2021 Range Rover Autobiography on/off-road review: Not hard to see why the Queen loves it!

CarExpert

You know that when the Queen likes a car, it can't be too bad on the luxury front. While the 2021 Range Rover platform has been out for longer than my hair style, it still has a certain luxury nature about it. It's also built for off-road driving.  Paul Maric tests out the 2021 Range Rover Autobiography D350 to see if this luxury SUV is any good. This review includes some on- and off-road driving.  Hardness tester results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE  More Land Rover news: https://www.carexpert.com.au/land-rover More Range Rover news: https://www.carexpert.com.au/land-rover/range-rover  Skip Ahead: Intro: 00:00 Exterior 01:17 Interior 03:59 Infotainment 05:55 Safety Tech 09:02 Practicality 09:57 On Road 18:18 Off Road 23:14 Verdict 29:40  We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.  Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.  Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1  You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.  Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!  Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!  CarExpert: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarExpertAus Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carexpert.com.au  Paul Maric: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulMaric Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric  #landrover #rangerover #review #offroad

Transcript

00:00 G'day, I'm Paul. So you know that if the Queen has a car that she likes being transported in,

00:04 it's probably going to be right up there in terms of luxury forms of transport,

00:09 and this is it right here. It is the Range Rover by Land Rover. Now this is interesting because

00:15 this has been out for a long time now, and I reckon it's starting to get a little bit long

00:18 in the tooth. Yes, it is about to be replaced probably next year with a brand new version,

00:22 but they have given this a significant update in terms of the powertrains for this year.

00:27 This competes with things like the Mercedes-Maybach GLS, the Rolls-Royce Cullinan,

00:33 the Bentley Bentayga. Now the reason I said that a little hesitantly is because they're kind of

00:38 in another echelon in terms of price. They're all much more expensive. This used to be the

00:42 bee's knees when it came to luxury SUVs, but it's almost too cheap now. The next generation needs

00:47 to be far more expensive to really push it up. So this right here is the Autobiography. It sits

00:52 up near the top. It's priced at just under $270,000, but if that's a little bit too

00:56 expensive, the range kicks off from around $200,000. Today we're going to do a detailed

01:01 review of this car. If you do want to skip ahead to other parts of the review, you can use the

01:05 time codes up on the screen there, or if you're on YouTube, you can scroll down and use the chapters

01:09 below. And if you haven't done so already, please subscribe to our channel so you can find out every

01:13 single time we review a car that the Queen likes riding in. Righto, let's talk styling. So, 10

01:19 exterior colours to pick from. Pretty much all of them are free of charge. You can get some premium

01:23 colours that are around $2,000, but you can pick most of them without having to pay any extra.

01:28 This is a pretty classic design. When you think about what this used to look like and what it

01:33 has looked like in the past, it's more of an evolutionary design as opposed to a revolutionary

01:38 design. And I quite like the way that they have updated this without going over the top. So that

01:42 means behind there you can see the louvers for this new Ingenium diesel engine, so that it helps

01:47 with maintaining engine temperatures and also getting it up to engine temperature quickly

01:51 in the morning. So you can open and close those as required and the car sort of takes care of all

01:56 that stuff. Big Range Rover across the front here. So I think they were actually the people that

02:01 started this. I can remember way back when, when this first started appearing on Range Rovers, and

02:06 I think this has sort of been a legacy that's carried on since then. Over here you have a full

02:10 set of Matrix LED headlights, including an LED daytime running light with a little headlight

02:16 washer there as well. You'd be surprised, given this is off-road capable, when you do some proper

02:20 off-roading and you get mud flicking up through these joins here and across the headlights. This

02:24 actually comes in really handy and you don't see that on a great deal of cars today. So around the

02:28 side here we have a big old set of 21-inch alloy wheels. The big downside here at the moment is

02:34 that these tyres are just road tyres and we've just been doing some very basic driving to get to here

02:40 and they are literally already full of mud. So it's going to be interesting to see how well this

02:44 does on our mild off-road section today. I quite like the wheel design, it's very sort of basic

02:48 but elegant. And then behind here you have a massive set of stoppers to team with that engine,

02:53 because this will pick up pace nicely with that big diesel engine. Under here you've got a set of

02:58 adaptive air suspension. When the car's switched off and you open the door, this is currently set

03:03 to its sort of exit mode, so it drops down each and every time. It makes getting in and out easier,

03:08 it kind of gives it that sort of tough looking stance. I quite like this setup here, so this is

03:12 synonymous with the Range Rover. It's kind of like a brushed aluminium section that runs down the

03:17 side here and then pushes all the way down the side of the car there, so it gives it a nice look.

03:21 And you can see that cut line as well where the bonnet is, follows all the way from the front.

03:25 You have a camera built into that wing mirror, indicator built into there as well,

03:28 and then come around to the rear. Around here you have a set of LED taillights, a split tailgate,

03:33 we'll have a look at that in just a second, more Range Rover badges, and then because this is the

03:38 autobiography you get that badge along the back there as well, plus the engine designation.

03:43 I still think this is a really good looking setup, despite the fact it is as old as it is.

03:47 I'll be curious to see what they do with the next generation. Will they go down the path of

03:50 the Defender where they completely change the look of it, or will they sort of stay to this

03:55 true form? Let me know what you think about the design in the comments below.

03:59 So we are inside the Range Rover. This is what the key looks like. So you have lock, unlock,

04:06 a button to turn the headlights on, a boot button, a panic button, and then on the back here you have

04:11 a Land Rover symbol with a little bit of chrome on the sides there. It's a proximity sensing key,

04:17 so you can just leave that in your pocket, and then you have a push button start up along the

04:21 top here. So the question is, $300,000 or thereabouts with a few options on it, this is

04:26 what your interior looks like. You can tell it kind of feels previous generation because a lot

04:30 of the new Land Rover products are using PIVI Pro, which is the all-new infotainment system,

04:36 and we actually reviewed that when we had the Land Rover Defender. You can watch that review

04:40 by clicking up here. So this does feel comprehensively old in comparison, but for

04:44 the most part I think it is nicely presented for a $300,000 odd car. You can see leather along the

04:50 dashboard here, along the top sections, and then along the doors you have some nice sort of classy

04:55 looking wood grain. It's got a gloss finish to it. It's not that open pore stuff you see in some

05:00 cars. And then typical Range Rover, you have these armrests here that are adjustable. Everything

05:05 just feels nice and cocooned around the driver. It really is quite a premium experience to be

05:10 sitting here, and yes it does feel like your car is worth a fair bit of money. Now what about all

05:15 of your touch points? So over here where you're resting your arm, sometimes that's nice and soft.

05:20 The armrest itself is nice and soft, as is the door armrest. How soft is it all? Well we've got

05:26 our durometer. We've tested the main surfaces in this car to see how it compares with other cars

05:31 we've tested before. Have a look at the link in the description. Now build quality. Tell you what,

05:37 this thing is built like a tank. Everything feels really well put together. I know a lot of car

05:43 companies say this, but Jaguar Land Rover has spent a lot of money and time recently improving

05:47 the quality and the build quality of their cars, and so far I can see the results of that inside

05:53 this cabin. Everything feels nice and solid. Let's talk infotainment. Now this is the old

05:58 infotainment system. I mentioned earlier that a lot of new Jaguar Land Rover products use PV Pro.

06:03 So this is the previous generation. It's called the Duo system because there are two screens here,

06:07 one up the top for infotainment and one down the bottom for climate control. So I'll run you

06:11 through both of them. So this is what the home screen looks like. In here you have inbuilt

06:14 satellite navigation. It is a little bit counterintuitive though because things like

06:18 traffic and if you want to save features and that kind of thing, you've got to have a SIM card in

06:23 the car. So you have to put your own SIM card in the vehicle. So it means that there are two SIM

06:27 cards operating here, one for your maps and traffic and then one for the car's communication.

06:32 So I don't know why it couldn't have all just been bundled into the one SIM card,

06:36 but built into this is Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Both of those systems are wired,

06:41 so you'll need a cable for those. I'll show you what Apple CarPlay looks like.

06:44 So you can see there it's just a tiny bit laggy as you flick through those screens.

06:49 Also on cold starts, this infotainment system takes ages to get up and running and get to the

06:54 point where you can actually put navigation addresses in. So it is, I guess it feels a

06:59 little bit dated in that regard. And I'll show you what Android Auto looks like as well.

07:03 There it is. So full screen again, but you can see here that it is sort of slightly laggy as you try

07:09 and sort of move through those menus, kind of the same way that Apple CarPlay was. In terms of media,

07:14 you have AM and FM radio along with DAB plus digital radio. You have a 19 speaker Meridian

07:20 branded sound system. But in addition to that, I love the fact here that you have television as

07:25 well. So if I go to source, I can actually select television. We're here in the middle of nowhere,

07:29 so we can't actually get any reception, but this has all of the tech and features you would expect

07:33 from a high end and premium car. All right, let's have a look at the screen down the bottom here.

07:38 This drives the vehicle's climate controls and also the terrain response system. So I'll show

07:43 you what this looks like. So you can see the screen takes up that entire section there. It's

07:46 quite an impressive looking setup. They've even got the graphics there that change as you move

07:50 between the terrain response modes. And I'll show you how that works a little later on when we go

07:54 for a drive. In addition to that, you can control the seats here as well in terms of the massage,

07:59 the heating and which segments are heated, and then you have climate controls there as well. So

08:04 you can even see as I sort of flick through some of these screens, it's just

08:07 slightly laggy and that's the thing. It's a tiny bit disappointing, I reckon.

08:10 Ahead of the driver here, we have another display. So you can configure this however you like.

08:15 It comes with features like your trip computer, the safety information, and you drive it using

08:20 these controls here on the steering wheel. So I'll show you what it looks like with

08:22 a couple of these different layouts. So you can sort of flick between them and then it will adjust

08:28 as required. I'm sounding a bit like a negative Nancy here, but yeah, these steering controls

08:33 are a little bit tricky to use. While you're out on the road, you can see they have different

08:37 functions depending on what you're doing and the screen sort of changes there as you go. But

08:41 simple things like turning the volume up, you've got to sort of swipe your finger across like that.

08:46 Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, and they can just be a little bit fiddly. So I don't know,

08:50 I can see that they're starting to phase this stuff out. So obviously it wasn't that successful,

08:54 but you know, you are kind of stuck with that. I think it'll get better with time if you buy the

08:58 car and you get used to it, but yeah, it's just a small point of frustration for me.

09:01 Now, what about safety technology? So you have low and high speed autonomous emergency braking.

09:06 You've got an auto-dimming rear vision mirror. You have lane departure warning and a lane keeping

09:11 assistant, radar cruise control. You also have blind spot monitoring built into the wing mirror

09:15 over there, rear cross traffic alert. Then in terms of parking, you have front and rear parking

09:20 sensors and a 360 degree camera. Let's have a look at what that looks like. Let's bring it up here.

09:24 Look, the quality is okay, but you can see here that it's kind of,

09:30 it's a little bit grainy as you zoom in. You can adjust the views that you're seeing as well. So

09:35 we can go straight to a reverse view or a wide angle reverse view. And it also shows you the

09:40 sonar for the front and rear parking sensors. You can also do a semi-autonomous park if there

09:45 is a gap that you want to get into that you're not quite confident at parking in. And you can

09:49 also configure trailers as well, which helps you with getting this thing parked if you're backing

09:54 a caravan or something large attached to the back of the car. Now, what about practicality? If you

09:58 do need to charge your devices, there's no wireless phone charging, which I would have thought they'd

10:02 have in a car like this, but you do have two USB ports down the front here, plus a 12 volt outlet

10:08 as well. In terms of storing your phone and your device, you can pop it down the front here. If I

10:13 just get rid of that. It fits inside the cup holders, but you can also slide it into there

10:16 as well, which is a pretty handy spot. The interesting thing is that if that's not enough

10:21 room for you, there's actually a little hidey hole down here where you can dump a few more things.

10:25 I'll show you that in just a moment. But coffee cup, it passed the test this morning, especially

10:31 if you have discerning tastes in coffee, it will fit your tiny little coffee cup in there. No

10:35 dramas. Water bottles, same story. You've got these gripped teeth over here, which means you

10:40 can fit larger items in without them sort of disappearing too easily. Then inside the doors,

10:44 you can fit a water bottle without any problems, but I don't think a big one will fit inside the

10:50 door. Let's give it a shot. Kind of does if you lay it flat, but I probably wouldn't want to be

10:55 laying anything flat in there just in case it leaked. In terms of other storage slots, so I

11:00 mentioned this one before, so I'm going to move that out of the way. That goes all the way down

11:04 there, which is pretty awesome. And then if you get this bottle, you can see how far that sort of

11:08 disappears. You can hide things from view pretty easily. Now in the center here, you've got a

11:13 little storage nook on the top here, but beneath that you have a fridge. They can pop your items

11:18 in there and then switch the fridge on so everything stays nice and cool. So pretty

11:23 impressive setup. Two glove boxes. So one down here that has all your bits and pieces, fits the

11:29 water bottle in without any dramas. And then you have another one up the top here where you have a

11:34 CD player and then a little bit of storage just off to the side. And then another 12-volt outlet.

11:38 Now let's talk about comfort features. So you have four-zone automatic climate control, and if I jump

11:44 over here to the climate menu and switch that on, you can see here that the temperatures are

11:48 adjusted using these controls. And then to access your seat heating and cooling, you just push this

11:52 in and then turn, and that will simply put it into heating or cooling mode. And same story with your

11:59 massage seats. You can actually adjust the intensity by using this knob inside your seats menu. In

12:05 addition to that, the steering wheel is heated using this button here. You have about a million

12:09 adjustments for your seat here. You can literally move just the base of it, the top section of the

12:14 top half of the seat, the headrest. You can activate your massage functions and also the

12:19 bolsters here. You have memory as well. The passenger has the same controls on their side.

12:23 Up the top here, quite intuitive, you have, in addition to your standard mirror controls,

12:27 the ability to lock the rear doors from opening and also the easy access mode. So while you are

12:31 driving, one push of this will lower it down to the easy access mode. If you have air suspension,

12:36 you may as well use it. What are the seats like in terms of comfort? So you're paying $300,000

12:40 for this. Are they comfortable? Yes, they are. It is incredibly comfortable in terms of the way that

12:46 they hug you in while you're driving. It just cushions you beautifully. It is the exact type

12:51 of seat I would expect to have in a car with this kind of price tag. The steering has tilt

12:56 and reach adjustment. And then in terms of our reach test, all of this stuff is easy to reach

13:01 while you're driving. So you don't need a tilt forward to gain access to any of these functions.

13:05 Let's talk second row. So in addition to doors that suck themselves in around the car,

13:10 this is what your accommodation looks like if you're in the autobiography. Now, I know what

13:15 you're thinking. It looks like Paul doesn't have a great deal of room, and that's because I don't

13:18 have a great deal of room, which is really surprising. You look at the size of a Range

13:22 Rover and I mean, my knees are like almost up against that seat. Yes, my seat is quite far back,

13:28 but I still feel quite claustrophobic in here, especially with this optional entertainment

13:32 system sort of right in my face. Knee room isn't fantastic. Toe room is okay, and headroom is

13:39 pretty good. So you can get a long wheelbase version of this. So if this is a problem and

13:43 you're going to be carrying passengers, you can go long wheelbase. And it becomes even worse when

13:48 you actually extend this out. So if I move my seat forward like this, because the two seats here are

13:53 completely electrically adjustable, you can see here that my knees are then inside that seat ahead

13:59 of me. So I don't know, it just feels like there could have been a little bit more attention paid

14:03 to room back here, but this is a pretty cool setup in terms of how much space you actually

14:08 can use once it's all reclined and that kind of thing. You have map pockets built in down here.

14:14 You have two USB outlets that you can charge your devices, two 12-volt outlets, a little storage

14:19 nook down the bottom, your third and fourth zone of climate controls. This is also where you control

14:24 your seat heating and cooling. You can basically run all of that from here. Then you can also

14:30 adjust fan speeds through the centre. You have a set of air vents there. In terms of the media

14:35 display ahead of you, this is where you can select your music. You can also see navigation.

14:39 You know, you've got all the little bits and pieces here that allow you to make your life

14:43 easier in the back seat. Over on the door, you have some interesting buttons. So I can control

14:49 my window. I can then also control both windows at the exact same time, which I don't really

14:56 understand why you would want to do that, but you can do that anyway. I can control the sun blind

15:00 as well from here. I can mute the audio at the back. So if I'm making an important phone call,

15:05 no noise will come through and I can switch my lights on and off here as well. So pretty

15:10 impressive setup and they've definitely thought about the passenger here and making their life

15:14 as easy as possible. All of your controls there on the door for seat adjustment with memory as

15:18 well. And then you have a little light here as well. If you go to exit the vehicle and there's

15:22 a cyclist or pedestrian coming, that's going to warn you. Now, centre armrest. This bit's pretty

15:27 cool. So you can use this as a seat if you want. Obviously, it's not going to be a very comfortable

15:31 one, but it can be used as a seat. One push of this brings it forward. Now, it's pretty slow,

15:37 so we're going to have to use a time-lapse here. There it comes. So up the top here,

15:43 you have a remote control for your screens. Then you have a second tier with storage,

15:48 an additional two USB ports, and then two HDMI slots for your screens. Then if you want access

15:54 to your cup holders, this thing moves out of the way as well. And then it reveals a little cover

15:59 here. And that little cover then slides out of the way to give you access to your cup holders.

16:04 There it is there. They fit in nicely. You've got little grips there. And then you have a tiny bit

16:09 of storage inside the doors. That's where our wireless headphones are at the moment, though.

16:12 Look, it's an interesting setup. It does feel nice and luxe back here,

16:18 but the only issue is the legroom. I would have expected just a little bit more space back here

16:23 to allow you to stretch out, but thankfully there is a long wheelbase version available.

16:29 Okay, let's talk cargo space. So I mentioned earlier this is a split tailgate. That means

16:34 the top section opens and then the bottom section opens. And I love this because,

16:38 I don't know, you could back this into your favourite sporting field or something like that,

16:43 grab a seat on it. It can hold a fair amount of weight, so hopefully more than two of me.

16:48 You've got this cover then as well to stop things falling into the abyss that is

16:53 all that stuff down there. Beneath the floor here you have a whopper. It is a full-size spare tyre.

16:59 That would be very hard to get out because it would be very heavy, but it does mean that

17:03 you get a full-size spare. So if you are in the middle of nowhere doing an off-road safari,

17:06 you don't have to be limping along on a space saver, which is good news.

17:10 Off to the side here you have a little 12-volt outlet. Then you have this cargo blind that

17:15 folds into position and can be pulled out entirely. With the second row in place,

17:20 you have around 600 litres of cargo space available here. Now these controls on the

17:24 side here, so you have suspension controls if the car isn't already lowered, you can lower it from

17:28 the back here or even raise it depending on what you're trying to load in. But there are some

17:32 clever controls here in terms of getting access to more cargo space, even with your Luxe second

17:38 row in place. So you can see the driver and front passenger seats slightly move out of the way

17:43 to accommodate the seats that are about to fold down into that position. This is really handy

17:48 because not a lot of vehicles with this four-seat arrangement can actually fold seats out of the

17:52 way to give you more cargo space. So it will come all the way down and then once it does come down,

17:56 but the driver and front passenger seat then go back into their original positions.

18:00 Now that expands the space to around 2000 litres, so it's not entirely flat,

18:04 but it does give you a whole lot more storage room than you would otherwise have when the

18:08 second row was sitting up. Now what about our bags? I'll show you what they look like in here.

18:12 So laptop bag there and then a big suitcase in there. So beautiful carpet there as well.

18:18 Okay, we've hit the road in the Range Rover. What's it like to drive? If you haven't driven

18:25 one of these before, it's kind of like being in a magic carpet, except this is a more efficient

18:30 magic carpet now thanks to the diesel engine they've crammed under this. So it's a three-litre

18:35 six-cylinder turbocharged diesel engine. It makes 258 kilowatts of power and 700 newton metres of

18:42 torque and it's mated to an eight-speed automatic transmission. Now it's a mild hybrid system,

18:47 which means the stop-start process is nice and smooth thanks to an integrated starter generator,

18:52 but then when you sync the boot in, it just delivers a beautifully smooth dollop of torque.

18:59 It's also worth pointing out that with 700 newton metres of torque, I can lean into the throttle

19:04 and it doesn't have to dive back through several gears to basically deliver you that torque. It

19:10 really can just lean on the torque band and it means that at 2000 rpm, you get a nice solid

19:14 push in the back without having to wait around forever for it to actually do anything. One of

19:18 the other things I like about this six-cylinder is the unique sound. So even though it's a diesel,

19:23 when you get stuck into it, it has a little bit of note to it, so you can at least hear it doing

19:29 something and it sounds a little more interesting than just diesel clatter. Let's talk fuel economy.

19:33 So Land Rover claims a combined fuel economy of 8.4 litres per 100 kilometres.

19:41 You're not going to be getting very close to that. So we're currently sitting on 16 litres

19:44 per 100 kilometres. I will caveat that by saying that this car was running a long time this morning

19:50 when we got here because it was quite cold and I was sitting in here while Igor was doing some

19:53 stuff. So yes, it has been artificially running. The other thing to take note of is before we got

19:59 here when I was doing a mix of city and highway driving, it was sitting on around 10 litres per

20:03 100. So close enough, but you simply cannot escape the fact that it weighs 2.3 tonnes. I mean,

20:09 you simply cannot get around that and eventually it will catch up with it, especially if you're

20:13 idling and if you are doing more low speed driving. Let's talk drive mode. So you do everything

20:18 through the terrain response system. If you push it all the way in, it just selects auto mode and

20:22 it will adapt to the driving conditions. Whereas if you push it up, it will basically allow you to

20:26 switch between a number of off-road modes and on-road modes. So when you're through the on-road

20:30 modes, you have eco, comfort and then dynamic, and dynamic is where it'll firm up the suspension,

20:36 give you a little bit more weight through the steering wheel. I'll run through the off-road

20:39 modes when we do some light off-roading later on. Okay, so we are in dynamic mode. Let's slip it

20:45 through here. See, that is impressive. So despite the fact this is now getting on in age as a

20:51 platform, this thing still has some boogie and it just feels nimble enough to throw it around a bit.

20:57 Yes, it's no sports car and it doesn't feel as agile as the Defender, but it's just pretty

21:03 impressive for a car this size. Land Rover claims 0-100 time of 7.1 seconds. We put it

21:09 up against a stopwatch and this is how it went. Okay, let's talk about the ride. So air suspension

21:23 and adaptive dampers, that means that you are getting a silky smooth ride and even out here

21:28 in the country, it's soaking up everything nicely and it just feels like it's gliding along all the

21:32 bumps and imperfections. It can feel a little wallowy at times, which means if you get the

21:37 consecutive humps as you're driving along, it can sort of feel like it's floating, but when you're

21:41 in and around the city and doing a long distance highway drive, this is the ultimate cruiser if you

21:46 just need to get there and get there in comfort. Same goes for noise. There's barely any road noise

21:50 that comes into the cabin. There is a little bit of wind noise, but for the most part, it's

21:54 incredibly quiet in here. Now, the other thing that's worth pointing out as well is that if

21:57 you're in the depths of winter, there's these little lines built into the windscreen. That's

22:02 a demister for the windscreen. So instead of having to wait for the car to warm up and then

22:05 pump hot air out, this can actually just demister much quicker, similar to the way that it does it

22:10 on the back window. Let's talk visibility. So this is a whopper of a car. I can see clearly

22:14 out the front there. Down the sides, the wing mirrors are big enough with a blind spot monitor

22:18 built into them. Visibility out the rear is okay. It's a sort of narrow rear vision mirror here,

22:24 and then your headrests kind of stick in the way there. So you can see past them,

22:28 it can just be a little compromised at times. If you are planning on towing, a lot of people

22:32 will use these to tow a horse float or something sort of fairly big in stature. It'll tow up to

22:37 three and a half tonnes with a braked trailer, and look, it'll confidently do that as well.

22:41 With this much torque and I guess this much heft to it, it just feels really nice and planted on

22:46 the road, even when you do have something big on the rear of it. And I don't know,

22:51 it's pretty economical as well once you are doing your highway driving. At low speeds,

22:54 it's not going to be all that economical, but once you're doing highway driving,

22:57 it really comes down nicely with this diesel. Okay, what about the turning circle? 12.33

23:03 metres. So it's a fairly big turning circle. So in and around the city,

23:08 you're probably going to have to do the occasional three foot turn.

23:13 Righto, let's do some light off-roading. So I explained in our last video that I was going to

23:19 come up with a new course for us to try out, and I've got something set up, but we'll have a wet

23:25 course and a dry course. And the reason I say that is with the wet course, if we don't make it up,

23:30 the car slides backwards and I've got plenty of room for it to slow down eventually. Whereas with

23:35 the dry course, when it slides backwards, it slides towards a river, so I don't want to drop

23:40 the car into the river. So we're going to have those two different courses, and what they're

23:44 going to do is test the traction control systems up a slope where you have limited traction. So

23:49 this should be a really good sort of mix between all the cars to give us an idea of how they

23:53 perform. The common test we're going to have with all vehicles though, regardless of whether it's

23:57 wet or dry, is a see-saw. So this will get us coming up and then onto the other side.

24:02 In the middle, we'll have a transition where we'll have body flex, and during the body flex,

24:07 I'm going to try and open and close the door to see whether there is enough flex or whether there

24:12 is too much flex and it prevents the door from closing. Then we'll also have an offset mogul

24:16 where we'll be able to test traction controls and differential locks if the car has any of those.

24:21 Now, onto the off-road specs of the Range Rover. So I mentioned earlier on, these are built for

24:26 off-road driving, and Land Rover's gone to town in terms of fitting this with all of the

24:31 off-road kit that it needs as standard. So that means a 24-degree approach angle, that's the

24:36 angle of the face you can approach before you hit the front of the car, a 23.5-degree departure

24:41 angle, which is the same angle but in reverse. We have 220mm of ground clearance, which can then go

24:46 even higher thanks to the air suspension, 900mm of weighting depth. And in terms of our four-wheel

24:51 drive controls, we have a centre diff lock that can be fully open, partly closed or fully closed,

24:56 and a rear differential lock as well. We also have a low-range transfer case. Now, if none of that

25:00 makes any sense, click up here to watch a video we shot before on four-wheel drive controls that

25:04 will explain it just a little bit better. Terrain response. So while we're out driving, I mentioned

25:08 that I'd run you through this. One flick of this allows you to go between the different programs.

25:12 So we have grass, gravel, snow. We have mud ruts. We have sand. And then finally, we have the rock

25:18 crawl program. You also have a low traction launch feature, which we will test on our hill as well,

25:23 on our slippery hill. So for the moment, let's pop it into mud ruts. What it says is it recommends

25:28 using low range and it also recommends going into the high suspension mode. So we won't use low

25:32 range, but I will jack the suspension up. There we go. It's climbing now. What it does in these

25:38 terrain response modes is selects the correct stability control program to give the car as

25:45 much leverage as it can as it climbs these types of things. And in the mud ruts program, for example,

25:50 it's going to give us a little bit more wheel slip where required. And it also enables hill

25:54 descent control in forwards and reverse. So it'll catch us even if we don't make it up. So let's

25:59 give this a shot. It is really slippery today and these are completely glazed over. So we're just

26:04 going to try heading up here now. Yes, we made it. Fantastic. And this thing is an absolute beast.

26:15 You could really just go anywhere with these. Ages and ages ago, I actually did a trip across

26:19 Australia from Birdsville to Broome in a fleet of Land Rovers, everything from the Freelander

26:24 up to the Defender, including this, which was called the Range Rover Vogue back then.

26:28 It really is just a machine. Now, hill descent control. I've got my foot off the brake here.

26:33 What it's able to do is adjust the speed as you drive. So using the cruise control here,

26:38 I can make it go faster or slower down the hill descent control so that we can actually

26:42 keep on top of everything that's going on. So actually, it works really nicely there. So

26:49 it's just cruising nicely down the hill there. Very impressed. Okay, let's do the seesaw. The

26:55 other cool feature is one push of this button enables the four-wheel drive view on the infotainment

27:01 system. What this is able to do is give us an idea of what the suspension's doing, what the

27:04 differential locks are doing, and also give us a really cool camera angle as well. So if I hit the

27:08 drive assist button, the cameras come up and show us exactly what's happening in and around the car.

27:13 But at the moment, I've got it on this screen here that's going to show us what the suspension's

27:18 doing and also what the differentials are doing. So you can see here that we're partly locked on

27:22 the centre diff, partly locked on the rear diff as we go over. Ahead of me, I've got a cool display

27:29 on the head-up display showing the angle that we're on plus our compass heading. So we'll come

27:34 over to the centre section here where we will have two tyres almost off the ground. This has air

27:40 suspension, so it's fully extending that suspension, so we probably won't get tyres off the

27:44 ground. But right now, we should have full flex. See if that door opens and closes. No drama. It's

27:50 very impressive. Okay, moving on to the next section. This next section is going to test

27:55 how the traction control and how the differential locks work in an offset

28:00 mogul situation, which is where we get two tyres off the ground. So here we are,

28:04 we're approaching it now. Okay, we are currently two tyres off the ground. So it has detected that

28:09 and you can see on the screen ahead of me here, let me just make the parking sensors quiet,

28:13 you can see on the screen ahead of me here, we have the centre diff lock and the rear diff

28:16 locked as well, which means I can just roll out of the brake, roll onto the throttle,

28:20 because we have both of those diffs locked, it's literally just walking through here without any

28:25 dramas. So that's really impressive and you're not going to find this level of sophistication

28:29 on a lot of cars in this segment. They really have nailed that feature. Right,

28:33 our last thing we're going to test here is the load traction launch. This is designed for

28:37 situations like this where you've got a slippery incline and you need to get out of there without

28:42 the car just completely dying. So let's test it out. I don't think it's going to make it up here

28:46 because it is really greasy, but you know, that's what the feature's for, we'll give it a shot. So

28:50 load traction launch is on, it says gradually apply accelerator pedal until vehicle moves away

28:55 from rest. I'll do that now. I can feel it building up revs. That's so impressive.

29:09 I'm just walking up here. Oh, we're stuck. Hold on. I'm just going to stay on the throttle.

29:14 No, we're stuck. Yeah, I didn't think we'd get up there because you need momentum, but it got

29:28 us up the start bit, which is pretty impressive. And that I think is the whole intended purpose.

29:33 If you are on a big, greasy, sort of wet hill, it's going to give you the momentum that you

29:38 need to really just get stuck into it and go all the way up. Okay, the updated Range Rover. Look,

29:43 this car is the definition of a luxury SUV. It drives like a luxury SUV, but the thing is,

29:49 it does off-road. This thing will literally go anywhere, and I think that's what sets it apart

29:54 from its competitors. The problem is the rest of the competitors are getting slightly more

29:57 expensive at the lower end and then way more expensive at the top end. And now it sits sort

30:02 of in between at this really awkward level. So I think until the next generation arrives,

30:06 this will still be good value for money. When the next one comes, I think it's going to get

30:10 much more expensive so that it can sit into that next luxury slot. Let me know what you think in

30:14 the comments section below. Would you buy a Range Rover, or are you looking at something else at

30:19 that price range? I'm really keen to get your feedback. And also let me know, is it important

30:23 that this can kind of just go anywhere off-road, or do you not really sort of care about that sort

30:27 of stuff? Let me know in the comments section. If you did enjoy this video, make sure you like it

30:31 and share it with your mates. And if you haven't done so already, subscribe to our channel and

30:34 press the bell icon so you can find out every single time we drive one of these things. But

30:38 until next time, take it easy.

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