Big and chunky on the outside, and top-spec luxury on the inside. That's the way Range Rovers have always been and the new fifth-generation model is more of the same.

A five-seat luxury SUV that's often regarded as the originator of the whole offroad luxury car genre, it's been given a totally new look but without messing up the 'two-box' body style.

If you haven't been paying close attention to Land Rovers and Range Rovers over the years, you might be wondering what all the Rover + Rover business is about. The short version is that while the main brand is Land Rover, the Range Rover is a spinoff sub-brand that builds the higher end models like the Range Rover Evoque, Range Rover Sport, and the flagship model seen here, which is simply the Range Rover. 

Design and styling 

It's a car that measures more than five metres in length, with a height adjustable suspension that jacks it from a very high off-road mode, and down to a comically low access mode, so that short people actually have a chance of climbing into it. It's a blocky, chunky car that wears its SUV roots proudly on its silhouette, though if you're all about the coupe-SUV thing there are other slightly swoopier Range Rover models like the previously mentioned Evoque to satiate your fetish.

The cabin is all about luxury and the whole package is in line with a car that costs three quarters of a million dollars. Just about every adjustment is motorised, all the way down to the seat headrests and rear bench centre console's deployment.

It's officially a five seater, but works best as a four seater because of the full-colour touchscreen control panel fitted to the centre console. The individual back seats are reclinable, there's legroom equivalent to a business class airline seat, and the individual video screens in front of each seat completes the look. 

Up front, the user interface, named the Pivi Pro, is similar to that of the present-gen Land Rover Defender, which means that the various 4X4 drive modes are all selected through the touchscreen menus. The whole thing is laid out very much like a smartphone's interface so it's not hard to get to grips with. The 13.1-inch screen can't beat the new Mercedes-EQ EQS' massive dashboard-spanning hyprescreen, but we'll just sit here and wait for the screen size wars to run its course.

The Range Rover has always been a bit of an oxymoron in that it's a real offroad vehicle, but has the luxury accoutrements that put it up there with the very best luxury vehicles. In other words, the car is made to get really muddy but you don't want that mud getting onto the interior carpets and leather.

Getting into the car is made easier with motorised side steps that deploy when the doors are unlocked. They then tuck back under the car once the doors are closed.

The rear hatch is also fully motorised and that includes the lower tailgate that works as a picnic bench as well. Folding the rear bench forwards is also a button-actuated, fully motorised process. The speed at which the seats deploy is glacially regal, so if you're the impatient sort, best get used to it first.

A really great addition is the full-sized spare tyre under the boot. It's massively heavy, but in most territories this is a car that you really don't want to be stuck with a space saver spare or measly inflator kit when stuck out in the boondocks.

Driving experience

The launch version in Singapore makes no concessions to any kind of green economy. It's powered by a 4.4-litre, twin-turbo engine that goes through petrol like it is going out of style, which, in these times of electric vehicles, might actually be true. You do have 530 horsepower and a tank-like amount of torque on tap. 750Nm is nothing to be sniffed at. By comparison, a Porsche 911 Carrera maximum torque output is only 450Nm. 

Fuel economy came in at around 15l/100km in mixed traffic during our drive, however if you crawl along in traffic jams all day the economy drops to a slightly alarming 19l/100km, and 20l/100km isn't out of the realm of possibility if the car is left crawling along in rush hour traffic all week.

With a kerb weight of 2,626 kg it's a very heavy car, but punches from a standstill to 100km/h in just 4.7 seconds. The turbo V8's engine note is beautifully old-school in its execution, with a burbly, growling noise that winds upwards as the revs ascend. The car's mass does camouflage the fact that it accelerates very quickly, and the full-independent suspension system gives it a handling prowess that's comparable to most top-end luxury sedans.

There are four distinct ride heights to the suspension. The two highest are offroad modes, and the third one down is the standard cruising height. The lowest is the access height, and works only when the car is moving slowly or stopped. It does give the car a slightly comical stance, as though the Range Rover is squatting down. Start driving quicker and the car will automatically raise itself up to cruising height. 

There are differential locks, and a low-range transmission, all selectable through the centre touchscreen. The actuation is all modern luxury, and very different from the chunky low range transmission gear lever selectors in something like a Jeep Wrangler and Suzuki Jimny.

This wouldn't be a Range Rover without such great offroad capability, but the other issue is that the fancy 23-inch wheels with low profile tyres that come fitted on this car wouldn't be what you would want to go mud-plugging in. For Singapore however, we don't foresee anyone actually wanting to crawl through a rainforest in one of these anyway. 

It's a very quiet car up to 100km/h, where wind noise starts to creep up. It's only noticeable because before that the car is so silent at lower speeds. You'll hear the engine burbling along in the background, but tyre and road noise is really kept at bay.  

Just like how a Rolls-Royce is so blindingly quick but we marvel more over its design and luxury fittings than its ability as a pseudo-sports car, the Range Rover handles magnificently for a car the size of a small house. It may not turn through corners faster than a Volkswagen Golf GTI, but with more than twice the power output, the Range Rover can accelerate out of corners with serious authority and beat smaller cars to the next corner. It will be interesting to see how it drives on a closed racetrack.

Conclusion and competition

In the form reviewed here, the Range Rover clocks in at S$803,999 with COE. The massage seats all round, premium Meridian Signature audio system featuring 35 individual speakers, panoramic sunroof, front centre console refrigerated compartment, cabin air purifying system   all conspire to raise the base sticker price. A bare bones Range Rover, without the inclusion of COE, is S$592,999.

For a tougher piece of luxury the Land Rover Defender 110 is similarly well-built but has a build to withstand more rough use. Other large SUVs in this category include the Porsche Cayenne, BMW X7 and Maserati Levante, yet for a properly regal, commanding drive the Range Rover is still the car that delivers.

The no-hybrid, no-green credentials of the Range Rover is making it look quite politically incorrect in this day and age, but a plug-in hybrid version of the Range Rover is rumoured to be arriving eventually. Meanwhile, here's what's possibly the last hurrah for the twin-turbo V8 petrol Range Rover. 

Range Rover 4.4 autobiography

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This article was first published in CarBuyer.