The new Range Rover was recently announced, just a couple of hours ago. Actually, it is not a brand new car, only a facelift. As the Range Rover Velar introduced a new interior with new touch screens and more features, the rest of the Range Rover family had to be revised.
Now the new Range Rover looks more like an SUV from the 1990s, and, if you push hard enough, it can perfectly fit into the 1980s, especially with Miami Vice. If you have no idea what Miami Vice is, it was the coolest TV series in the 1980s.
The new Range Rover is using reductionism, basically the design director of Land Rover just changed his mind and contrasted it with his design of five years ago. The design team removed everything that was unnecessary, because they had placed too many unnecessary things into the design.
The interior of the new Range Rover is really well built, two large touch screens look cool but I do not know how functional they are. The steering wheel has the touch sensitive buttons and they will be a headache, because, they may assume you touched the buttons but you were just holding the steering wheel.
The interior features are really improved and moved far away from being an off-road vehicle. Actually, this is supported by the lack of a rear differential lock on the website. I could not find it, but I am sure, it is still offered for the V8 engines.
The driving assistance systems are improved but still a decade behind the Mercedes-Benz S-Class and two decades behind the new Audi A8. The Audi A8 is the pinnacle of driving assistance because, it uses artificial intelligence and machine learning.
The exterior of the Range Rover looks better with the camouflage. I never liked the new design approach for the Range Rover products. They looked like jewellery more than an SUV. Range Rovers are designed for off-road conditions not for the roads of Mayfair, London.
I cannot visualise a Range Rover with flashing blue lights in a diplomatic convoy. That job is done perfectly by the Toyota Land Cruiser.
Overall, the new Range Rover is a really good car. However, it is not great due to its decade gap with the driving assistance system. It is really good, but an average Mercedes-Benz C-Class offers much better safety and assistance than the brand-new Range Rover. That is really important. Also, there is no semi-autonomous driving feature available. Instead, Land Rover has focused on the luxury benefits rather than the utility benefits. All these years, I moaned about the Range Rover and the main reason for this was that it did not satisfy my goal of technology. It solves a problem called boosting self-esteem and luxury experience. Unfortunately, the problems solved by the Range Rover are not my problems.
Photo Credit / Land Rover