Our Cars: Range Rover P550e Autobiography

What is it about this car? How does a machine from a brand whose range starts below the price of a tricked up Golf get not only to play with the likes of Aston Martin, Bentley and Lamborghini, but outsell the lot of them? Combined. Somewhere within those svelte lines lies a lesson in marketing that every luxury automotive brand would do well to learn, few more I would imagine than its Jaguar sister.

But perhaps it’s all an illusion; a smoke and mirrors job. Maybe we think that if it looks the part, which it does, that it can play the part too. Which is of course one of the reasons I was so keen to not merely drive one, but live with it, day in and out over a material period of time.

Even so, having a member of the opposition come to stay was always likely to shine the brightest light on the issue, and the opportunity to do long journeys in both was really too good to miss. And as the Aston and Lambo are too conceptually removed thanks to their vast power outputs and distinctly sporting demeanours, a Bentley was always going to provide the most relevant and revealing comparator.