In the last six months we haven’t received a single enquiry about the Range Rover. On the selector section of the OVERDRIVE show, no one wants to know anything about the Range Rover, probably, because it’s so expensive it will only be accessible to extremely limited people. With the hike in excise and import duties, prices of this flagship SUV have gone up by nearly ` 20 lakhs to around ` 1.9crore. For obvious reasons then the enquiries are non-existent.
Why is the Range Rover that expensive then? I’d assume it started off with environment issues, the Range Rover was just too heavy for its existing engines to keep it relevant amidst increasingly stricter and tighter emission norms. The way around that was to lose weight and the only way for that to happen would be to use lighter materials in the overall construction. Being an SUV with probably the best off-road credentials in the world meant that carbon fibre as an option for external body parts would not be sensible especially if owners went trampling through Borneo’s jungles or leaping off sand dunes in the Middle East.
The next best thing would be to employ aluminum, lots and lots of it. Now aluminum is a tricky metal, it’s light enough to give you the desired results, has the required torsional strength and can provide the stiffness required in more premium cars. It’s less expensive as a material compared to carbon fibre, but, it’s still nearly five times more expensive than conventional steel. And so it is that even the Range Rover is nearly five times more expensive than the average luxury SUV available in the market. That’s simply because almost everything that you can touch and feel as metal in the Range Rover is made of aluminum. There is even more aluminum in places that aren’t easily visible such as the frame, which is entirely made of that material. The Range Rover is the first SUV in the world to have an entirely aluminum frame but don’t expect it to start off a trend.
There are other ways to achieve the same fuel efficiency benefits other than employing aluminum as extensively. You could use more efficient engines, employ hybrid powertrains , and several SUV manufacturers are resorting to that shortcut. Land Rover could have done the same but the engines would have to still cope with the near three ton body weight. In the end it still boils down to losing weight and that’s the route the Range Rover has employed without forsaking the mighty engines it is equipped with.
That engine, known as the LR-SD V8 displaces 4367cc, delivers 339PS of max power at 3500rpm and 700Nm of maximum torque at as low as 1750rpm. Now with 700Nm of torque, I honestly don’t expect this SUV to have too many issues lugging around 2.7tons of metal around. But the nearly 400 kilos it has lost has helped Land Rover do two things. The first of these is the efficiency, mileage has improved to 8.75kmpl overall. On our tests runs we got 7.9kmpl in the city and on the highway this figure extended to 11.4kmpl. It may not seem very impressive but then if you are looking to spend nearly two crores buying the Range Rover, are you really wondering what sort of mileage it offers you?
What you would rather wonder about is the sort of kit the Range Rover comes equipped with and that’s the second advantage that the weight loss provides. You see, Range Rover has now been able to integrate a few more systems into this vehicle that would have certainly added to the overall weight. It sounds a bit convoluted but with the amount of electronics on board the Range Rover, the wiring harness running through the length and breadth of this car must alone add at least a 100 odd kilos to the overall weight. So having lost some weight in certain aspects allowed other areas within the SUV to be exploited a bit more.
I will come back to the comfort and convinience features a little later but presently I will stick to the engine some more. Response and power delivery is sublime and it feels similar to any big block V8 engine. Immense thrust with lots of G’s will keep you glued to your seat and yet, allow the engine to gradually build up its revs, and the silkiness with which it responds back is hugely satisfying. It’s even nicer to not hear that engine anywhere inside the cabin, there is absolutely nothing other than the faint roar of the exhaust that is audible within the cabin. The soundproofing and double glazed windows do a fantastic job of keeping the sounds of the world outside. The linearity and sublimity is also thanks to the eight speed automatic transmission and the ratios shift quickly and smoothly enough to enable the Range Rover to match the stride traffic is flowing at without ever feeling jerky or nervous. For the number crunchers 100kmph comes up in just 7.57 seconds and the quarter mile is dispensed in 15.11 seconds. In gear roll-on is also pretty impressive and the Range Rover downshifts and lays on the power rapidly whenever demanded.
The next important aspect to examine then was the ride and handling and not how good the Range Rover is off road. I don’t know of anyone in India who has taken their Range Rover off road and then again there is hardly any location close enough to Mumbai that has not been urbanized, I expect it’s the same in most other cities as well. Nevertheless, I had also adequately sampled the Range Rovers off road abilities some months ago in Morocco and that test isn’t going to be easy to replicate anywhere else in the world so I decided to stick to tarmac. The ride quality of the Range Rover requires just one word that best describes it, luxurious! The adaptive damping systems along with a host of electronics to control roll and pitch give it a tank like solidity. The Range Rover grips corners impressively, is solidly planted at high speeds and is as ignorant of potholes as half the government is to the needs of this country.
Coming then to the luxury bits and bobs that round off the Range Rover. It’s got all the creature comforts you’d want in a premium luxury vehicle and then some. I simply loved how the plastics inside the cabin are of such high quality they almost pass off for machined aluminum parts. So everything you see that’s shiny in the cabin is actually just plastic which helps keep the costs and of course the weight low. The seats are plush and the trim sensational, overall this is a highly impressive cabin.
But I am not done yet, certain aspects I found could do with a lot more improvement. With smartphones getting smarter everyday, I fail to see why manufacturers fail to make their systems menu as intuitive. We now get screens as large as conventional tablets but the system is as dim witted as some of our politicos. For one of the most expensive SUVs in the world there is very little the Range Rover brings to the table in terms of innovation and that to me was a bit depressing. I like the whole sense of drama the interior and exterior lighting offers but beyond the sound and lights, the Range Rover needs to add more to a gadget infused world. I was also disappointed with the build quality, plastic panel on the B pillar had come loose and the parcel tray never stopped rattling. Unexpected at this price. In a vehicle like the Range Rover quality has to be impeccable and undebatable and that sadly wasn’t the case.
VERDICT
I found it quite intriguing that parent company Land Rover wanted to position this vehicle as not just the most luxurious SUV in the world but as the most luxurious ‘car’ in the world. I can subscribe to the notion that this may be the best SUV in the world but certainly no more than that.
Yet, the Range Rover is one of those very rare breed of vehicles that actually made me miss being in it the second I stepped out of that cabin. It is highly capable of forming a very emotional and immensely powerful connection with its owner and not every vehicle can do that. I could get used to a Rolls Royce or a Bentley but neither of them is going to leave a void the second I step away from their confines. That is what I think makes the Range Rover special, like Samwise Gamjee to Frodo Baggins it’s the one companion who will faithfully carry you everywhere on its shoulders!
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