Land Rover Range Rover 3.0 TDV6 Vogue Auto
Range Rover review: SUE BAKER
What is it?
A CAR designed to cross the Sahara or crest the Atlas mountains that you’re more likely to drive around the M25 or across London. Probably the most capable car in the world, and at the price, it should be.
It’s the new Range Rover, of course. With the best engine for business car users, the new TDV6.
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The TDV6 tested here is the engine that makes most sense for business car drivers
Land Rover’s new 3.0 V6 turbodiesel engine is superbly refined, smooth and powerful. The car’s double-glazed windows help seal out unwanted noise, so you’re cocooned in the tall, 4×4-capable equivalent of a luxury saloon. It is the first Range Rover with an all-aluminium body, making it 180kg lighter.
Tempted? If you can stretch to the £71,725 price – or a staggering £98,395 if you go for the 5.0-litre V8 supercharged petrol Range Rover Autobiography version with all the bells and whistles – you get a business car in which you can literally go anywhere in limousine comfort. It’s chairman of the board motoring.
For the majority of SME business owners and directors, though, it’s the new V6 diesel Range Rover that makes most sense as a business car.
The new TDV6’s power output is 258PS. That’s the least of the three engine versions, but the best for efficiency. The official fuel economy is 37.7mpg and CO2 emissions are 196 g/km. That means the potential company car tax is a 33% banding in 2012/13 tax year.
The other diesel engine for business car use in the new Range Rover line up is a 4.4 litre V8, with 339PS. But with 32.5mpg fuel economy and 229g/km CO2, that puts it in top-rate 35% for benefit-in-kind company car tax purposes. That’s the same as for the V8 supercharged model, with a whopping 510PS, fuel economy of 20.5mpg and CO2 emissions of 322g/km. The transmission in all versions is a ZF eight-speed auto.
The Range Rover reviewed here for this business car test Is the Vogue model, priced at £71,295 on the road.