Range Rover Vogue Review – Mark’s Car Journal
Written by Mark Rose, photos by Dom Ginn
When considering which SUV we should road test for our British themed run of content, one particular car stood out as the obvious choice. Yes, the Range Rover. In recent years, Rolls Royce and Bentley have entered the market place with their own luxury high-sided vehicles, but the Range Rover still remains the quintessential British SUV, and the go-to car in its class.
Officially launched in 1970, the first generation Range Rover was produced up until 1996, with earlier models used primarily as utilitarian vehicles, all based on a ladder frame chassis with a basic wash down interior. Fun fact: up until 1981, the car was available in a two-door bodyshell only. 1994 saw the introduction of the second-gen car, number three came in 2001, and the fourth generation model and subject of this review, arrived in 2012. Over the years, the car has evolved from something of a tool vehicle to a high-end luxury product, while still retaining its reputation as a formidable off-roader. Its breadth of ability and glitzy appeal has earnt it legions of fans the world over, with celebrities, royalty, and even notable gangsters, making the Range Rover their daily driver of choice.
This is a car that would continue to sell even it if were rubbish, but 50 plus years is a long time to spend perfecting a product, so obviously it’s anything but. One of the first things you notice as you climb aboard is just how big it is. I’m used to driving some very wide vehicles, but the Range requires some mental adjustment before you settle in to it. In terms of height you’re near enough eye-level with bus drivers, such is the size of it. If you want something with real road presence, then make sure you go for an all-black everything spec like our Vogue test car. Obviously, these things are subjective, but we thought our press demo looked straight gangsta, and we loved it!
At two and a half tonnes, the Range Rover is also exceptionally heavy which makes it far from the sportiest car on sale. Not that anyone who buys a car like this is bothered with getting anywhere in a hurry, but the body does wallow about, particularly through the corners. There is a dynamic driving mode to go with the eco, comfort and off-road settings, and the body control is notably tauter when you engage it, but trying to hustle it does feel like trying to land a jumbo jet down your local airstrip. Comfort is the default setting and the one that’s best for day to day use. The metric I use to judge luxury cars is ‘waft’, and the Range Rover wafts with some of the best. It irons out stricken road surfaces like a steamroller on fresh tarmac, glides down the road with real majesty, and does so with very little wind and road noise. Every now and then, the occasional large pothole will send some vibrations through the chassis, and the SD V8 engine is a little pronounced when it’s cold, but the NVH levels are mainly subdued.
Ah, that engine. Unfortunately, the 4.4 litre diesel V8 has been discontinued, but we were able to enjoy it before this particular press vehicle was de-fleeted ahead of the new model year. Needless to say, the weight blunts the performance so 334bhp is never going to feel fast, but with 546lb ft available, this thing is a complete torque monster. For context, it has more tugging power than a Ferrari 812 Superfast. Zero to 62mph happens in 6.8 seconds and the top speed is 135mph, but the way it piles on miles per hour with very little use of the throttle is what impresses most. The way it gathers pace combined with how it smooths out a road surface makes for an effortless driving experience, which is what you expect of a proper luxury car.
The Range Rover feels just as at home off the road, as it does on it. We’ll complete a full off-road test at a later date, but it would have been rude not to venture off the beaten path while we had it, so we made for some local public byways. What’s more, the weather had been terrible for much of the day so the terrain was somewhat of a mud bath. There are multiple off-road modes available for different surfaces like mud, sand and rock, and there’s also adjustable ride height along with hill descent control. Although the route wasn’t particularly challenging for a vehicle of this calibre, it did highlight a number of things. Firstly, the extra ride height gives you real confidence when trying to clear raised terrain and deep pools of mud. Secondly, the hill descent feature does a fabulous job of regulating your speed when trundling downhill. Also, we tried part of the course in the car’s comfort mode and then switched to its muddy terrain setting. It was able to gain traction where the wheels would ordinarily slip and it flattered even a novice off-roader like myself.
Whether you’re on the road or off it, the Range Rover is immensely comfortable. This generation of car has been with us for the best part of 8 years now, and even though it’s had some interior updates, the basic architecture has remained the same. Despite the age, the cabin still fills fresh and modern, while maintaining strong build quality. All the materials were leather or soft to the touch, and the aluminium and piano black trims added to the high-end atmosphere. Something to consider when optioning Ivory leather is that with time it begins to mark up and develop something of a glaze. Our test car had 17,000 miles on the clock and imperfections were beginning to show, so if you want to keep an immaculate interior then go for one of the other colour choices. The seats are hugely comfortable with pleasant bolstering and multiple adjustment options, and the colossal panoramic glass roof lets an entire solar system’s worth of light in to the cabin. When you consider the Range’s boxy proportions, masses of rear head and leg room, and tall windows, what you have is an incredibly spacious and airy interior.
As is the way with new cars, tech equals luxury, and Jaguar Land Rover has also jumped on the band waggon. In the front there are no less than three displays, one for the instrument cluster, another for the main infotainment, and an additional screen below that’s configurable depending on what you want to play with. This set up gives you plenty of options depending on what information is important to you. As an example, we used the instrument cluster for our driving data and maps, the main display for music, and the lower screen for driving modes or climate control. Having everything where you like it means you spend less time swiping through menus trying to find a setting, and more time with your eyes on the road. While Meridian hi-fi systems have always sounded good, they’ve never quite been on par with B&O, but the experience in the full-size Range Rover is the best we’ve heard to date.
Needless to say, you want a Range Rover, and JLR will start by relieving you of £83,465 for a standard wheelbase Vogue. To set the record straight, Vogue is a trim level not the model designation of the car. The big Range Rover is just that, the Range Rover. You can also have Westminster, Westminster Black, Vogue SE, and Autobiography trim levels, and if you want to spend big bucks on a truly big car, you can also buy a long wheelbase model which starts from £115,960.
As is always the case with luxury products, you have to pay to play, and this car is no different. What it does, however, is tread a careful line between being mildly accessible while retaining its status as a desirable premium vehicle. It’s not as special as something like a Bentley Bentayga which is many tens of thousands of pounds more expensive, but there’s still a sense of occasion, a pomp if you will, that elevates it above what other European manufacturers are capable of producing. The Range Rover is the British SUV, and given its iconic status, arguably the SUV. This review was conducted in 2020 when the fourth generation Range Rover was still on sale.
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