More than 50 years ago, the Range Rover emerged as the first luxury SUV, offering a unique combination of utility, opulence, and off-road prowess. Now in its fifth generation, the modern and sophisticated Range Rover, retains this essence at its core.
This Range Rover Autobiography SWB P530 represents an idealised version of country life. A four-wheel drive, with a twin-speed transfer box (high/low range) powered by a V8 engine that’s finished in Batumi Gold paint with 23″ alloys wheels fitted with Pirelli Scorpion Zero all-season tyres and the SV bespoke full extended leather upgrade on the interior. It’s exactly what the original Range Rover designers envisaged all those decades ago proven by the inclusion of a full-size spare tyre under the rear of the vehicle.
It also has the Advanced Off-road Pack that includes adaptive off-road cruise control, electronic active differential with torque vectoring by braking, and four configurable terrain programs that allow you to adjust the differentials, powertrain, steering, traction control, and ride control. The standard off-road modes include Grass/Gravel/Snow, Mud Ruts, Sand, Rock Crawl, and Wade, to a depth of 900mm. The ride is still a little boat-like even in Dynamic mode, but on the upside, it is very comfortable thanks to the adaptive dynamics and manoeuvrable due to all wheel steering. The other on-road drive modes include Comfort, Eco, Auto Terrain Response and you can adjust the ride height between Auto, Off-road, Normal and Access utilising the electronic air suspension.
The 4.4 litre, 8-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine delivers smooth acceleration with even smoother gear changes from the 8-speed automatic gearbox, which are as supple as the leather interior in the Range Rover. The V8 engine produces a maximum of 390kW of power and 750Nm of torque and will accelerate the 2.5 tonne Range Rover from 0-100km/h in 4.6 seconds and on to a top speed of 250 km/h.
Any farmer worth their salt will want to know that the official combined fuel consumption is 11.1L/100km and for my week I used 14.2L/100km. The other important figure is the towing capacity of the Range Rover, which comes fitted with an electrically deployable tow bar. It’s capable of towing 750kgs for an unbraked trailer and 3,500kgs for a braked trailer (max ball weight 350kg) and has a maximum roof load of 100kg.
The perforated Semi-Aniline leather seats are less farmer friendly though, finished in Perlino with Perlino interior, because even I was worried about getting a mark on them. Thankfully the Ebony carpet and matching SV bespoke Ebony leather headlining is a dark in colour then, should you happen to get in with dirty boots on. Step over the puddle light and you’ll discover that the opulent interior has a lovely aroma and is supremely comfortable thanks to the optional ($4,800) 24-way heated and cooled, hot stone massage electric front seats with three memory positions and the Executive Class comfort rear seats.
Harking back to Range Rover of old there’s an adjustable arm rest that you can also simply fold up out of the way and twin-blade sunvisors that now have illuminated vanity mirrors, if you need to fix up the lipstick. Bringing it back to the 21st century the Autobiography has keyless entry and keyless start, a panoramic sunroof with the front half opening, head-up display, and an interactive driver display.
The cabin design is very clean looking thanks to all of the controls now being embedded within the 13.1-inch touchscreen. This has the potential to be a little annoying, but thankfully the Range Rover has quick access buttons on the side for the climate controls and the drive mode, among others. There’s the voice control also, and this worked well for changing radio station, but was a bit slow to respond when I asked it to set a destination on the sat nav and then told me that navigation wasn’t available. My phone easily connected to the Pivi Pro system through wireless Android Auto and wireless Apple CarPlay is also available.
The centre console is finished in SV bespoke natural Ecru walnut veneer with inlays and matching SV bespoke wood and leather heated steering wheel with satin chrome gearshift paddles and an electrically adjustable steering column. Beneath the sliding cover in the console there are two deep cup holders with grippy sides and removable bases for easy cleaning. If you slide these back you reveal a ‘secret’ storage cubby underneath that has one USB-C port in it. Under the front sliding cover you’ll find the wireless charger and another USB-C port and you get a lower and upper glove box with one 12V socket in the top one.
Under the heated arm rest my Range Rover had an optional refrigerator compartment ($1,640) that would fit four 600mL bottles. It gets very cold with the temperature showing less than one degree Celsius on my thermometer when I tested it. There are also drink bottle storage cubbies in the front doors suitable for larger drink bottles.
All four doors have soft door close, meaning your children won’t need to slam the doors to close them, and they will be excited to see the Range Rover Autobiography comes with the optional ($6,850) 11.4” Rear Seat Entertainment package, but these aren’t all that entertaining in reality. You connect to the screens via the HDMI ports located under the arm rest cubby with two USB-C ports also located here. As very few phones support a USB to HDMI connection this leaves few options to connect a device to the screens. One less compact option would be connecting a gaming console or even a DVD player plugged into the optional ($130) 230V 180W domestic plug socket located below the central air vents and connecting to the screen via a HDMI cord. Other media options include the radio and you do get two pairs of wireless Land Rover headphones, so you don’t have to listen in the front of the cabin as well.
The Executive Class rear seats offer a level of luxury that is matched by few in the automotive world, particularly on the passenger side seat because when this is fully reclined the front passenger seat also moves forward creating a acres of leg room. Some seat adjustments are located on the door mounted controls and more can made via the small touchscreen in the centre arm rest you will be sure to find that perfect position and there are three memory positions available to save it. In the reclined position the seat goes back, the base slightly lifts and extends out to create a very comfortable seating position. The Range Rover even has illuminated seat belt buckles throughout to make buckling up at night easier.
The rear seats are heated only, and similar to the front seats, there are five massage types to select from, wave, pulse, pulse down, combination or hot stone, and options for the massage direction as well, either rolling, up, down, upper back or lower back. With plenty of head and leg room and under thigh support these seats are very comfortable and make you feel like the Lord or Lady of the manor sitting back there. The centre seat can be raised and lowered by pressing a button and there are two ISOFix/three rear tether points fitted for younger passengers.
The centre seat is designed to be permanently lowered though, with a central touchscreen on the arm rest with controls for rear climate and sunblinds, among other functions. Press a button and the cover at the front of the centre console slides forward to reveal two shallow cup holders with grippy sides and a removable base for easy cleaning.
Both rear passengers can control the rear windows and powered rear blinds from their window controls, which may be a blessing or a curse if you have siblings that like to annoy each other. You can lock their operation from the window controls at the front of the vehicle, if necessary. There are two central air vents and one roof vent on either side of the cabin with dual zone digital temperature, air speed and mode controls.
The powered gesture tailgate/boot lid did want to work for me, but you can also open/close the tailgate from exterior of the vehicle, the key fob and a button in the cabin. It’s a split tailgate, which has the advantage that your items will not fall out when you open it. There is then a separate button to open the lower half of the tailgate and the versatile loadspace floor means the tailgate handily becomes a seat. The rear of the vehicle can be raised and lowered to make it easy to sit up on the seat area and why not enjoy your favourite beverage while sitting there, with a moulded cup holder place on either side of the lower tailgate, to help prevent it from spilling.
The boot is adequately sized, however the design of the rear seats means that they protrude into the boot space, but by my estimation you would still fit at least one bale of hay, or even two at a squeeze, in there. The boot space has four substantial tie down points, four lights, two hooks and one 12V socket and if more space is required the rear seats can be lowered. To do this you use the buttons in the boot to raise and lower them, but this doesn’t move the front seats, so if the seat lowers and bumps into the front seat it automatically raises back up. There’s also buttons for operating the auto-folding loadspace cover, and deploying the tow bar from the boot.
The current Range Rover range has a 5-star ANCAP (2022) safety rating with dual frontal, side chest-protecting and side head-protecting airbags standard. A centre airbag to prevent occupant-to-occupant interaction is not available. The Adult Occupant Protection score is 84% (32.12 points out of 38) and a Child Occupant Protection score of 86% (42.20 points out of 49).
The Range Rover Autobiography comes standard numerous driver safety aids including Adaptive Cruise Control with Steering Assist, Blind Spot Assist, Driver Condition Response, Lane Keep Assist, Traffic Sign Recognition and Adaptive Speed Limiter, Rear Collision Monitor, Rear Traffic Monitor and Emergency Braking. For convenience you also have auto lights, auto high beam, auto wipers, a standard rear-view camera, 3D walk around view, a 360-degree camera with front and rear parking sensors, and a ClearSight interior rear-view mirror.
ANCAP tests of the autonomous emergency braking (AEB) (Car-to-Car) system showed GOOD performance with collisions avoided or mitigated in most test scenarios, including AEB Junction Assist where the test vehicle can autonomously brake to avoid crashes when turning across the path of an oncoming vehicle. ANCAP tests of the lane support system functionality showed GOOD performance in lane keep assist scenarios, and ADEQUATE performance in the more critical emergency lane keeping scenarios. The overall ANCAP Safety Assist score for the Range Rover is 84%.
The Range Rover Autobiography is backed by a five-year/unlimited kilometre warranty with five-years Roadside Assistance. A five years/130,000km (whichever occurs first) service plan is also included in the purchase price for added peace of mind.
With its modern take on Range Rovers of old, the 25MY Range Rover Autobiography SWB P530 is priced from $330,349 plus on-road costs. With those extras previously mentioned plus Batumi Gold exterior paint ($2,220), 23″ Style 1074 alloys wheels (x5) ($1,820), privacy glass ($1,000), and loadspace partition net ($360) this pastoral masterpiece is $349,169 plus on-roads. You can Build and Order your Range Rover online or visit your preferred Range Rover retailer for more information.
| Pros | Cons |
| The smooth powertrain | The voice control wasn’t up to standard |
| The hot stone massage | Limited entertainment options compatible with the rear screens |
| It has a full-size spare tyre | The gesture open tailgate didn’t work for me |
Photographs by Driven Women Magazine.