here—a princely truck that Prince William himself used to cart home his newborn heir—encroaches upon the Queen’s Bentley in cost. Sans bulletproofing, the black 2015 Range that I tested, a $148,000 Autobiography Long Wheelbase, was outfitted more richly than William’s own 2013 model. Introduced for 2014, the Long Wheelbase stretches the standard Range by nearly eight inches. But it’s the $36,000 Autobiography package that upgrades the already deluxe accommodations to a VIP suite.
This Range—an instantly recognizable shape among seas of SUVs—is longer, higher, and wider than an average minivan, yet it only seats four and barely swallows all their Samsonites. A center console draping off the leather-swathed dashboard meets rear passengers in a continuous sweep of wood and aluminum, deleting the middle position. Like in proper first-class, opposing elbows never meet onboard the Range. Everyone has a zoned temperature, pillow-top headrests to cradle their necks, backrests for heated (or cooled) massages, and thick-carpeted foot wells deep enough to do Pilates.
MAY I SHOW YOU TO YOUR SEAT? With a center island that travels from the front to the back of the car, seating in this extra-long Rover looks more like first-class in a jumbo jet.
Everything, even the linings of the door bins and underneath the dash, is covered in the softest leather. Polished Macassar Ebony and a soft cloth headliner trim the rest of the cabin, with plastic at an absolute minimum (reserved for parts like the switchgear and the collapsible steering column). There is hidden storage everywhere: Two glove boxes, hinged wooden drawers in each front door, and two more stashboxes out back for snacks and maybe a loaded gun. With tints and power sunshades, no one will ever know what’s going on inside.
Like many limos, the rear section of this Rover is treated to separate LCD screens and wireless headphones for media consumption (front passengers must assist with beverage consumption, as they have access to the cooled storage bin). The starboard passenger can move the front seat forward on her own, even while someone is sitting up there. Both can commandeer the 29-speaker Meridian surround sound system, which I didn’t raise to half of its 1,700 watts for fear of permanent hearing damage. The sheer number of speakers—above the sun visors, on the front seatbacks, just to name a few places—and the selectable digital processing have no equal. In most vehicles and family rooms, lesser stereos serve “sweet spots’’ for only one person and “dead zones’’ where frequencies either cancel out or become muddied. In the Range Rover, every passenger hears one incredible, uniform sound. The only system that approaches this power and clarity, in my audiophile opinion, is the Mark Levinson unit in the Lexus LS600.
The whole driving business is remarkable, too. As expected, wind and road noise are largely absent, as are any perceptions of gear changes from the 8-speed automatic. When snow and ice fell, I dialed the terrain-mapping knob to “grass, gravel, snow,’’ which muted the throttle and downshifted early so I could avoid tapping the brakes on slippery roads. You would have to be a colossal idiot to get a Range Rover stuck in anything, and despite that stretched wheelbase, my test car could have climbed the same boulder passes I’d driven in Colorado a few months ago. Nothing stock, aside from a Jeep Wrangler Rubicon, can beat what this mammoth can do off-road.
And it’s heavy. Had Land Rover designers not chosen aluminum for the frame and body panels, it would weigh considerably more than 5,320 pounds. Funny thing is, other drivers assume it’s slow. On a two-lane highway to Mohegan Sun, I was passing a BMW that suddenly sped up to block me from moving over. With my aunt and cousins strapped in, I gave the throttle two-thirds and in two seconds he was staring at tail lights. The supercharged 5.0-liter V8 makes 510 horsepower. It’s more than enough. Fuel economy, no.
My black example wore polished 22-inch wheels exposing the biggest brake calipers I’ve seen outside a Ferrari—the front rotors alone are 15 inches in diameter. And boy, do they know how to squeeze. (Try the punier brakes in a 2015 Cadillac Escalade on those wheels. They don’t have the same bite.) At speed, the air suspension is composed with only minor body lean, but those large, low-profile tires stiffen the ride and refuse to soak up nastier bumps, sometimes sending crashing jolts into the cabin. The Escalade’s magnetic shocks don’t have that trouble. I also wouldn’t recommend keeping a Range Rover past its warranty. On various test cars, I’ve seen windows, mirrors, and door locks quit their jobs and the all-wheel-drive has gone AWOL on a 2015 Evoque and the brand-new Land Rover Discovery Sport. Rover is at the bottom of quality surveys for good reason.
Be that as it may, there is no other vehicle that does so many things this well. When those $200,000 SUVs arrive, the Bentley and Lamborghini will be faster and the Rolls will swim in lamb’s wool. That’s it. They won’t be any nicer inside or out. They won’t nail the delicate balance between hardcore off-roading and sporty on-road dynamics. They won’t have the pedigree, either. They’ll just be more expensive and sell in fewer numbers. Save the money in your designer handbags, ladies, your Rover awaits.
2015 Land Rover Range Rover Autobiography Long Wheelbase
THE BASICS
Price, base/as tested (with destination): $107,920/$148,031. Fuel economy, EPA estimated: 14 city/19 highway. Fuel economy, Globe observed: 15.8 mpg. Drivetrain: 5.0-liter supercharged V8, 8-speed automatic, full-time four-wheel-drive. Body: 4-passenger SUV.
THE SPECIFICS
Horsepower: 510 @ 6,000 rpm. Torque: 461 lb.-ft. at 2,500 rpm. Overall length: 204.7 in. Wheelbase: 122.8 in. Height: 72.3 in. Width: 87.4 in. with mirrors. Curb weight: 5,320 lbs.
THE GOOD
Impeccable luxury, timeless style, all-terrain capable, and darn fast.
THE BAD
Fuel economy, electronics reliability, and ride quality from the oversized wheels.
THE BOTTOM LINE
The most comfortable, pampering, and finely crafted SUV at any price.
ALSO CONSIDER
Mercedes G63 AMG, Porsche Cayenne Turbo S, standard-wheelbase Range Rover.
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com