Hello, you join me inside the new Range Rover Velar, the fourth, newest and apparently most
dynamic of all Range Rovers. So where does it sit? You’ve got the Evoque range at the
bottom then Range Rover Sport then Range Rover proper. This sits between the Evoque and the
Range Rover Sport in terms of price; kind of in terms of size and in terms of what it
is. It is an all aluminium - mostly aluminium, not all aluminium - mostly aluminium platform.
If that sounds familiar, it is; think of it as Land Rovers take on an F-Pace if you like.
It’s mostly aluminium, there's a little bit of magnesium at the front, there’s a
little bit of steel at the back, that helps the weight distribution. Instead of being
the big beefy offroader, fundamentally it is a slightly less heavy duty car than a Range
Rover Sport or the full size Range Rover. Now, what does that mean? Well that means
it weighs just about less than two tonnes, regardless of the engine. Of which there are
six, so two diesels, four cylinders, 180 and 240 horsepower. Plus a 300 horsepower V6 diesel,
and then there is a 250 bhp four-cylinder petrol plus two V6 petrols, of which this
is the faster. There’s 300 and 380 brake [horespower], so this is the full fat 380
brake one but what is it like? Well fundamentally it feels quite Range Rovery, you know; it
does things the way you would hope a Range Rover would. The steering is very light, very
slick, gearbox response is pretty good actually especially on this petrol but even in the
diesel it is responsive at low revs, it gets on. Neither of them feels quite as quick as
the headline figures suggest, this is supposed to be a five point something second car to
60 mph. Quite often, JLR products don’t necessarily feel quite as quick as the headline
figures suggest they should do. They will do those times, because we’ve tested them
on test tracks and they will record those times but it is a time that it can do, not
necessarily one that it feels like it will do every time. The V6s come on air springs;
four cylinders get coils with air as an option. Either way this is the kind of car that looks
good on big, big wheels. This is on 22s - 22” wheels - that is enormous isn’t it. Despite
that, the ride is pretty good most of the time. Around town, just around town, just
when you’re going slowly, if you hit a large pot hole it can really thump into the cabin.
Most of the time the ride is really controlled, there are drive modes so you can stiffen up
the dampers if you want to - I don’t think you’ll want to. You can firm up the steering
- I don’t think you need to. Fundamentally this car feels like a Range Rover to drive
and the four-wheel-drive system feels like Jaguars one in that fundamentally it’s kind
of a rear wheel drive car which puts power to the front, via a chain drive oddly as and
when you need it rather than it being or feeling 50/50 nose heavy four-wheel-drive. Elsewhere,
well that kind of F-Pace architecture that it uses, shows through really. It’s relatively
agile but I don’t think it is as agile or as poised or as sporty [as an F-Pace], you
don’t get quite as much back as you do in say a Porsche Macan. That’s maybe not a
great surprise but it’s close to it and it’s closer to it than any other Range Rover
and it will do more off road than, well, I’m sure than the Macan does. Not as much as the
big Range Rovers, obviously. The towing limit is two and a half tonnes, the wade depth is
less and there’s no low ratio and stuff but it’s got the full gamma of electronic
off road aids and it is as good off road as I suspect you will want it to be and it’s
quite plush inside, isn’t it? Well, it is to look at, I mean it’s really funky to
look at actually, it’s got three all digital screens. It’s got one down here by my knees,
it’s got one there, these two are both touchscreens and it’s got a full digital dash stack in
the middle. I used to love a touchscreen, as time goes on I am slighting eering towards
favouring a car like a BMW or an Audi which has actually a handle down here, a rotary
knob and some extra buttons because you don’t half have to take your eyes off the road for
a long time to use a touchscreen that is down by your knees. Graphically it’s very good,
it is fairly easy to use, it is fairly straightforward and it does look cool. It’s got a very big
boot at the expense of some rear passenger accommodation. If you start to prod a bit
deeper, if you start to prod some of the plastics you find that some of them are little bit
more brittle and a little bit less solid than you might expect for a car that starts at
£44,000, but don’t be fooled by that £44,000 because that gets you the base diesel with
nothing on it. Alright, the next highest car up the range is at least £50,000 and this
car goes up to £70,000, £80,000 in a launch edition which this one is. So the meat of
the range is £60,000; that is not a cheap car, is it? £60,000 I reckon and that’s
kind of the base price so once you’ve got options added on - people do like an option
- it might end up being quite a lot more than that but by and large I think the Velar is
probably the car that Range Rover wanted it to be. I think it’s as good as it needs
to be, I’m not blown away by it but I think it is as good as it needs to be and it’s
good enough for the people who go, “crikey, would you just look at that, I really want
one”. I think they’ll try it and go, “Yep, that is good enough for me”. I think it will
sell in large, large quantities.