Range Rover Velar D300

REPORT 2 £ 67,740 OTR/£72,145 as tested/£892pcm WHY IT’ S HERE Is there more to the Velar than style alone? DRIVER Ollie Marriage

TOWING. ROOF-BOXING. HAULING. THE TRADITIONAL TASKS OF A FAMILY

SUV, basically. A few years back, I ran a Disco, and this was its forte. The infotainment was dire, but it worked like a shire horse. I didn’t expect the same from the Velar. Too much the prissy urbanite, I thought. Somewhere along the lines, the engineers would have had to compromise on their 4x4 values. But last month it coped admirably with mountain bikes. And this month it’s played an absolute blinder.

Size first. I’d always thought the Velar was relatively small. In fact it’s only 75mm shorter than big brother Range Rover Sport. No wonder I’d been surprised with the amount I could fit in it. Back seats folded, a single mattress slid straight in. And the bed that went with it. And being 150mm lower than a Sport, at 1665mm, made it relatively easy to lift a roofbox on top when the passenger + luggage equation failed to add up. The side rails – a no-cost option – can be either black or silver and are neatly integrated, so when you don’t have a roofbox on top, your Velar still looks sleek.

Anyone used to towing will appreciate just how much of a luxury an electric towbar is. No scrabbling in the dirt under the rear bumper with 5kg of greasy steel. Instead, just press a button and fold your arms in happy satisfaction. The cost of it is £985, which does sting, but only until you use it for the first time. Last month it was a bike rack, this month a whole trailer full of logs. The Velar tows as effortlessly as you’d expect from a big diesel with 516lb ft of torque. More than that, it’s heavy enough, at 2,029kg, that the tail can’t wag the dog. Better yet, the towbar metalwork is well insulated, so you don’t get the clanks and rattles back through the chassis.

So the Velar has passed every test. Except one. The boot opening button is by your right knee, just below the press-on handbrake. On two occasions recently I wondered why the boot was opening as I got out of the car.