Range Rover's fabulous luxury SUV

published 28 August 2009

You can bang on about the pointlessness of SUVs, but when it comes to the Range Rover, "to drive one is to want one", says Ben Oliver in Car.

In fact, the best comparison is not with SUVs, but with the Rolls-Royce Phantom. It's that good. It's been restyled inside and out, there's a new supercharged, five-litre V8 and a plethora of "mad new gadgets".

The cabin is, as before, "fabulous", with a touchscreen display in the central console, and enough leather to "put cows on the endangered species list".

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Buyers who might have been tempted by other high-end SUVs should think again. "There's a big difference between high price and high class", and the Range Rover has its rivals "licked for the latter".

Beneath all the glitz, "a fabulous car lurks", says Anthony ffrench-Constant in The Daily Telegraph. You sit so high up that you're "a little astonished to arrive behind the wheel without the aid of a ladder".

At 60mph, it "ticks over in near silence at less than 2,000rpm", and the handling is improved in this new model, although trying to drive at speed through corners still feels "like chucking the living room around". But for all that the car is "remarkable".

It has staggering off-road ability, plus "perfectly decent behaviour down twisting, undulating tarmac", says Paul Horrell in Top Gear. In short, it has everything you could want from a car. Except economy (19mpg).

Price: £79,995.