Still Peerless

The Land Rover Range Rover continues to prove its mettle, generation after generation

- Afzal Rawuther

It has been almost five years since I first drove a Range Rover - the big, full-sized one that is. It was for a feature story, and I ended up driving every model (the OG Range Rover, the Sport, the Evoque and the Velar) over the course of a 3-day trip to a luxury wellness resort on the outskirts of Pune. I had driven smaller models before, but nothing would prepare me for The Range Rover.

Almost half a decade later, my first experience with the brand-new version is coloured by the indelible impression the last-gen Rangie left on me. And it was no ordinary impression. When you have been reviewing cars for a while, not much really blows you away. Sure, a lot of cars leave a mark, but not many fundamentally transform how you look at motoring. And I am happy to report that the latest Range Rover does that.

The sheer size makes you go about driving the car differently than any other automobile. On the crowded streets of Mumbai, the 5.2-metre-long SUV understandably takes up a lot of space. This can seem imposing for drivers when the bonnet's size makes it challenging to spot kerbs. That said, the sheer number of cameras and sensor arrays make it easy to place in narrow bylanes and crowded markets without scratching the optional 22" rims. Crucially, this generation offers rear wheel steering, something I was grateful for as memories of my struggles to park the last-gen came flooding back. This time, the SUV was far more maneuverable with a turning radius that rivals some compact SUVs in our country. It also makes for a nimbler SUV as speeds pick up.