With the Copenhagen summit on climate change underway, driving the latest overweight offering from Land Rover would seem to put me in the camp of the global warming deniers.
After all, how can you justify making your daily rounds in a vehicle that weighs nearly three tons and gets just 12 miles per gallon in city driving, if you believe the planet is in danger of overheating?
Land Rover’s LR4, formerly known as the LR3 and called Discovery everywhere else in the world, is one of the last of its breed, — a SUV assembled with antique body-on-frame construction that is engineered for extreme off-roading.
That’s all fine if you are out patrolling the Serengeti on a regular basis, but less admirable if you are cruising shopping centers in Beverly Hills.
With the U.S. imposing 2016 standards of 35 mpg and Europe setting regulations on carbon dioxide emissions, that kind of excess would seem to make the life expectancy of the LR4 a limited one.
Ignoring societal and regulatory considerations, the LR4 measures up quite well. A finalist for the North American Truck of the Year award, it is more modern and refined than any Land Rover in memory.
The driver sits up high in a captain’s chair with an armrest. Unlike in earlier models, the pedals and stacks respond with a reasonable degree of effort.
The new 5.0 liter 375-hp aluminum alloy V-8, which is also used in Jaguars, provides plenty of pep, propelling this seven-passenger vehicle to 60 miles per hour in a brisk 7.5 seconds. The interior is both functional and attractive and aligns Land Rover with international standards. There are no more switches that move in an opposite direction from the rest of the world’s.
Some of the information screens, though were difficult to decipher — especially while traveling at 60 mph — and the trip computer appeared incapable of delivering a fuel consumption analysis.
An early-season snowfall limited the opportunity to evaluate the LR4’s legendary off-road capability but it did just fine on paved highways and the permanent four-wheel drive system handled slippery roads without a hiccup.
Assuming you are willing to brave the scorn of angry environmentalists, the LR4 will set you back $48,100 (including transportation). As tested, with the seven-seat LUX passage, the tab came to $58,415.
If that is too rich to contemplate, think of the LR4, like a Patek Philippe watch, as a possession to be passed on to future generations.
That’s because by the time this model runs its course, the brawny SUV segment likely will be obsolete. There almost certainly will not be an LR5.
