The New Range Rover Is A Masterclass In Refinement: First-Drive Review

Doesn’t the new, $101,000 Range Rover look good in that photograph? Land Rover knows this, and it also knows photographing its new flagship – which has received a price rise since the previous generation – in its native Warwickshire, in the English Midlands on a cold and rainy April afternoon, won’t quite cut it. You can’t photograph a hundred-grand SUV wearing a color called Sunset Gold on a miserable Tuesday in Gaydon, then convince everyone from financiers and footballers to royal family members to buy one. You just can’t.

That’s why cars like the new Range Rover – and a great many others, it must be said – enjoy their first taste of freedom, at the hands of the motoring press, somewhere exotic. This means the marketing department gets to capture photography and video in the best possible light, and the PR division can invite journalists to drive the car somewhere with beautiful scenery, quiet roads and reliable weather.

Unless the air conditioning system of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner fails. Then said PR department is tasked with babysitting a dozen journalists stranded at Heathrow airport for 30 hours.

Fast-forward a day-and-a-half and I arrive in California with slightly less time than planned to try out the all-new 2022 Range Rover. And you know what? It doesn’t really matter, because the car impresses from the very first mile.

For 53 years now, Range Rover buyers have known what to expect; a pillowy soft ride with luxury inside and out, the latest technology, and best-in-class off-roading abilities.

It might sometimes feel like the automotive equivalent of a Swiss watch built for diving to 3,000 meters yet never venturing further than a Verbier hot tub, but the Range Rover has always stood for regal refinement paired with the go-anywhere ability of a mountain goat. And the latest incarnation, only the fifth since the nameplate debuted in 1969, continues to deliver with the same winning formula.

It looks very similar to its predecessor – perhaps more than buyers of an ‘all-new’ model might expect – but Land Rover would be foolish to interfere with a successful recipe for the mere sake of it. Instead, the many subtle changes serve to enhance and refine what was already a thoroughly handsome car.

The rear light graphic is the biggest aesthetic change, with its blackened ‘hidden until lit’ lights showing no color at all until the brake or turning signals are activated. It’s a neat piece of design, but one that I suspect will be quickly copied by everyone else.

Elsewhere, the trademark gills behind the front wheels are more subtle and Land Rover has worked hard to simplify the window frames and shut lines, creating a cleaner design reminiscent of a modern, all-glass apartment complex.

Inside, traditional leather options are joined by alternative wool fabrics from Kvadrat. The 2022 Range Rover is offered in standard- and long-wheelbase configurations, with the latter treating rear passengers to more legroom. Four, five or – for the first time – seven seats are available, and ultra-premium SV models from Land Rover’s Special Vehicle Operations department are available from day one. Tick that option on the long-wheelbase model, then opt for the Serenity spec with Signature Suit interior pack, and you’ll be treated to one of the finest passenger experiences of any car made today.

Rear passengers get acres of space, plus a motorized table that rises from the full-length, wood-paneled center console, TV screens, adjustable massage seats, a drinks fridge with a motorized door between the seats, and ambient LED lighting that is beautifully judged, so as to be warm and inviting, not gaudy or extravagant. Lighting, temperature, window blinds and even the motorized cup holders are controlled from a touchscreen fitted between the seats.

At this point, it would be easy to open the Big Book of Journalistic Cliches and say the experience is akin to that of a private jet, but in all honesty the Range Rover’s delivery of refined comfort walks all over any chartered aircraft I’ve flown on.

This is all intentional and of utmost importance for the new car, as Land Rover unashamedly takes its luxury flagship more up-market in a bid to fight off the likes of the Bentley Bentayga, Aston Martin DBX and Rolls-Royce Cullinan.

Under the skin, and despite not looking it on the outside, this Range Rover is entirely new. There’s a new chassis that is 35 percent stiffer than before, a new electronics architecture, new powertrains (including a plug-in hybrid with over 60 miles of range, due mid-2022), rear-wheel steering, and a new electronic anti-roll system capable of deploying over 1,000lb ft of torque to maintain composure through the corners. The first fully-electric Range Rover will arrive in 2024, but other than it using the same platform nothing more is known of that for now.

The next day, it’s time to get behind the wheel. Inline six-cylinder and V8 gasoline options are available, but I begin my drive with the D350, a 3.0-liter, inline six-cylinder diesel with 345 horsepower and 516 lb ft of torque. This mild-hybrid drivetrain gives the car a spritely 0-60 mph time of 5.8 seconds and a top speed of 145mph.

It is remarkably refined (that word again) for a diesel, the engine quietly getting on with its job and barely making itself heard in the cabin. Diesel may have become a dirty word, but in this application it’s surprisingly hard to argue against.

This is partly owing to the sophisticated smoothness of the engine itself, but also thanks to the new Range Rover’s Meridian Signature sound system, which includes no fewer than 35 speakers scattered throughout the cabin. Crucially, two of these are in each headrest of the four main headrests and, working in conjunction with microphones in the wheel arches, have active noise canceling technology to help create artificial silence. The end result is one of the quietest car interiors I have ever experienced, and one that matches up to Land Rover’s claim that the transmission of road noise and vibrations into the cabin has been reduced by 24 percent.

It shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise to learn that the ride is impeccably comfortable too. Any fears that the 35 percent increase in chassis stiffness, paired with massive 23-inch wheels, might introduce unnecessary firmness are cast aside within the first mile, and from then on it’s a remarkably civilized place to be – for both the driver and their passengers. This is important, as the previous-generation Range Rover’s erring on the side of softness sometimes encouraged too much roll, to the detriment of driver enjoyment. Now though, the extra stiffness and powerful anti-roll system brings a renewed sense of stability without impacting comfort.

All-wheel steering means the rear axle turns by up to 7.3 degrees, aiding maneuverability at low speed and improving stability when going more quickly. The latter isn’t as obvious, but the former means this is a full-size SUV with a turning circle of a family hatchback. Parking lots are more easily navigated, and twisting country roads are tackled by a car that feels smaller and more nimble than it has any right to. Hotel valets, rejoice.

Next up is the BMW-sourced, 4.4 liter, twin-turbo V8, complete with rumbling soundtrack and 0-60mph time of just 4.4 seconds, thanks to 523 horsepower and 553 lb ft of torque. It’s hilariously quick for such a big car, and especially so when fitted to the long-wheelbase variant with the luxurious, four-seat SV Signature Suit layout mentioned earlier. Although a lot of fun, I can see most buyers shunning the V8 in favor of the P400 model, powered by an inline, 3.0-liter, six-cylinder gasoline engine producing 395 horsepower and reaching 60 mph in a brisk 5.8 seconds.

Inside, Land Rover has refined and simplified the driving environment of the Range Rover, but resisted the urge to relocate every control system to the touch screen. Physical controls for the HVAC system and driving modes mercifully remain, while Alexa is available for the first time to control the navigation, music and connected smart home devices with intuitive voice commands.

There’s also the same Pivi Pro infotainment system as seen in other recent Jaguar Land Rover products, complete with a centrally-mounted, 13.1-inch display that arches back beautifully to echo the shape of the dashboard. It’s a lovely thing to look at, thanks to that artful curve but also the high-resolution screen with sharp graphics, clear fonts and a user interface that is more intuitive than that of the previous-generation Range Rover. Haptic feedback is also available, but when switched on the screen requires quite a firm press to register your inputs; those who prefer to tap lightly can disable the haptics if they so wish.

The 13.7-inch instrument display behind the steering wheel is also wonderfully sharp and clear, always displaying just the right amount of information at any time. The rest of the cabin is beautifully appointed, especially when optioned with a combination of non-leather materials from Ultrafabrics and Kvadrat. Softer, cozier and simply more interesting than leather, both to look at and touch, these fabrics turn the seats into your favorite armchair, while their production is kinder to the environment than leather, producing 75 percent less CO2.

Range Rovers are built to be to be as capable off road as on, but the aforementioned flight delay meant limited opportunities to test this for myself. All I can say is how the car deals with tight and steep gravel tracks with ease, the rear wheel steering increasing agility, and the clever Terrain Response software doing most of the hard work for me. The car can climb steep hills and lower itself back down the other side without the driver ever touching a pedal, while the maximum wading depth is a Land Rover Defender-matching 35 inches. Not that a Range Rover SV with plush white carpets will ever do such a thing.

Land Rover used to have the luxury SUV market to itself, and arguably invented the genre with the first Range Rover 50 years ago. But now everyone is at it, from obvious rivals like Audi and Mercedes, to a whole host of super-SUVs from Porsche, Bentley, Aston Martin, Rolls-Royce, Lamborghini, Lotus and, later this year, even Ferrari.

The British firm couldn’t rest on its laurels, but neither could it seek to reinvent the wheel for the mere sake of change. The Range Rover wasn’t going to morph into a flame-spitting Lamborghini Urus rival overnight, and nor was it going to have its price trebled in a bid to beat Rolls-Royce at its own game.

Instead, while those rivals have allowed Land Rover to up its prices and reach for a new market, especially with the long-wheelbase SV model, the Range Rover remains resolutely its own thing. And what this is, is the ultimate expression of automotive refinement.