The original British luxury SUV returns with twin-turbo V8 power 

2022 Range Rover 4.4 Autobiography

Launched: July 2022, Price S$592,999 with COE (September 2022)
Five-door, large luxury SUV, five seats
530hp, 4.4-litre turbocharged petrol engine, VES C2, 11.9L/100km

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PROS

Luxurious and majestic

Mighty V8 engine note

Supremely well-appointed cabin

CONS

Very poor fuel economy

Large size makes it a hassle on small streets

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Big and chunky on the outside, and top-spec luxury on the inside. That’s the way Range Rovers have always been and the new fifth-generation model is more of the same. A five-seat luxury SUV that’s often regarded as the originator of the whole offroad luxury car genre, it’s been given a totally new look but without messing up the ‘two-box’ body style.

If you haven’t been paying close attention to Land Rovers and Range Rovers over the years, you might be wondering what all the Rover + Rover business is about. The short version is that while the main brand is Land Rover, the Range Rover is a spinoff sub-brand that builds the higher end models like the Range Rover Evoque, Range Rover Sport, and the flagship model seen here, which is simply the Range Rover. 

Design and Styling 

It’s a car that measures more than five metres in length, with a height adjustable suspension that jacks it from a very high off-road mode, and down to a comically low access mode, so that short people actually have a chance of climbing into it. It’s a blocky, chunky car that wears its SUV roots proudly on its silhouette, though if you’re all about the coupe-SUV thing there are other slightly swoopier Range Rover models like the previously mentioned Evoque to satiate your fetish.

The cabin is all about luxury and the whole package is in line with a car that costs three quarters of a million dollars. Just about every adjustment is motorised, all the way down to the seat headrests and rear bench centre console’s deployment.

It’s officially a five seater, but works best as a four seater because of the full-colour touchscreen control panel fitted to the centre console. The individual back seats are reclinable, there’s legroom equivalent to a business class airline seat, and the individual video screens in front of each seat completes the look. 

Up front, the user interface, named the Pivi Pro, is similar to that of the present-gen Land Rover Defender, which means that the various 4X4 drive modes are all selected through the touchscreen menus. The whole thing is laid out very much like a smartphone’s interface so it’s not hard to get to grips with. The 13.1-inch screen can’t beat the new Mercedes-EQ EQS’ massive dashboard-spanning hyprescreen, but we’ll just sit here and wait for the screen size wars to run its course.

The Range Rover has always been a bit of an oxymoron in that it’s a real offroad vehicle, but has the luxury accoutrements that put it up there with the very best luxury vehicles. In other words, the car is made to get really muddy but you don’t want that mud getting onto the interior carpets and leather.

Getting into the car is made easier with motorised side steps that deploy when the doors are unlocked. They then tuck back under the car once the doors are closed.

The rear hatch is also fully motorised and that includes the lower tailgate that works as a picnic bench as well. Folding the rear bench forwards is also a button-actuated, fully motorised process. The speed at which the seats deploy is glacially regal, so if you’re the impatient sort, best get used to it first.

A really great addition is the full-sized spare tyre under the boot. It’s massively heavy, but in most territories this is a car that you really don’t want to be stuck with a space saver spare or measly inflator kit when stuck out in the boondocks.

On to Page 2: Driving Experience

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