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Range Rover’s move into the ultra-luxury segment has paid off. While every automotive brand is thinning out its product line through cost-cutting at the consumer’s expense, the British marque has preserved its brand by following tradition, even if it means a healthy price increase.
I picked up the “full-size” Range Rover Autobiography ahead of a weekend planned in the NSW Central Tablelands, akin to the Cotswolds. You see, instead of plotting around the city and calling it an “expensive bit of kit,” I wanted to take the car into its natural habitat with a mix of highways, backroads, and the occasional dirt path that leads to a farm-to-table restaurant with local wines. I resisted putting my truffle-hunting dogs in the back this time, but I used the split tailgate often.
The Range Rover Autobiography Standard Wheelbase (SWB) P530 I’m driving this weekend is priced from AUD$349,169 before on-road costs, but you can get your hands on one for less if you don’t care for the hot stone massage seats and TV screens. The range starts from $257,404 before on-roads, and that’s near as makes no difference double the price of the entry-level Range Rover Sport D250, which is priced from AUD$143,600 plus on-road costs. Like I mentioned at the start, it’s not about outright sales for the full-size model anymore—it’s about brand preservation.
The brand could very well knock thousands off the price of the Range Rover Autobiography, but in today’s automotive economy, that likely means vegan leather seats and plastic trims.
Cars built in the 2020s will be remembered for their cost-cutting, not their build quality—plastic door trims, fake wood, giant tablet touchscreens, a lack of buttons, etc. Luxury brands are often the biggest culprits, so it’s impressive that Range Rover bucked the trend here. You and I might never buy one, but we’re the first to sit there and critique the car through our phone screens. This ruins the brand’s image, allure, and desirability.
Sure, I’d wish the folks at the Solihull factory would take fewer tea breaks to ensure the infotainment system would actually connect to my phone on a regular basis. But if that way of thinking and building cars means the interior fit, finish, and overall comfort are this high, I’ll take that trade-off every day of the week.
Under the bonnet of this Range Rover Autobiography Standard Wheelbase (SWB) P530 is a BMW-sourced 4.4-litre turbo-petrol V8 engine that sends power to the wheels through a silky-smooth 8-speed automatic. It produces 390kW of power and 750Nm of torque, which is more than enough for a vehicle like this. Truthfully, it’s just there to make you feel warm and fuzzy and consume a lot of fuel (11.1L/100km claimed on the combined cycle).
So plentiful is the low-range torque, so quiet is the engine, that you could forget it’s there entirely. You’ll be reminded when you plant your foot and the car wakes up to accelerate you from 0 to 100km/h in a claimed 4.6 seconds. However, it’s not a particularly pleasant experience, and the body movement is that of a hippo being chased by a lion. It’s quick, but it would rather not. Frankly, I’d be just as happy with a hybrid diesel, but that’s not in the spirit of a nearly half-million dollar automobile.
I went into this test drive expecting a comfortable cruise-liner experience, but it was more than that. It takes 5 minutes or less to quickly realise what the brand is trying to achieve here. There’s a level of comfort and class you don’t find in German brands.
Those brands in Munich and Stuttgart have become obsessed with lap times and straight-line acceleration. Meanwhile, the British marques never quite finished their cups of tea, and besides a few special editions, they’re more focused on gliding you down the road in supreme comfort. British roads aren’t great, and Australian roads might be even worse, so this comfort focus perfectly suited the drive to the NSW Central Tablelands. The only thought running through my mind was how close this new generation Range Rover has come to Rolls-Royce. They’ve replicated the Rolls-Royce suspension technology, and it’s doing this SUV wonders.
Like Rolls-Royce, the Range Rover Autobiography can react to and pre-empt road surfaces and corners to set up the car’s suspension before you reach it.
Few cars can do both, and the Rangey senses the road 500 times per second and adjusts individual dampers to enhance control and comfort before, during, and after you’ve taken a corner. Combine this trick software with their next‑generation Electronic Air Suspension hardware with faster‑acting twin‑valve Bilstein active dampers, and you have a comfortable ride that completely rewires your brain.
But what happens when you try to push the 2.6-tonne SUV out of its comfort zone? The brand’s “Intelligent Driveline Dynamics (IDD)” system monitors the road’s grip level alongside your driver inputs 100 times per second to distribute torque between the front and rear axles predictively. This torque is spread across the rear axle for optimum traction on- and off‑road. You don’t know when it’s working, you can’t feel it, but the speeds at which you can push the SUV through a corner tell you it is.
Of course, the Range Rover is an esteemed off-roader. However, if you think I will take this 23-inch wheel-laden luxury SUV off-road, think again.
With a two-speed transfer case (high-range and low-range 4WD), an electronically controlled rear differential, electronic air suspension, Land Rover’s Terrain Response 2 system, and a 900 mm water wading depth, I have no reason to believe that it wouldn’t take you down that aforementioned dirt path to the farm-to-table restaurant with local wine.
The optional 24-way adjustable heated and cooled hot stone massage electric front seats in our Range Rover must weigh as much as a small man. They’re huge, immensely comfortable, and even have an armrest. I never thought I needed an illuminated seat belt buckle, but now I do. Furthermore, materials are top-notch, with perforated semi-aniline leather surfaces in white Perlino leather that feel (and smell) expensive. Your feet sit on an Ebony carpet that’s thicker than what you have at home, and the stitched leather surfaces are Autobiography-specific.
You’ll find the lack of physical buttons a little confusing at first, but you get accustomed to the functions of the 13.1-inch touchscreen infotainment system with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto rather quickly.
Where you actually want to be sitting, however, is in the rear captain’s chairs. Here, you can still appreciate the British-based Meridian Signature Sound System with 34 speakers and a dual-channel subwoofer that pumps out 1,600W of power. This combines with smart speaker technology, including Digital Signal Processing, Active Noise Cancellation, Meridian Cabin Correction, and Meridian Digital Dither Shaping to create one of the best-sounding systems in any car I’ve tested.
Sitting there and watching a movie on the optional 11.4-inch rear entertainment screens ($6,850) is the way to travel.
Porsche perfected the sports car, and Range Rover perfected the luxury SUV.
Sure, the “full-size” Range Rover costs an arm, leg, and maybe a kidney these days. However, seeing that the brand hasn’t diluted itself in the name of cost-cutting was pleasing. Sadly, so many luxury brands have fallen victim to this in recent years, but I’m happy to say that Range Rover isn’t one of them, and it remains the pinnacle of SUVs because of it.
If I were considering a Bentley Bentayga, Aston Martin DBX, BMW X7, or Mercedes-Benz GLS, I’d have to think long and hard about why the Range Rover Autobiography wasn’t the obvious choice.
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