What is it?
Land Rover says the Range Rover Velar is the best driver’s car it’s ever made, but we've been left underwhelmed by the variants powered by engines on the lower rungs of the range. Now, though, we’ve driven a model far better prepared to stand up to Land Rover's opening claim: a top-spec First Edition P380 with JLR’s proven supercharged 3.0-litre V6 beneath its snout.
Available only during the car's first year of production, the price of the First Edition starts at an eye-watering £85,450 - £15,240 more than the regular P380 - but it does so with a considerably longer list of standard-fit kit. Key among the additions is All Terrain Progress Control and £1140 worth of air suspension, as well as a head-up display, normally a £930 option. It bolsters the already high-tech armoury of cabin infotainment that’s made up of two touchscreens and digital instrument cluster, making for the most impressive cabin in this class.
What's it like?
The infotainment beats even the Virtual Cockpit of Audi’s Audi Q5 for visual drama, although it’s less intuitive to use. Its touch responsiveness is comparable to that of a smartphone but, frustratingly, the reaction time for menus to load is not quite as swift. Our Velar’s system occasionally needed up to two seconds to respond when multiple applications, such as the satnav and music player, were called into use soon after one another.
The car’s large front seats are extremely comfortable and come with a four-mode massage system. Combined with the screens and soft-touch materials strewn around you, the Velar’s interior is certainly not wanting for luxury, so much so that the cabin is the first feature that’ll grab you during your first ride whether you’re sitting in the front or back.
The car’s V6 engine is shared with the Jaguar F-Pace S, with which the Velar also borrows its aluminium structure. The motor channels 375bhp and 332lb ft to all four wheels via an eight-speed ZF gearbox, with power biased to the rear wheels in normal driving conditions.
Join the debate
Add your comment
Discovery
On the subject of LR reliability.
i have had several discoveries over the last 8 years.
none of my discoveries have let me down. Ever. The suffer hilarious electrical glitches - like my old disco 3 at morning start up stating "transmission failure" warning when a rear bulb has blown (yes LR struggle width that one too), but it never stopped the car, turn off, turn on transmission failure warning gone until the following morning.
Everything else tends to be wear and tear, like bushes take a beating and need replacing every 4-5years - it's a 2.7 tonne car so hardly a surprise. The worst thing was 2008 cars had a weak oil pump case that if it failed cause total catastrophic engine failure as the main cam chain tensioner was attached to it. LR refused to acknowledge this, as replacement pump from later versions cost £900. Although a mate of mine who's engine failed out of warranty had the engine replaced by LR free of charge.
The disco 3 had niggles, but never let me down and felt very dependable, crossing france regularly at high speed and racking up nearly 100k in 3 years.
My new disco 4, I say new, I've had it 18 months now, nothing, not even a squeak. Tried tested and solid. Has a habit of working.
lesson to me? Avoid the early production run of any new model from JLR, it's a public test bed.
Regardless of this, I won't be buying the new one though, I just don't like it, and it has left a genuine issue with what to buy next. No one produces a proper do it all 4x4 any more. They are too Road biased and too lux to really be useful to me. JLR won't be weeping though, the old country set don't have as deep pockets as the Cheshire set, and they are selling bucket loads of the new ones.I don't think LR rely on country credentials any more or even any pretence of real country usability (Just look at the interiors, would you really have muddy wellies and a bunch of dogs in there?), hence the velar, they are now a celeb wagon, and selling all the more for it. Clever stuff and good on them.
I may even have to buy a decent 4x4 estate and an old 3dr shogun for towing / rough stuff. The current disco is both of these for me, a real 2 in one car. The velar. It's a high priced posh estate. Nothing wrong with that I suppose.
@NY_69
If its tiresome read something else.. Believe it or not I don't agree. JLR cars work better on British roads than German cars their damping and spring rates are simply better suited. The style is off the scale better than German card. German R&D is broad and deep but not necesarily better than any other nation. They have some monumental slip ups such as Porsche GT3 engines blowing up so they had to be withdrawn from sale the BM N54 3.0 petrol engines, Porsche input shafts, Merc 220 injectors etc. etc. I don't get how you think there is some sort of inate superiority.
jer wrote:
You're arguing against a subjective point with...a subjective view. I would agree that German cars work better on German roads, just as US cars do on US roads and JLR cars may work on UK roads, but then the opposite clearly holds true too. Styling is very subjective, you say its 'off the scale', others say its cheap and tacky. In terms of faults a) in many cases suppliers are actually at fault rather than OEMs but except for Takata airbags killing people, few people know or care. b) The faults you mention are very specific, that's arguably a better sign of quality than more generic descriptions such as 'electrical issues' associated with e.g. French and Italian cars. Take a look at the Telegraph's recent long term test of the new Discovery - one electrical failure after another. c) a good indication of inate superiority is what are used as taxis and what is desirable for export to places like Africa, in neither case is it JLR products.
Telegragh - balance
Although in fairness in another article they also said " Still the best off-roader in the class by some margin"
Quote:
When an old Renault of mine inevitably conked, the RAC recovery man said a similar thing. His first line of advice was "Get a Lexus, absolutely bullet proof, we never recover Lexus". Secondly he said "Have a good look at what cars taxi drivers are driving and if you get taxis on a regular basis, look at the mileage". Not long after this I was in an old Toyota Avensis taxi which had done close to a quarter of a million miles. Suffice to say I've had a trouble free Toyota for the last 8 years.
Quality stats
All with you, in earlier times people looked at taxis, number of sold cars etc to get an idea of the quality. Today these statistics are showing wrong results, as most of the bigger car manufacturers have their own support services and therefore many of the failures never find their way to the stats.
But back on topic of the RR Velar, anyone having experience with the D300 engine?
Thought air suspension
Was going to be standard on 6 cyl cars.