Land Rover Range Rover review

This is a big car. It was before but it’s even more so now, at 5052mm long in standard-wheelbase form, with a 2997mm wheelbase, to which the long-wheelbase version adds 200mm. Big, but still less than both a Bentley Bentayga (5141mm) and a BMW X7 (5151mm).

It is also a wide car, at 2047mm with its mirrors folded and 2225mm with them out, but previous Land Rovers have mitigated this slightly by offering significantly better visibility than their competitors.

When we tested the D350 in 2022, there was a rather bewildering selection of powertrains to choose from, and that remains the case. We’re not complaining, though – whether you need a long-distance family chariot, a tax-efficient option or something with which to hang onto the coat-tails of the latest super-saloons, the Range Rover would seem to have you covered.

The meekest option is the D300 diesel mild hybrid, with 296bhp, but things escalate quickly from there.
At launch, the fruitiest Range Rover was the V8-fired P530, although its 523bhp total is today eclipsed by the 542bhp PHEV P550e six-cylinder petrol of the P550e.

The flagship slot is now occupied by the P615, a 607bhp twin-turbocharged V8 model that wears ‘SV’ badging but which otherwise doesn’t flaunt its herculean reserves of power.

The P550e, and its understudy, the P460e, both use a 38.2kWh battery pack that lives under the boot floor (and yields only 31.2kWh of usable capacity), and it supplies a gearbox-integrated electric motor that is good for 215bhp. That looks like a generous figure, but remember that it alone is required
to drive the car in EV mode, right up to motorway speeds.

It’s no small ask when you consider the 2735kg kerb weight – a figure that swelled to 2979kg on the weighbridge at Horiba MIRA. It translates to a power-to-weight ratio of 79bhp per tonne, which is about what you got from a middle-ranking Ford Fiesta of the late 1990s.

When bolstered by the 395bhp single twin-scroll turbo 3.0-litre straight six, however, which is also boosted by an electrically spooled supercharger, the resulting output ratio is a far healthier 198bhp per tonne.

All engine options are mated to an eight- speed torque-converter automatic gearbox made by ZF, with a low- range transfer box for more serious off-roading. It drives all four wheels, except on the road at between 12mph and 100mph if it’s above 3deg C, in which case the car slips itself into 2WD, said to reduce CO2 emissions by up to 4g/km.

The last time we tested a 2.5-plus-tonne car in the damp, it was only 7deg C outside, yet the BMW iX needed 3.42sec and 57.8m over the same benchmarks. Our Range Rover was on all-season tyres, the BMW on road rubber, which goes some way to explaining the discrepancy. And, in fairness the P550e, in similarly damp conditions, managed 57.3m.

Comfort and Isolation

Isolation is what the Range Rover delivers in spades. Partially that will be down to the noise- cancelling effects of the anti-noise it plays through its headrests but also, one suspects, as a result of the sheer hard work that has gone into the physical isolation of the cabin.

At idle Range Rovers barely put any more noise than is ambient into the cabin, and take the at-speed figures under advisement that it was damp under- tyre, which will raise them slightly. In the dry, one of our testers – who records voice notes while driving to refer to later – was surprised to hear himself say “I’m now doing 60mph”, given there was no louder background noise than at 30mph. We would be surprised if there’s a more isolated car on sale this side of a Rolls-Royce.

Road surface bumps and lumps are brushed aside with ease. Jaguar Land Rover doesn’t get all aspects of vehicle development equally right, but with the leisurely accuracy and linear response of its controls, and the deftness it gives its cars’ chassis, this is one area where few if any other car makers – especially of big cars like this – quite nail it. A Bentley Bentayga is less cosseting, we’re confident.

Run over surface imperfections or cat’s eyes or expansion joints in the Range Rover and you will hear, but not feel, even on 22in rims, a muffled thud from somewhere in the distance. And yet it doesn’t combine this with uncontrolled float or pitch or wallow. 

Off-road notes

Those who find that a Range Rover won’t go far enough off road for them will be a lot braver than most owners. Land Rover is like a supercar manufacturer when it comes to off-roading: it knows some owners won’t use the capability but its reputation depends on it being there.

All of the usual numbers, then, are right up there with class-leading ones. With its air suspension raised fully, at 295mm, it even has 4mm more ground clearance than Land Rover’s own Defender, and 55mm over the Mercedes G-Class. Approach, ramp/breakover and departure angles are all competitive with those two models too, while the Range Rover’s wade depth is a full 900mm.

Just as good, though, is a raft of on-board tech to make using that ability easy, while the rear steer adds a healthy dose of agility on tight track turns. What won’t help it, as in other areas, is a kerb weight pushing two and three-quarter tonnes.