Even big-time professional car writers pull bone-headed stunts. Small-time ones do, too. My latest occurred while slavering over a Range Rover. The lavish, British-made sport utility vehicle is renowned for rambling on rough terrain, even if it is an $80,000 luxury wagon. Still, I should have checked the tires of my test model before challenging a snow-caked slope.
First, some background.
The company Land Rover makes the boxy, rugged crawlers you see in just about every safari and deep adventure movie ever made — especially the films made before other auto companies paid Hollywood for product placements. Land Rover vehicles were first manufactured in the days when Great Britain possessed holdings on almost every continent. They are made to motor dutifully where roads never existed.
They retain that ability today, when the Land Rover brand also bespeaks luxury and exclusivity. Land Rover — now a unit of Ford, but awaiting sale to the Indian company Tata Motors — offers four SUV models. Its least expensive, the new LR2, starts at $36,150. The LR3 comes in at $49,300. Range Rover Sport, tuned for on-road finesse, begins at $58,500. Land Rover's top-line model is Range Rover, with a starting price of $77,950.
The standard version, Range Rover HSE comes with a 4.4-liter V8 engine that puts out 305 horsepower and 325 lb.-ft. of torque. For $93,600, you can buy Range Rover Supercharged, with a 4.2-liter V8 boosted to 400 horsepower and 420 lb.-ft. torque. Currently on sale at Land Rover Peabody is a Westminster special-edition Range Rover for $105,000.
Matt Raucci, sales manager of Land Rover Peabody, said the Range Rover typically sells to people with incomes of $400,000 or more. "We get a lot of celebrities who purchase these," including professional athletes, he explained. Corporate chief executives also make the customer list.
Range Rover stands out among SUVs with stately, distinguished styling that doesn't strain to be fashionable. It doesn't posture as brutish or overtly rugged either. The vehicle is refined, with an upright attitude and easy-curving corners and edges that delineate large, sweeping panels. Inside, the four-door, five-passenger, all-wheel-drive sport utility exhibits luxury and features you anticipate in a high priced vehicle. It has a three-zone climate control system, heated front and rear seats and heated steering wheel, voice control for navigation, radio and telephone, back-up camera, electronic parking brake, and power-adjustable steering wheel. The steering wheel automatically rises out of your way when you withdraw the key.
For all its refinement, Range Rover retains legitimate off-road prowess. It can wade through 27 inches of water. It hops up and down inclines as steep as 45 degrees, and motors for prolonged distances on 35-degree slopes, all without pavement beneath it.
Range Rover's "terrain response system" lets drivers dial in vehicle settings for different surfaces: general driving; grass, gravel and snow; sand; mud and ruts; and rock crawl. The independent suspension at all four corners permits extreme up-and-down wheel movement. When appropriate, air springs raise Range Rover for greater off-road clearance. Even the engine is specially set up to keep oil circulating when the SUV is poised at steep angles.
Of course, like other SUVs, few Range Rovers ever stray from pavement. But Raucci of Land Rover Peabody points out that at least a handful of his customers utilize the Range Rover's off-road abilities.
"In addition to sportsmen," he said, "I have some real estate developers who drive around properties that are still undeveloped. I have one customer who likes to drive around on his own property, to drive in the woods and play in the mud."
Land Rover Peabody also sponsors off-road rallies where drivers meet for a day to romp over rough trails. About 30 people attended each event the dealership hosted last year.
Raucci told me participants bring their Land Rovers to the meets the way they're sold, with all-season tires that equip them for off-road rambling. But the test model I drove last week arrived from Land Rover North America with Pirelli Scorpion Zero street tires. They're high-performance summer tires with a V rating, which means they're constructed for speed.
I should have examined them more closely before I wantonly ran the Range Rover over a crusted, 2-foot plow bank beside a quiet run of highway. The wagon climbed the obstacle without a stutter, and pushed masterfully into the 12-inch layer of granular snow that covered the meadow beside the road. But then I tried a three-point turn so I could nose the vehicle back onto the highway.
To swing it around, I had to run the SUV partially down an incline. But the Rover is large and heavy, weighing not much less than 3 tons. When I tried backing to complete the turn-around, its wheels spun, refusing to climb the slope. I inched the wagon forward a couple of feet and tried backing up again. After I repeated that procedure too many times, the Range Rover was well down the ridge, its wheels mired to the hubs and spinning helplessly.
Desperate, I telephoned Donna, my wife. She arrived with two garden spades. The Range Rover strode out very easily after we shoveled away the icy troughs that held it.
Then I dug myselfin even deeper.
"These tires are bald," Donna noticed.
"They're not bald," I responded. "They're just packed full of snow."
"That's what I mean," she said. "They're not the right kind of tires for this."
"Yeah, I see that now," I said. "But don't you find this a big adventure?"
"I find it a big aggravation."
Unwilling to cede the last word, I said, "I bet your Subaru wouldn't do any better."
Sometimes Motor Mouth needs to know when to close it.
2008 Land Rover Range Rover
Vehicle type: 4-door, 5- passenger, all-wheel-drive full-size SUV
Price range: $77,950 to $93,600 (plus options)
Warranty: 4 years/60,000 miles basic warranty; 6 years/unlimited miles corrosion warranty; 24-hour road-side assistance; 4 years/60,000 miles free scheduled maintenance
Engine: 4.4-liter V8
Power: 305 horsepower at 5,700 rpm; 325 lb.-ft. torque at 4,000 rpm
Transmission: 6-speed manual
Fuel economy: 12 mpg city; 18 mpg highway
Wheelbase: 113 inches
Length: 196 inches
Width: 87 inches
Height: 75 inches
Weight: 5,698 pounds
Fuel capacity: 27.6 gallons
Turning Circle: 39.4 feet
