MOUNTAIN AND THE MANSION

You have ₹2.5 Crore to spend on an SUV. Do you go with your head or with your heart? Land Cruiser vs Range Rover, the ultimate full size SUV showdown is here

- CYRUS DHABHAR

A towering, battle-scarred veteran who's seen a few monsoons, wrestled with water, and still has the time to help someone dhakka start a broken down car.

The Range Rover, on the other hand, would be the foreign-return prodigal son. The one who returns from London smelling of expensive perfume, wearing loafers made of something endangered, and telling everyone how he once dined next to someone famous.

Both cost more than the average Mumbai apartment. Both represent the very best of their makers. Toyota's unshakable reliability and Land Rover's unrelenting pursuit of opulence. But these two approach the idea of a luxury off-roader like two different religions: one believes in hard work and reincarnation, the other in champagne and reincarnated cowhide.

Presence. Or, the Art of Taking Up Space

Let's start with what they do best, making every other car on the road feel like it's apologising for existing. The Land Cruiser doesn't arrive, it looms. It's a rectangular monolith of chrome, grit and unfiltered purpose, like it was carved out of the western ghats by Maratha warriors with diesel running through their veins. When you see one in your rear-view mirror, you move aside out of sheer ancestral fear. It's not aggressive because it does not need to be. It has a reputation that precedes it.

The Range Rover, meanwhile, doesn't loom. It does the opposite. It glides (literally). It doesn't shout.. There's something about its silhouette that says, “I've made it, but I'm not showy enough to buy a Bentley.” It's the automotive equivalent of a five-bedroom duplex in a bylane in Bandra as compared to Band Stand. It is quiet on the outside, but can be scandalous *cough cough* on the inside.