King of the road! Why Mollie loves her new Range Rover
She’d already joined the SUV revolution. Now This Morning’s Mollie King swaps her Evoque for its bigger brother, the acclaimed Velar
LIKE millions of British motorists, Mollie King’s morning commute is now done at the wheel of an SUV. She’s swapped the sports cars she used to drive for a Range Rover, won over by the versatility, sense of security and view out that a sports-utility vehicle provides.
But unlike most commuters, the former member of The Saturdays
drives to work on a Sunday and is in the office by 5am to prepare for her breakfast show with Matt Edmondson on BBC Radio 1.
‘On Sundays, when the parking is easy, I drive in to London myself,’ she says. ‘I love driving. Any opportunity to drive, I’ll take it.’
Every month, like Mollie, thousands of drivers exchange standard cars for SUVs. The latest figures show that sales of all high-riding vehicles – from compact ‘crossovers’ to luxury SUVs – are up by a fifth.
And buyers are deserting tradit i onal saloons and hatchbacks in droves. Even practical people-carriers have seen sales slump, and the change in Britain’s car-buying habits is so profound that many
manufacturers are axeing their saloons completely.
SUV sales will spike again on September 1 with the arrival of the 69 plate. Mollie will be partly responsible, upgrading her Range Rover Evoque to the marque’s acclaimed new Velar, winner of multiple SUV of the Year awards and a World Car of the Year finalist.
‘I haven’t driven it yet but when I first saw one on the road, I thought, “Wow, that’s a good-looking car,” ’ says Mollie. ‘I’ve sat in one now and I’m just as excited about the interior. It’s quite minimalist, which I love. I’m getting the wool trim, which is meant to be warm in winter and really cool in summer.
‘ And it uses a lot of recycled plastics inside, which I think is a really healthy, positive change.’
Mollie’s new Velar will actually get driven – unlike her first car, a Nissan Figaro. The tiny, oddball, ultra-rare coupé was based on a Micra hatchback and built for the Japanese market, with some later imported privately to the UK.
‘ I’ve always loved cars and I couldn’t wait to pass my test,’ she says. ‘My mum loves cars too. We’d go on road trips to France and even aged 11, I wanted to understand how the clutch and gears worked.
‘And I used to ski a lot when I was younger so I’ve always loved anything speed-related,’ says Mollie – with considerable understatement, having skied for Great Britain.
‘I passed my driving test first time, but I was kind of surprised that one of my minuses was for driving too slowly,’ she adds.
And then came the Figaro. ‘I bought it when I’d just got into The Saturdays,’ she recalls. ‘I was obsessed with that car. It was the first thing I spent a good amount of money on and I was so in love with it. I held on to it for seven years.’
Being in a multi-platinum-selling band that sold five million records and notched up 13 Top 10 singles and five Top 10 albums didn’t leave much time for Mollie to indulge her love of driving, but it had its compensations.
‘I remember so clearly the first time someone sent a limo to pick me up,’ she says. ‘I was still living at home and the band were completely unknown.
‘That car, and someone opening the door for me, really made me feel like a pop star. I tried to be really cool but I was actually completely uncool about it.’
Even with her regular presenting gig on ITV’s This Morning, there’s now more time in Mollie’s schedule for driving, and she already has a road trip planned in her 69-plate Velar.
‘ I don’t ski as much as I did when I was younger, but top of my list of things to do in the new car is to drive it down to the Alps as we used to when I was a kid,’ she says.
‘I have so many amazing memories of road trips that I’ve had with my family and friends. But this time I’ll be doing the driving.’