range rover

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Tuesday – Light Fantastic

IMG_1685The Range Rover has an intelligent key. By that I mean you just walk up to the car with the key in your pocket and the doors open automatically. Further to that, you can push button start and an array of interior lights gently lighten the cabin too.

It’s something of a masterclass inside, taking ambient lighting to a new level. Slick blue lights adorn the doors and the map reading spots are activated by gently brushing a finger over them.

That’s all well and good but if you forget where you parked your car, it has another neat trick up its sleeve. Press the key fob, the door mirrors fold out and a circular beam is flashed onto the tarmac.

Nothing new in that, you might think. Except Land Rover has gone the extra mile and the words ‘Range Rover’ are projected onto the ground! I thought I’d seen everything in a car but even I giggled. Totally unnecessary but very cool all the same…

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Monday – Armchairs on Wheels

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If you want a quick resume of why I like the Range Rover, this is what I told my neighbour this morning at the roadside…

The heated steering wheel and front screen – just what you want on a cold and frosty morning. It’s one step further than heated seats and will surely filter down the food chain to all cars one day.

The rear seats which automatically fold forward, or recline. Yes, it might sound lazy but how many times have you caught your finger in a seat mechanism?

Power in a straight line. Slip the gearchange dial into sport and the Rangey becomes the fastest set of luxury armchairs you will ever sit in. It still wallows on a corner though.

The electric tailgates. Everybody knows the back of a Range Rover is the best place to change muddy wellies. Now the lower section of the tailgate opens electronically too. It’s smart and still very comfortable.

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Sunday – A Range Rover Or A Bigger W*lly?

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Not sure I’ve ever been heckled in a four-wheel drive before… I mean, there have been a few abusive gestures aimed at me over the years but a heckle, well, that’s a new one.

So the little chap in the Vauxhall Astra estate following me out of the multi-storey car park seemed quite upset when the Range Rover clipped the curb. Mutli-storey’s just aren’t designed for anything bigger than a Fiat 500 these days.

So as I approached the exit barrier and wound down the window, a voice piped up: “Get a smaller car!’ Naturally, I responded politely and told him to get a bigger willy, or a better car.

Sure the Range Rover is large but it has emissions of just 196g/km, which is a bloody sight better than his smokey old chugger. Not only that but it averages almost 38mpg too…. Grrr

 

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Saturday – Hosing Out A Range Rover

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The very first Range Rovers featured just three doors and were fitted with a vinyl floor so that the interior could be hosed out! I have considered slipping a hose pipe into the Vogue SE but don’t fancy the bill.

Forty four years later and it’s something of a credit to the marque that there have only been four models. Each one has been groundbreaking in one way or another – the one parked on my driveway is already famed for using lightweight materials to reduce the Range Rover’s inherent weight problem.

It’s still a very heavy car but Jaguar Land Rover’s incredible TDV6 diesel engine is mustard. Just how a 3.0-litre 255bhp unit manages to propel a vehicle this size at such great speed is remarkable. The SDV8 is even faster, of course…

I’m happy with the TDV6. It’s responsible, quiet and copes with the Range Rover’s bulk with ease. Still think you should be able to hose out the interior though…

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Friday – Range Rover Vogue SE

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You might think that after a week in a Jaguar F-Type driving anything else would be a disappointment. Not if it’s the latest Range Rover Vogue.

If the F-Type is the ultimate grand design, the Range Rover is the height of automotive luxury.

For example, I had to slam to boot lid on the Jaguar. In the Range Rover the powered tailgate refuses and automatically takes the strain. Two cupholders in the Jag rather spoil the centre console – in the Range Rover they are hidden away discreetly under a self-closing cover that glides into place.

Both vehicles are roughly the same price but you have to say the Range Rover looks more worthy of the £77,000 price tag. It’s just loaded with equipment.

This is the mid-range Vogue SE model and not an Autobiography but I’m finding new buttons to play with all the time. It’s going to take a week and more to discover everything.

For now my favourite is the heated steering wheel. Cold mornings will never be quite so bad again…

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Wednesday – The Real World

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All the ‘issues’ that you might have living in the real world with the Aston Martin Vanquish Volante would disappear if you could afford the £200,000 required to buy it in the first place.

Zero leg room in the back seats? You’d probably own a Range Rover as a second car. Worried about cleaning those white leather seats? Surely you just get somebody in to clean them? Slightly concerned by 18.1mpg? Here’s my Coutts credit card…

Driving an Aston Martin around for a week is not living in the real world for the majority of us. I’ve driven faster and more expensive cars but the Vanquish just has a little something that is best described as the X factor. You can’t put your finger on it but it makes all the difference.

For me, it’s the ‘made in Britain’ tag, the rasping exhaust pipes that provide the perfect soundtrack to every drive and the breathtaking interior. Even though I would never pick white leather…

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Wednesday – Grandad Invented Heated Seats

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Maybe we’re spoilt because the test cars that are delivered to Car Couture are generally top of the range, or well specified. Journalists are fickle creatures, after all, and easily persuaded by the allure of leather seats and bum warmers.

So driving the SE model of the IS300h has been slightly tainted by the lack of leather and, perhaps even more surprising, the heated seats that are conspicuous in their absence. We’ve just become so used to pressing a button and feeling the warmth filter up from our seats.

My grandfather was actually the man who invented heated seats – he used to park his backside on hot water bottle with the tiniest drop of hot water inside. He was brilliant my grandfather – we could have made a fortune if Ford had heard of it.

These days, cars like the Range Rover and expensive BMWs have a heated steering wheel as standard. My grandfather probably never thought about an invention for that one but it probably would have includes rags and Selotape.

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Thursday – Brand Power

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Jessica  The Mitsubishi GX5 is a curious car. On guessing the price I was wildly inaccurate as the drive quality and slightly bizarre choice of trimmings didn’t lead me to believe I was driving a car that sells in the £34,000 price bracket.

Talking about trimmings, there is retro and there is ‘why use old design…’ This car has an old style automatic gear stick which reminds me (vaguely) of the old red Jaguar my Father drove in the 1980s with it’s super 8 casettes. This, however, is a strangely cheap copy and looks out of place among the modern gadgetry.

Looking at cars and prices below is a random selection of seven-seaters which made me wonder where and how this Mitsubshi model competes…

Jeep Grand Cherokee £36,995.00

Volvo XC90 £36,865

Land Rover Discovery GS SDV6 3.0 AUTOMATIC £38,850

My biggest difficulty was the slow responds under acceleration and spongy steering. I would have happily swapped fewer gadgets and alarms for a better driving experience.

That said, the Outlander doesn’t look bad from the outside with its sleek lines. It’s also well considered from all angles.

I must say that after many years of visiting Badminton Horse Trials and seeing the sponsorship logos, I always imagined Mitsubishi was at the utilitarian end of the 4×4 market. It obviously has a healthy approach to country living and moving various types of livestock around the country. Such is the power of marketing!

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Tuesday – Fairy Lights

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Jeremy One of the reasons I like our silver HSE Discovery is that Land Rover has resisted the temptation to turn this particular vehicle into a bling thing.

You know the sort of 4x4s I’m talking about – the ones that never get muddy tyres and have been loaded with chrome wheels, blacked out privacy glass and side steps (if you can’t step up into a 4×4 what are you doing driving it?).

So today I was slightly taken aback to find that I was driving around conservative north Yorkshire sporting fairy lights on the front of the Discovery. That’s right – the Disco has sidelights that look like something you would drape over a council house at Christmas.

No privacy glass, no chrome wheels but headlights that are quite shocking to behold in the Dales or elsewhere. Fortunately, it’s possible to turn them off and still be seen in the daytime…

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Saturday – Cold Comfort

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Jeremy The ‘lost in space’ mobile phone drama continued today as O2 tried everything in their power to make giving me a replacement as difficult as possible. Thank you, O2.

I won’t bore you with the details but it has been trying! I had to have a final search through the Discovery and only found the optional toolbox in the centre armrest this time. Worth every penny in the hot spell I’d say.

While the Land Rover has a heated front screen for fast demisting, I have one complaint with the ventilation system. It is almost impossible to turn the fan down to a comfortable level. The temperature is fine – it’s just that even on the lowest setting, it blows very hard.

Despite a week of fiddling, I can’t say that either Jessica or I have got to the bottom of it. And why when we have the temperature turned up high does it still blow icy cold air of out the vents?

Everything else on the Discovery is straightforward and intuitive.  The air con is not.