Style fans will be at home on the Range

SIFTING through the Land Rover model range used to be quite simple.

A Defender for farmers or people who live in Chelsea, a Discovery for horsey types, the Range Rover for outright luxury and the Freelander for those of us on a limited budget. Today it is a bit more complicated.

Take, for example, the new Range Rover Velar. Where does it fit in? Good question. The Velar range starts at £44,000, although prices shoot up once you get greedy with the specification. In theory, this car fills the gap between the Evoque and the Range Rover Sport in Land Rover’s ‘style’ range leaving the Discovery and Range Rover for the serious off-road tasks.

First interesting fact about the new Velar is that it’s based on a car platform, using a variation of the aluminium chassis that underpins Jaguar’s XE and XF saloons.

You will also notice the ride height has been reduced, but this car will still perform more than well enough off-road.

And it looks impressive on the road. This is Land Rover design at Range Rover Velar R-dynamic D300 4x4

Price: £70,530

Engine: 3.0-litre V6 diesel, 300bhp 0-60mph: 6.1sec

Fuel consumption: 44.1mpg

its finest and that goes for the inside of the Velar as well as the outside. This massive visual appeal is going to be the Land Rover salesperson’s main weapon in getting around the issue of the car’s rather frightening price. Yes, you can buy a Velar for £44k, but it will come with a four-cylinder diesel engine.

I haven’t driven the car with that engine but the consensus is

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