The Electronic Telegraph 14 November 1994
TICK tock. What an odd sound the working indicator of the new Range Rover makes. Not the thin clack of a modern saloon or the hollow clonk of the Far Eastern motor but a rich hearty sound; like the sound of a grandfather clock.
The cabin of the Range Rover has many of the sitting-room's other appurtenances: thick leather chairs, polished burr-walnut and a glass area so large you suspect there may be a model with sash windows.
Why the indicator should make this sound I'm not sure. But the cabin is as cosy as that sitting-room, not least because the dashboard has been completely rearranged. The old Range Rover, which you can still buy as the Classic and which Land Rover says it will make for as long as there is a demand, is looking pretty dated and bears a dash whose architecture has remained fundamentally the same for 25 years. Ergonomic it is not.
In the late 1980s Land Rover engineers were briefed to start on a replacement, with some of the styling cues of the original; the castellated front for example. This is the result. The new body, still part aluminium, part steel, offers more headroom, more legroom and 50 per cent more luggage space.
Let's leave aside the matter of its exterior looks: to me they are successfully neutral with not much to like or dislike. In any case, looks are not what a Range Rover is about: the combination of abilities is at its heart.
On the road, the new Range Rover is much improved, with the more agricultural nuances of the old model suppressed. The steering in particular is now precise and beautifully weighted. Once you get used to the elevated driving position and lose the sense that height equals instability, it's possible to hustle the Range Rover along winding roads at a creditable lick.
The automatic gearbox has manual and sport modes; in manual, even with the 4.6-litre engine on our HSE test model, it's frankly lazy, but in sport the box will wind itself up to 6,000rpm - at which point the noise levels are still tolerable, even pleasant, before skipping into the next gear.
The penalty is chronic fuel consumption: the computer never gave us an average of more than 14mpg, whichever setting or style of driving we adopted. Land Rover quotes figures of 12.8 on the urban cycle, 24.8mpg at a constant 56mph, but in the real world you will be brimming the 22-gallon tank more often than you'd like.
Ride is a vast improvement on the old model but it's still not up to luxury-car standards. The ride at motorway speeds, though, is excellent. Take the Range Rover over a pitted road at lower speeds, however, and you'll know you're in an off-roader. It still jiggles and fusses; the suspension tying the car down is tauter than a Boy Scout's guy ropes.
At #44,000 the 4.6HSE is a stunning machine. Yet it has more electronics than Jodrell Bank and, with its endless kit, is heavier than the old model. And remember that, because most people won't use the equipment by going far off road, it is in a sense a deeply wasteful vehicle.
The Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution recently drew attention to the increasing weight of cars, which of course affects fuel consumption. I wonder if the zeitgeist will shift over the next decade, back to lighter, more fuel-efficient, less consumptive vehicles. If it does, this Range Rover, admirable though it is, will not be the one to have on the driveway. Time is running out for the big and the thirsty.
