• Pros

• It’s a limo. OK, you may ask: Who wants a limousine with decades of proven off-road credibility? Other than, say, the CEO of a hedge fund based in the Himalayas? It’s a fair question. Maybe people who find a Rolls Royce simply too reminiscent of “Dad"? In any case, what you have here with the long wheel base (LWB) Range Rover is a vehicle suitable to be driven around in. It’s a luxury ride with copious room in the back for a captain of industry, and all of the creature comforts one could want. Our test version even had the $1,200 “Tailgate Event Suite with Leather Cushions.” Try getting one of those on your Rolls Royce.
• Ride. Given its limo intentions, the Range Rover practically glides along the road. It’s designed to be soft, cosseting, and secure, preventing such bourgeois things such as bumps from intruding on one's peace and quiet. The RR does an excellent job of shutting out the world, particularly for a truck that maintains its off road capabilities.
• Power. Range Rover is still using the BMW-sourced 4.4 liter V8, which is a fantastic power plant. Lots of torque, sounds great when you step on it. This is a vehicle getting close to three tons in weight, and yet it moves smoothly and rapidly.
• Interior. Range Rover pulled out the stops for the interior of the LWB. They're competing here with the highest end luxury cars, and have made all of the surfaces look swanky, and feel high end. There’s a clean, calm, almost nordic quality to the interior. The seats are very comfortable up front. But those are just for the help. The rear seats get the royal treatment. There’s enough leg room for 7'7" Manute Bol to stretch out. And, should you crave a little more relaxation, the rear passenger-side seat reclines and pops up a foot rest for your weary tootsies. An armrest-based screen between the rear seats controls the individual entertainment screens back there, the climate, and even slides open the door to the built in refrigerator between the seats. OK, but what if I want to make ramen?
• Presence. While opinions on the aesthetics of the LWB Rover are mixed (the extra length does make it appear to be carrying around a huge badonkadonk), the styling is sleek, and there’s no question that the vehicle has presence. It looks expensive and powerful. The one thing we could live without is the weird decoration they added at the forward edge of the front doors. It looks almost like a leather strip that appears to have no purpose. We call it the Range Rover's cummerbund.
• Handling. We include this in the “likes” section not because it’s a great handling car, but because it’s a decent handling car. And at 5,600 pounds and over 7 feet tall, it should handle much worse. Driven at modest speeds, steering is accurate and body movement is controlled. Pushed at all, and… see height and weight of vehicle.

• Cons

• Electronic weirdness. When you pull up a little too close to the car in front of you at a light, the Range Rover’s sonar starts having a fit and mutes whatever else you’re listening to on the media system. Sometimes a screen would pop up allowing you to dismiss the sonar. Sometimes not. Her Highness isn’t going to like all that racket. Wireless Apple Car Play would drop in and out more often than with other cars we test. Her Highness won’t like losing her Spotify mid playlist either. And under certain conditions, when almost stopping, and then starting up again, we’d sometimes end up in a no man’s land where the automatic stop start system would shut off the engine, and then hesitate for a second, causing a jerking sensation. Madame won't like that either. So a note to the chauffeurs out there: Stop well behind other vehicles, bring a cable for the boss’s phone, and come to a full stop at every light.
• Skimpy cargo capacity. When Range Rover lengthened the wheel base, they devoted pretty much all of the extra room to the rear seating area. Now, if you’re being chauffeured around, you’re unlikely to be going to Home Depot to pick up a barbecue grill. But should you need to put anything sizable in the cargo area, you’ll find it limited. The built in back-seat fridge in our model projected into the rear cargo hold, and further limited the footprint available for stuff.
• Mild wind noise. OK, maybe it’s because they did such a good job of blocking out all the other noise, but the driver does hear a bit of wind noise around the A-pillar during highway driving. It’s the downside of shaping a car like a box.
• Price and mileage. This is one of those “if you have to ask…” issues. $256,000 and about 16 mpg.

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