Petrol Heads’ Corner Range Rover – First Edition

David O’Neill*

If you have $300,000 spare just idling away in your bank account waiting to be pointed in the right direction, then I suggest you purchase the new Range Rover First Edition. It starts, as a base price, at $295,000 and then, when you add in some of the goodies, it rapidly rises.

I had the version with the 23 inch wheels ($2000), powerassisted doors ($4200), shadow exterior pack – I think ($2550). It was black with black wheels and blacked out insignia with………..wait for it………a white leather interior, acres of it.

Speccy Bits

My car was the 4.4L V8, twin turbo petrol version. It has 390kw, 750nm of torque and could accelerate 0-100km/h in 4.6 seconds.

It weighed 3.4 tonnes (gross weight) and this was the short wheel base model.

What’s It Like

The thing was enormous. Even the doors were heavy. My car had white leather throughout (soft as butter). Clearly it was aimed at the no kids/no pets market. I don’t recollect seeing any plastic anywhere, apart from possibly the cup holder.

It had two iPads in the back of the front seats for the chauffeured guests to play with. Everything was electric. There were 24 different positions that your seat could be moved into and the exterior cameras (I still don’t know how they did it), gave you multiple views of the car from inside, outside, above and along the rear, the sides and the front-even from different angles looking back at the car.

The seats were absolutely superb. You sat there, cosseted in fine leather which was as soft as any seat I have ever sat in, shut away from the rest of the world to the extent that you could whisper to each other, while travelling at speed, and still hear what was being said. The car was extraordinarily quiet, despite the fact that it had massive tyres,

which made plenty of noise. I mean, it’s not often you sit in a car with seats like this knowing the seats cost as much as your current car. These were nicer than pretty much any seat I have sat in. It lends a whole new meaning to the word ‘soft’.

Performance

It certainly went like stink. Taking it on the usual route to the beach meant going up and over the Kopu-Hikuai Road with ease. It toddled up there and back down the other side easily. However, I have to say that economy is not its strong suit. We didn’t drive over to the beach very quickly because it was dark and wet, and still managed to achieve no better than 12.9L/100 km. When you put your foot down, you can hear the slurp as the petrol tank empties. It was like being at a University Drinking Horn listening to competitors chug down huge quantities of beer.

To put it in context, my own car, which is an Audi RS6, is cheaper to run, and that is saying something.

By the same token, if you can buy one of these, you can afford to have Jeeves, the chauffeur, fill it up at the gas station with your card.

Originally, I wasn’t a great fan of Range Rovers. My first drive of one of these was about 10 years ago and I had a Range Rover Vogue to run around in for a week. It consumed petrol at a prodigious rate to such an extent that I thought there was a hole in the tank.

Additionally, it was very tall, quite unstable on the road and a relatively unpleasant ride because neither suspension nor its steering was particularly precise.

By contrast this new version has 4 wheel steer, looks better and is more luxurious but still slurps the gas like it’s going out of fashion.

Criticism

I know it’s a first world problem, but the only criticism I would have, is that when I went to put the back seats down, they kept bouncing off the iPads mounted on the back of the front seats.

I couldn’t get them to move and, other than make sure the seat was hard up against the steering wheel, that seemed to be the only way that this could happen. I gave up and left the seats up. Hardly a biggie……

Other Bits

It even has a chauffer’s button for managing the seats (honest) and you could put the centre armrest down which then became a control panel for things in the back and a place to put your drinks.

This really is the ultimate shooting brake, carriage to the country club or wagon to go looking for pheasants to shoot at. It was seriously cool. I know they are depicted as the ‘go-to’ wagons for developers, UK gangsters and overpaid soccer players but I suggest you forget about them and go and over indulge in some ‘genteel’ car madness.

Performance

In addition to this, I wanted to see how it compared to one of the faster cars from yesteryear such as the E-type Jag.

Remembering that this is a modern-day wagon, but weighs an awful lot, it accelerates 0-100 kmh in 4.6 seconds. By comparison the E-type Jag 4.2 fixed head coupe (remember this was the ultimate sports car back then) could accelerate 0-60 mph in 7 seconds back in the day. That was considered quick. This car is almost as quick to 100 kmh as an Audi S4 (4.4 seconds).

Summary

This is a cracker of a car. It is abject luxury, beautifully quiet, beautifully made and a real joy to drive. Additionally, it will pull the side off your house if you really wanted to. It can tow up to 3.5 tonnes. It can also whistle through the creek on the way to your estate, up to a depth of 900 mm (up to your waist). The long wheelbase seems to have the ability to take just about anything in it and comes in the SV version at the very smart price of $390,000.

As I said at the beginning of this article, it looks very smart, the foldaway door handles give it very sleek lines and everything is, sort of, sculpted. The only bits that stick out when the car is locked up are the mirrors on either side of the front doors and even they fold in once the car is locked.

So, there you have it. I am a convert. If I had a spare $300,000, I might go and spend it on one of these. However, I don’t, so I won’t. I think I’ll stick with my current car. If I didn’t, I’d get into trouble anyway.

So, this combined report has really been about the latest iteration of an icon and the other extreme end of the scale, the luxe barge, namely the Range Rover First Edition. Therefore, you have a choice – either get a really good car or get an even better one. Your call. Happy motoring.

* David O’Neill is an expert in the law, but his knowledge of driving is even better. Unfortunately, he is not a member of the Royal Family and will not be buying the Range Rover First Edition in the near future.