Happy Deepavali! Since this is an auspicious day let's bring out guest writer Firdaus Asri and his post about Range Rovers. Usually Firdaus drives around in a Volkswagen Golf R Mk6 and does not really fancy anything with a boot. I think he still does not as he has chosen to write about his opinion on the current Range Rover. And that large SUV does not have a boot. It has a hatch. Therefore it is a hatchback....errr. Anyway, the Range Rover, by Firdaus Asri.
Range Rover - Eye Candy and a Rolex Sub on Wheels
I rarely get a chance to drive interesting cars lately for which I would blame it solely on the Editor because he 'sapu' all the nicest ones like the Jaguar XJ last week (Ed- We just didn't want you to drive about 45 minutes in the traffic and rain in order to spend 10 minutes in one and drive home crying on why you cannot afford one. See how caring we are towards you.). But then without wanting to cry like a baby too much, I thought of writing on cars that are pretty and interesting on its own accord without going into too much details on everything else. And there is no better car to start this other than the latest Range Rover.
If there is one ideal correlation I can make between a Range Rover and a watch, I can only think of one and that is the watch by Rolex called the Submariner. Metaphorically speaking the Rolex Submariner is much like the Range Rover, it is part-time sport and part-time dress watch that you can wear for playing golf in the morning and go to someone's wedding in the evening. It also has a nominal depth rating of over 1000 feet yet we rarely see or even heard any of them being in the water anything other than dipping it the wash basin.
And why is that? Why would you buy a car with a brand new price tag a million Ringgit upwards when you know that you are not going to take it off-road? “Sayang” is one excuse, “Mahal” or bloody expensive is the next excuse and another is err …I could go on but let me tell you why (coming from my perspective of course). It is because driving or being driven in a Range Rover makes you feel like you are the captain of the road or king of the mountain. This is because a Range Rover is and will always be a vehicle that inspire total confidence in you on whatever terrain and conditions you are on. (Ed- You could go off road in one if you get lucky, like in the pic above)
And the latest L405 generation is the best interpretation of that philosophy. Gary McGovern, chief designer of the Range Rover, a strong advocate of design's relevance to Jaguar Land Rover's (JLR) brand equity manages to steer his team by taking the Evoque's handsome design and getting it enlarged without taking away the Range Rover's iconic clean and square-cut functional body. The attention to detail is terrific, for sure you will love the headlights where you can very clearly see Range Rover name on the projector much like the names that you can see on 35mm lens SLR camera. Tiny little fonts but they do not go unnoticed. But if there is one area that perhaps challenging to the eye, I would say it is the rear end specifically the rectangular uninspired taillights. Less regal than the previous generation.
And if there is additional one more thing you've got to say about JLR is that they really really know how to do interiors. Unlike the Germans that tend to copy from one another, they are making their own signature on it with very clean, unique and beautifully put together with the built materials that still matches the material quality used in the latest Mercedes Benz S-class. And you get roomier rear legroom thanks to extended wheelbase of this model, the plush fully adjustable leather seats, panoramic glass roof and everything else makes the opulent ambiance feel like it is totally out of this world. I mean check our the interior pic below!
Everything is to die for but the asking price brand new here in Malaysia will certainly get you to attempt suicide before you vomit out blood or money to buy one. I know it's going to cost you a over a million Ringgit for the 5.0 V8 version plus maybe another RM200k if you want the Autobiography trim in it. I also know it may cost you RM3-5k for every service but tell you what, it is much much cheaper than buying an decent sized house in the Klang Valley these days.
Still, if you intend to own one but somehow the bank manager doesn't seem to agree with you, like me, there is an upside. Unlike a Rolex Submariner which somehow increases in value every decade or so, the resale value of a Range Rover will take a dive as much as an airline company's stock value after a crash. So after it goes out of the showroom it automatically loses a couple of hundred thousand. About five years down the road it may lose half a million Ringgit in value. And that gives guys like you and me a little bit of hope to own one in a few years time. (Ed- that is after we somehow manage to get promoted to CEO, get a huge raise or suddenly inherit a couple of million Ringgit)
There is something about Range Rover that shows the world that you mean business and for every moment in it, it exudes an impression of adventure. That makes it in my view a motoring icon, one of the very top of everybody wet dreams.
