Description

Drive Time drives and gives a full review of the 2010 Land Rover Range Rover.

Transcript

2010 Land Rover Range Rover Review There are few vehicles that posses a personality large enough to be felt immediately once in their presence. The new 2010 Range Rover is certainly one of them. A romanticized vision of four wheeling over the British countryside on route to a fox hunt quickly comes to mind. The Range Rover represents the pinnacle of opulent of-road driving. My tester is the base HSE which sounds ridiculous considering its $85,000.00 as tested price. But basically, Land Rover gives you two choices with this model; the naturally aspirated V8 or the super charged V8. The HSE makes do if you will with this new five-liter V8 producing 375 horsepower. The $95,000.00 super charged model exceeds 500 making considerably more power than the 4.4 liter V8 it replaces. Gas mileage remains the same, rated at a decimal 12 mpg city and 18 highway on premium gas. Though for the week, I average a relatively reasonably 16.5. With vault-like solidity, the Range Rover is a beautiful drive; powerful, quite, confident in its maneuvers. As soon as you climb in behind the wheel, you're filled with a sense of road ownership, that Teflon feeling afforded by 5700 pounds of muscular steel. The new direct injection V8 and six-speed auto are more than up to the task whisking you away from standstill traffic to 60 miles per hour and 7.2 seconds. New brakes, adaptive dynamic shocks, an updated terrain response and dynamic stability control systems and controlled luxury Sedan-like on road ride and off road capabilities that are second to none. And it seems everyone is copying Land Rover’s terrain response these days and for good reason. It takes that sometimes difficult decision making process of driving off road and makes it as easy as dialing in what surface you're about to tackle. The computers then make all of the necessary adjustments to a multitude of variables. And if you corner at an imprudent rate, the new Roll Stability control systems will perform very rapid wheel specific braking to help reduce speed and marginally widen the cornering radius when the possible onset of a roll over is detected. The Range Rover is loaded with these types of driver and safety aids which add up to an impeccable ride quality. Also new for this model year are some subtle exterior design changes and an upgraded interior. Featuring this gorgeous 12 inch screen with virtual dials and configurable information displays, the five $5,000.00 luxury interior package which also adds these 20 inch wheels by the way upgrades the leather for an unbeatable sense of richness. The cargo area is covered in plush carpeting and the rear seats flip up to make more room. The infotainment technology in here however is seriously dated and not in step with the price. Blending old and new and a 4 x 4 for those in the highest tax bracket, the Range Rover laughs in the face of fashionable frugality. For Drive Time on Yahoo! Autos, I'm Steve Hammes.