2013 RANGE ROVER FINALLY ROCKS UP!

The brand new Land Rover Range Rover big body has been revealed in its full glory.  A while ago we published a leaked picture of the massive 4X4 SUV which showed a very clear design direction for the brand. Now the full monty is out and you can judge for yourself if a job has been well done. And the great news is it will be in South Africa from January 2013.

Most interesting to us is the fact that up to 420kg has been shed off the car’s total weight, compared to the outgoing model. That’s mostly thanks to the extensive use of aluminium for body construction.

Range Rover is really like the Jaguar XJ of SUVs. It’s the crème de la crème of the genre, the one everyone else benchmarks against when it comes to luxury. At the same time, it also offers excellent off-road capabilities. In order to enhance these off-road instincts, Land Rover’s Terrain Response 2 Auto system is employed. It apparently analyses prevailing road conditions and adjusts tractionand response accordingly, so whether you are driving in mud, ice, snow or gravel.

Inside the Range features some serious opulence, including the use of elegant leather veneer surfaces, some wood grain, brushed aluminium, and some chrome for that extra luxury touch the Americans like so much. An optional new two-seat Executive Class seating package for the ultimate in rear-seat luxury is available.

Land Rover won’t say exactly which engines are to be fitted, except that “customers have the choice of refined V8 petrol engines and TDV6 and TDV8 diesel engines combining responsive performance with outstanding CO2 emissions ”. We’d like to venture to say the engines will be the same ones as found in Jaguar products. So the TDV6 for instance, will produce 202kW, and the 5.0 supercharged V8 should be worth about 380kW. Land Rover South Africa says for Mzansi we'll get 4.4 TDV8 (230kW, 700Nm) and the 5.0 V8 Supercharged.

Expect to part with over R1.3 million for the standard baseline model when it launches in January.