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My girlfriend and I had not planned to drive a Land Rover Range Rover Td6 in Westchester County, New York. But like oysters and muscadet, both made an ideal pairing. And if no one had any idea that this Range Rover was saving fuel by old-fashioned means – a diesel engine – then so much the better.
If Satan himself wanted to unleash anarchy in the suburbs-replenish the farmer's market with frozen vegetables Bird's Eye say, or installing Ted Nugent as president of the school board – he could s' infiltrate places by intriguing in town in a Range Rover and never arouse suspicion. That's the kind of a bit sour thought that comes to my mind when we visit the Bedford Post Inn, the charming, fully restored 18th century farmhouse with a yoga studio and a restaurant partly owned by Richard Gere. More than any other sport utility vehicle, the Rangie is the inescapable symbol of suburban status, the SUV from which golden retrievers and children from private schools pour out.
Affirming the surprising omnipresence of a British SUV that easily exceeds $ 100,000, we enter the gravel of the Inn and we park next to (surprise, surprise) another Range Rover, him -Even parked alongside a Mercedes GL-Clbad. This is the SUV that people buy when they really want a Range Rover, but do not fully trust their loyalty during a lease or a car loan. The tradeoff is that the Mercedes, while being a luxury family schlepper, is about as bady as a fundraiser from the library. From its shell hood draped naturally to its floating roof, the Rover makes a statement more frisky.
Choosing the HSE Model Td6 makes another statement, which is rarely part of the Range Rover preppy manual: That its owner does not care about fuel economy, the perilous relationship between emissions. escape and climate change. Of course, you can not imagine a typical Range Rover owner putting up fuel receipts in a shoebox and totaling the savings. A Range Rover usually involves spending more than necessary, not less. The sales figures provided by Jaguar Land Rover seem to confirm this: only eight per cent of Range Rover buyers choose optional diesel in 2018; for the Land Rover Discovery, more utility, 17% of buyers opt for diesel, more than double the rate of Rover.
Land Rover
Still, these idiosyncratic buyers will probably not regret voting for diesel, even though they must explain to local occupants that not all diesel will trigger any attacks. asthma and will not create smog clouds over the subdivision. I've recently tested this diesel Land Rover Discovery Plus Utility, and I've been impressed by his gentle manners and his ways of refueling. In the Rover, the same 3.0-liter V6 turbodiesel, with 254 horsepower and 443 lb-ft of torque, offers a 0 to 100 km / h run in 7.5 very crisp seconds. Yes, a Range Rover V-8 will do it in as little as 5.1 seconds. But the diesel is almost as fast as the Rover's V-6 gasoline models. It runs from the 340-horsepower version by just 0.4 seconds to 60 mph, and the 380 horsepower model by 0.5 seconds.
As in the diesel Discovery, the combination of a slight turbo lag and gentle gas programming sometimes left the Rover in limbo for a few moments before acceleration. But once the engine fills its lungs, the Rover has no problem. -If quietly you only notice the diesel tick-tock in slow motion, and even then, only when you pay attention. The engine's bicep flexion is powerful but short, with speed changes around 4,000 rpm, so the eight-speed transmission levers seem quite useless.
Land Rover
And where you're lucky 20 mpg on the highway in a V-8 Rover – the 510 horsepower model returns an anemic 16/21 mpg in town and on the road – the Diesel Rover showed me 33 mpg on the slopes without any special effort, and better than 34 mpg when I drove it as Aunt Prius. That's 60 percent better road mileage than I usually get in a V-8 Rover, and 50 percent better than the V-6 models that return 22-23 mpg on the truck. motorway. It should be repeated: 33 to 34 mpg, in a luxury SUV with 5,500 pounds of four-wheel drive, is an absolutely stellar mileage.
Yet, as with other modern diesels, the government does not give enough credit for this economy. The official Rah's EPA index of 22/28 mpg underestimates the actual mileage so much that it seems to claim a new, more accurate test regime. If the government accuses diesel builders of falsification or embezzlement, it could at least promote honesty and transparency on its own.
The Range Rover diesel gets a 23.5 gallon fuel tank, versus a larger 27.7 gallon for gasoline models. There is also a 4.8 gallon DEF tank, its filler plug located under the hood, which neutralizes smog-forming nitrogen oxides (or NOx) in the exhaust stream via the system. selective catalytic reduction (SCR). Rover says the DEF tank should officially last 6,300 miles, or about six months for a typical driver, depending on how and where you drive. (An acquaintance with a Rover oil burner stated that his DEF tank lasts closer to 8,000 miles).
If the diesel emissions tank is totally dry, the engine of the Rover will not restart, as required by the EPA, which is not about to let the owners down " forget about "filling and polluting willy-nilly. (The fatal mistake of Volkswagen was to insist – falsely, we now know it – on the fact that it could meet US diesel cleanliness standards stricter than Europe without the need a DEF-based SCR system that would have made their affordable diesels more expensive.) But the Rover triggers several chargeback warnings on the driver's digital display, as early as 1500 miles before the tank is exhausted. So, there's plenty of time to hit Pep Boys (or, more likely, a Jaguar-Land Rover dealership) for DEF fluid, with an almost empty tank costing just $ 25 to recharge at home.
Land Rover
This smaller diesel tank, and even if you only see 30 mpg highway, you are looking for an effective cruising range of 660 miles. It's enough to drive from New York to Detroit on a single tank. The official towing capacity of 7,716 pounds is identical to the V-6 and V-8. Unofficially, I would expect the diesel to leverage a benefit in heavily loaded driving with its abundance of low-end torque. My Range Rover had an optional towing package of $ 1,605, including a receiver hitch and a full size spare part, but I could not use it.
As everyone who has wandered through the suburbs knows, most Rover owners do not wear much except for the pbadengers, the Whole Foods kitchen, and perhaps the occasional cello. For them, this oil rig is virtually identical to the gasoline models: solid and impeccably equipped, with 20-inch alloy wheels and a pneumatic suspension for maximum comfort. The Range Rover is doing well for a 5,500-pound British barge, despite poor tire grip and a tendency to cross the bends. Hey, you want a Porsche Cayenne or BMW X6, you know where to find one.
Land Rover
Raised seats, ultra-low waistline and huge windows are an integral part of Range Rover's charms. the expansive exterior views that were common in SUVs – you know, before sloped roof braces begin to shrink the glbad and create blind spots like wannabe supercars. Framed by this chic and minimalist interior, Land Rover's new dual-screen infotainment screen really pops up. And for the most part, it really works. It was not so long ago, JLR's infotainment systems looked like an Early Man version of Etch-a-Sketch, but the new unit gets much better graphics – though not compliant with Audi or Mercedes standards – and a faster screen response.
Apparently, in the pampered spirit of a Westchester Range Rover, my girlfriend Christine started complaining about the lack of mbadage seats. I laughed, yes. I roll my eyes, I categorically deny. But then, I realized that an automated scraping of the back was not an unreasonable expectation for an SUV that reached $ 108,080 with options.
Land Rover
In the current trend, the Range Rover challenges you to find the switch that disables the fuel-saving start-stop system. I finally found it in the last place I expected: a screen icon on the 4×4 function menu. Oh, it's true, this Range Rover will climb as the world's most stylish Wrangler, with its adjustable height suspension, Terrain Response system, Hill Descent and Hill Launch controls and more. Campers, or glampers, can perch on the lower half of the clbadic flapgate. So that no one breaks a fingernail by rudely, the buttons in the hatchback area raise or lower the folding seats.
In the wake of VW's Dieselgate, some will laugh at the idea that diesel can bring environmental benefits. . But compared to gasoline, diesel's ability to conserve oil and reduce carbon dioxide emissions is not a matter of VW fraud or public relations, but a scientific fact. As long as the Range Rover's emission control systems are operating as intended, within the regulatory limits at home and abroad, owners have no reason to apologize. The EPA itself calculates that the owner of the Range Rover Td6 will only spend $ 2,000 a year on fuel, and will save $ 700 to $ 1,200 a year, compared to gasoline owners who aspire fuel. . And the calculation is based on a lowball estimate of 24 mpg in combined city and highway driving; most real world owners, I'm sure, should see closer to 28 mpg in the overall operation.
Range Rover
This Iconoclast Rover can save more money at the dealership. In the form of premium gasoline, a standard wheelbase Range Rover starts at $ 88,345. The diesel engine is only a $ 2,000 overcharge on the 340 horsepower basic V6. It's a solid value by Chevy standards, and a brilliant by Land Rover. (My most luxurious HSE diesel left $ 97,045). The standard diesel version actually costs $ 4,700 less than a Range Rover with the more powerful 380 horsepower V-6, and again, it's only a half-second slower at 60 mph.
Complicating things, Rover is preparing the 2019 Range Rover HSE P400e, a plug-in hybrid version that combines 2.0-liter Ingenium turbo four from Jaguar-Land Rover with an 85 kW electric motor for a total of 398 horsepower and 31 miles all-electric range, all for $ 900 less than a diesel HSE. (Unfortunately, the EPA's economy figures are not yet available.) If you're really determined to pound the roadway, the 5.0-liter supercharged V8 climbs to 100 km / h in 5 , 1 seconds. It also starts at $ 105,845, $ 15,500 more than diesel.
And finally, if you are this more rookie Range Rover fan, and these fuel and financial calculations make you dizzy, there's still the ridiculously named SVAutobiography Dynamic, with a 577 horsepower V-8 and a thirst for 14/19 mpg for premium gasoline. Incredibly, you could have two Range Rover diesels for the price of a SVAutobiography, which starts from $ 178,195. My girlfriend, I realize now, would like the price-no-object model: She comes standard with hot stone mbadaging front seats.
Lawrence Ulrich, Chief Critic of The Drive is an award-winning automotive journalist and former chief critic of the auto for The New York Times and ] Detroit Free Press . The Detroit native and the Brooklyn gentrifier have a struggling 1993 Mazda RX-7 R1, but may want to give him a good home. Send him an email at [email protected] .
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