Range Rover Svautobiography Dynamic

evo’s guilty pleasure still holds its own in a world now besieged by SUVS

YOU DON’T SEE MANY RANGE Rovers in the pages of despite it being a guilty pleasure of many an staffer. Yes, it goes against the grain of our remit for driver’s cars to be responsive, agile and thrilling, but there’s just something about a Rangie that appeals.

Perhaps because it’s the original SUV, the grandfather of a genre that now dominates our lives. Or because, hand on heart, it’s never been bettered, despite the billions spent by rivals. Those wearing AMG, M and Porsche badges are quicker, an Audi Q7 offers more practicality, Bentley’s Bentayga more ways to spend your money, but none matches a Range Rover for its all-round duality of mountaineer and limo. In £142,285 Svautobiography Dynamic trim it also adds a dash of GT car.

Yes, it’s huge when confronted with a multi-storey car park, it weighs too much and its supercharged V8 requires a gallon of superunleaded every few miles if you make use of its 557bhp and 516lb ft. Yet none of this matters when you’re faced with a journey that requires serious wheel time on a route as tedious as a GDPR opt-in email. You feel your stresses drift away as you climb up to the throne seat, the weight lifting from your shoulders the moment the nose gently rises under the first throttle openings. Then there’s the silence. Or the sound of distant rolling thunder when you no longer want to waft.

As an enthusiast, a Range Rover could never be an only car. But it’s easy to see why so many still have one at their disposal.