WILL ONE BE AMUSED BY THE TECH AND QUALITY?

Lord the seats are soft. The Range Rover actually makes its most impressive first impression on your bottom. The chairs feel as though they’ve been stuffed with Labrador ears. You sit between your captain’s armrests addressing a cabin which isn’t a huge new departure for Land Rover. It’s resisted the urge to ‘do a Hyperscreen’. Of course, there’s a touchscreen swallowing all the functions that once festooned this neck of the woods with switchgear, but it is – fire the cannon and raise the flag – a good one. Chassis no. 994 here only had one minor screen freeze, which is unheard of given LR systems usually crash more often than an F1 pay driver. Seamless Apple CarPlay pairing. Rapid map rendering. It doesn’t even get unnervingly hot, like others’ megamonitors.

The screen takes centre stage in a cabin that plays to the gallery with rich leather, confident fillets of metal and little plastic. But I’m looking at this from a critic’s point of view, and I defer to a second opinion here, from Asprey – royal warrant holder and provider of jewellery, leather and luxury goods to the House of Windsor. Queen Victoria was a fan. So, what exactly constitutes a ‘luxury good’ these days? According to Asprey, it’s “intricate details, exceptional quality, artisanal craftsmanship, and rarity. There may be a shift in tastes as lifestyles evolve, however, the creation of something that is truly a work of art and made in such small numbers will always make it highly covetable. We have seen a genuine interest in the provenance of our materials and we continually work to improve our environmental and social impacts.” Good job you can have the Rangie with a vegan interior, then...