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Our Cars: Range Rover P550e Autobiography
1 year ago
Frankel is looking forward to six months with the big Rangie
Unless, of course, you’re a rival. Over their histories the likes of Bentley, Aston Martin and Lamborghini would probably not have been overly exercised by the likely threat posed by a Land Rover, but today its luxury SUV sells in many times the numbers of all of theirs combined, suggesting there’s even more headroom for the brand and even greater opportunity for that stardust to gently settle on lesser models. What could be next in its sights? The Cullinan…?
It’s why I wanted to run one. How much of the appeal of a Range Rover is steeped in the fact that it is the real deal, the only one in its competitor set not to be a johnny-come-lately me too bandwagon charioteer, but simply the latest and greatest version of a kind of car the company has been making for substantially more than half a century? And if you equip such a car with all that’s required to survive in a variety of environments to which it may be suited but will hardly ever, if ever at all, be subjected, what are the drawbacks of that approach in a world in which almost all will live? Finally, good looking and exceptionally clean though its design undoubtedly is, how about what lies beneath? How finicky will it be to live with? Will its foibles end up annoying me and will it be reliable? That’s what the next six months are about finding out.
On the last of these points, the first question from the ever cheery postman who knows about every long-termer to pass this way was ‘gone wrong yet?’ It shows just how hard such reputations, deserved or otherwise are to shake. And the answer to his question is that it hasn’t and with only 4000 miles on the clock I’d hope not too.
"You will probably still remember reports about Range Rovers of various descriptions being among the UK’s most stolen cars, claims JLR itself always denied. But there’s no need any more because thanks to security updates they’re now way down the list"
There was a time not that long ago when I’d have been far more concerned about it getting nicked. You will probably still remember reports about Range Rovers of various descriptions being among the UK’s most stolen cars, claims JLR itself always denied. But there’s no need any more because thanks to security updates they’re now way down the list. Indeed if you look at cars stolen relative to number sold, the Range Rover now sits outside the top 50 of the UK’s most lifted machines. So I don’t know what JLR did, but it worked. Even so, the car did arrive with instructions that I should activate its ‘InControl Secure’ system ‘as soon as you possibly can’ after its arrival, which is certainly not something I’ve been asked to do before. But if it reduces the chance of arriving in a long term car park at 1am and having no means of closing the distance between there and my bed, I’d be only too delighted.
It’s a convoluted process, involving registering for an account, reading the VIN number off the bottom of the windscreen, pressing a secret button in the roof-lining, rubbing your tummy while patting your head and so on, but if I’d not tried to be clever and shortcut the system I reckon I could have done it all in 20 minutes. And so long as I remember to press the lock key twice when I park and listen for the little beep, it’s as protected as it’s going to be.
“Last time I charged it, it came up with a claimed range of 56 miles, which early miles suggest is about right. Combined, the ICE and EV motors pack a decent 542bhp and convincing 590lb ft of torque allowing this 2.7-tonne monster to hit 60mph from rest in 4.8sec, fast enough for me from an office block on wheels”
The car is a P550e, which means it comes with the 3-litre ‘Ingenium’ straight-six petrol motor supplemented by a 38.2kW battery pack providing an alleged 73-mile EV range at speeds up to 87mph. The latter stat I can believe, but the former? Not so much. Last time I charged it, it came up with a claimed range of 56 miles, which early miles suggest is about right. Combined, the ICE and EV motors pack a decent 542bhp and convincing 590lb ft of torque allowing this 2.7-tonne monster to hit 60mph from rest in 4.8sec, fast enough for me from an office block on wheels.
Slightly disappointingly, however, it will only tow 3000kg, not the 3500kg allowable by law and achieved by non-hybrid Range Rovers too, worth bearing in mind for anyone who has a particularly hefty race car and trailer unit to cart from track to track.
I had no choice over the colour of the car and probably wouldn’t have settled on Batumi Gold or, as it’s known round here, very gold, but it suits the car more than it would most others. The spec sheet said its interior would be ‘ebony’ and the supplied renders showed the same, but unless my colour-blindness has got very bad indeed, that’s not what showed up.
Plug-in hybrid tech gives the P550e a theoretical EV range of 73 miles
You probably know that ‘Autobiography’ is the ritziest standard Range Rover specification, almost all features it has over and above the mid-spec HSE I’d happily forgo (the sliding sunroof in particular) because I don’t need four more ways to power my already 20-way powered seats, the automatically folding parcel shelf or illuminated treadplates. But the top of the range Meridian ‘Signature’ sound system? Once you’ve listened to it I can’t see how you could settle for anything less.
In addition to what you already get as standard there’s a hot stone massage function for the front seats (if you have a car with seat massagers, could you let me know if after the novelty value wore off you ever used them again?) and ‘Executive Class’ comfort rear seats with electric everything pillows and, get this, ‘power deployable cup holders’. Will wonders never cease?
It has £3700-worth of rear seat entertainment in the form of a pair of 11.4in high def screens I’ll never use and a £340 Secure Tracker Pro option, which I think means that, on top of the tracker it already contains, the key is specifically linked to the car in such a way that if any unauthorised key is used to try to gain access the car, it’ll call the rozzers at once. Which begs another question: to do this, it must know an unauthorised key is being used to try to gain access. That being the case, why not just deny access? This gives us a total extras bill of £8940, which actually sounds quite modest in the context of the all-up cost of the car.
First impressions? Primarily that this a car of a quality fully deserving comparison to the equivalents from Bentley and Aston Martin. The driving position is as suited to this kind of car as the belly-scraping seat in my Caterham. The minimalist interior is incredibly soothing, reeks of designed-in quality and the ride is absolutely sensational. There are however one or two details I know are going to annoy me, but I’ll expand on them a little more next time. In the meantime I think I’m going to enjoy wafting around in this big and rather beautiful machine for the next few months.
I’d not exactly call myself a large SUV kind of guy, or anything close, but I have always said the cars I like best are those that know what they’re for, whatever that may happen to be. And goodness me, does the Range Rover know that.
Main images by Liam Young
