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INTRODUCTION
There is a huge array of choice in the luxury SUV landscape these days, but the originator of the breed – the Range Rover – is still going strong to this day. It is now into its fourth generation, codenamed the L405, which was launched in 2012. While smaller ‘Range Rover’-badged products are available from Land Rover, such as the Evoque and the Sport, this guide is about the full-sized daddy of luxury SUVs.
MODEL RANGE
All L405 Range Rovers are four-wheel drive, five-door, five-seat SUVs with an eight-speed ZF automatic gearbox, but there are two body styles – the regular model, at 1mm shy of five metres long, and then the Long Wheelbase version with an extra 200mm of metal grafted into its midriff. Range Rovers are defined by their high-end cabin finishing and upmarket equipment levels, this having been the case with the L405 since its launch in 2012. It was one of the first all-new products of the Tata-owned Jaguar Land Rover era and as such started to drop most of the BMW and Ford drivetrains the marque had previously employed. Diesel power, the most common form on the used market, comes in 3.0-litre V6 flavours (badged either TDV6 for the lower-powered or SDV6 for ones with up to 275hp/625Nm) or the mighty 4.4-litre SDV8, with 340hp and 740Nm. The far rarer petrol engines amounted to a 3.0-litre supercharged V6, with either 340- or 380hp, a 375hp normally aspirated 5.0-litre V8 and then a supercharged version of the same engine, with 510hp in most installations and 550-/565hp in later SVAutobiography models. Land Rover also made two part-electric versions of the Range Rover, the first being 2013’s Hybrid – a TDV6 fitted with a 35kW electric motor, which allowed for a modest 2km electric range but improvement of the economy/CO2 figures with outputs of 340hp/700Nm, and then the P400e: this was a plug-in hybrid that teamed a 2.0-litre, four-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine to an 85kW electric motor for a 50km electric range and 404hp with 640Nm. This arrived for 2018, which is when the L405 Range Rover was also mildly facelifted to keep it fresh.
BEST BUY
The petrol models are thirsty to run and maintain, while the hybrid models can be very expensive, so it’s hard to look much beyond a good TDV6, which will do everything you want of it – luxury cruising, magnificent refinement, decent running costs.
THE NUMBERS
Range Rover 3.0 TDV6 Vogue
Engine: 3.0-litre V6 turbodiesel
Power: 258hp
Maximum speed: 200km/h
0-100km/h: 8.5 seconds
Fuel consumption: 8.8 litres/100km
CO2: 196g/km
GOOD POINTS
• Incredible image
• Refinement
• Strong engines
BAD POINTS
• Infuriating infotainment on some models
• Electrical reliability issues
• Not cheap to buy or run in any guise
SUMMARY
Newer, grander SUVs have entered the arena that used to be the Range Rover’s own. But while all of those are incredibly polished vehicles, they owe everything to the Rangie. Land Rover’s iconic flagship has never been better than in Mk4 form and a good second-hand model should be a superb way of getting the Range Rover ownership experience without the towering costs of buying new.