The African assault course laid out to prove the credentials of the new 2013 Land Rover Range Rovers was one potential disaster after another.
It involved scaling trails over the highest pass through Morocco’s Atlas Mountains and then wading through riverbeds that were only slightly shallower than the redesigned SUV’s almost 3-foot fording depth. That was followed by a drive up a coastal dune bank that even a balloon-tired Land Rover Defender was incapable of surmounting.
After that, it was a fearsome plunge into a ravine running behind the massive walled garden of a Marrakech mansion, a maneuver that tested the nerve of the Range Rover’s occupants as much as it did the vehicle’s hill descent control, air springs and structural integrity.
Good thing this all-new SUV feels immensely strong, generating not a rattle, creak or squeak when lurching over boulders or clambering across gullies deep enough to leave its 20-inch wheels momentarily dangling. We rarely heard wheels spinning for grip, though, and its ability to stop itself from sledging to the bottom of steep slopes without our needing to touch the pedals was unsettlingly counterintuitive until we learned to trust it.
So What’s the New Recipe? Actually, the 2013 Land Rover Range Rover is much the same as before in many ways, right down to the familiar silhouette. Like VW and its perennial Golf, Land Rover has chosen not to mess with a flavor its customers love. But there are plenty of changes under the familiar skin. #askthecarpeople #edmundsinc #landrover #rangerover #supercharged #roadrests #firstdrive #suv #v8 #500HP #luxury
