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The Enthusiast

“If Velar is a runaway sales success I will be delighted, because I want JLR to survive and thrive”

Following the celebrity-studded launch at the Design Museum in London in March, the new Velar was finally made available in Norway for the ladies and gentlemen of the press to drive. Your lowly columnist was not present, no doubt due to some unfortunate administrative oversight, so I cannot bring you any personal first impressions. But there were plenty of other motoring journalists there, so we can console ourselves by looking at some of their reviews.

The new Velar is intended to fill the gap in the Range Rover family between the Evoque and the Sport, with the entry-level 178 bhp diesel model setting you back just shy of £45k. However, quite a few journalists have commented that the top-spec Velar chimes in with a weighty £85k purchase price, which doesn’t so much fill a gap as overlap with the Sport.

At the launch, much was made of the minimalist external design and the quality of the materials that went into the interior. The external design continues to be applauded by reviewers everywhere. Some have been critical of the cabin, though, with references to hard, scratchy plastics at lower levels.

It is, of course, an all-wheel drive car, but because it is built on the same platform as the Jaguar F-pace, which is rear-wheel driven, the Velar is normally a rear-biased car with chain drive to transfer torque to the front when needed. There is no centre diff and your off-road progress will be controlled largely by the Advanced Terrain Response system and the capability of your tyres.

The gripes have been mainly minor and largely subjective. Some like the touch screens and others don’t; some love the retractable door handles while others describe them as naff; some find the optional, alternative-to-leather ethical seat fabric innovative and others think it feels strange to sit on.

Nevertheless, the vast majority of reviewers have been unbelievably positive about the car, despite their differences of opinion on various matters, and there is no doubt that it has created a buzz in the market. Whether the verdict from one magazine will increase the chances of my ordering one is less clear-cut, because I am unlikely to buy a car that is seen as one of this year’s must-have accessories.

All commentators have identified the existing rivals in the Velar’s niche market – the Porsche Macan, the BMW X4, the Mercedes GLC Coupé, and perhaps the BMW X6 and the Audi Q7 as well – and have highly-rated the Velar’s chances in taking them on and beating them. This is clearly on JLR’S mind, and Jeremy Hicks, UK Managing Director, was quoted by a daily newspaper stating that “75 per cent of Velar buyers will be new to Land Rover”, and by this he presumably means that they won’t be Evoque owners upgrading or Sport owners downgrading.

But perhaps some will be new Discovery owners finally realising what an unattractive motor they have bought, and trading it in for a Velar? Just to be clear and for the avoidance of doubt, as the lawyers say, that last sentence is all mine, but I do think the Discovery suffers somewhat in the, shall we say, lopsided voluptuous backside department? But it was voted Car of the Year by Autoexpress, so what do I know? Anyway, if Velar is a runaway sales success I will be delighted, because I want JLR to survive and thrive as a global car manufacturing heavyweight.

Many reviewers also called-out an interesting theme – that the Velar is the least Suv-like SUV that Land Rover has ever produced, and the most road-focused Land Rover product yet. I guess when you occupy the global high ground in terms of SUVS, and every other manufacturer on the planet is trying to eat your lunch, it’s worth doing something a little bit different while, at the same time, hoping to grab a bite or two of their lunches.

The first Velar was a ground-breaking, pioneering and game-changing vehicle that was introduced to the world in 1970 as the Range Rover. It more or less single-handedly invented the luxury SUV, although of course the word luxury has to be seen in the context of what had gone before – the Series II, the Jeep Wagoneer, the Ford Explorer, and so on. I have always thought that the reaction from the media to the new vehicle back in the day was more to do with the combination of relative comfort (those inspired coil springs) and performance (the Buick V8) and the stunning good looks rather than anything to do with a cosseted cabin, because the original interior was about as far away from the concept of luxury as you could get.

But I do wonder whether the new Velar is worthy of the name. Is it ground-breaking, pioneering and game-changing? Overall, I would suggest that it is not, at least not to the degree that the original was. I wonder whether JLR would have been better to have saved such an important and historically-significant brand for something really special, like the car that will have to lead Range Rover into the post-internal combustion engine age?

Gary Pusey is co-author of Range Rover The First Fifty, trustee of The Dunsfold Collection and a lifelong Land Rover enthusiast. What this man doesn’t know, isn’t worth knowing!