Review | 2018 Range Rover Velar | SUV Jewelry

Oh, welcome to a video about the new Range Rover Valar, our Dynamic h. You better be ready to spend around $78,000 for the privilege of driving it. Let's get into the finer details. Really, it all comes down to what Land Rover is selling. a picture here Range Rover has this level of prestige for an SUV and they are trying to take this to the next level if you are someone who is a fashion forward type person who puts form over function a lot in many cases. You're going to love this and I'm just going to say it clearly, from the material choices to these type of stainless steel door inserts and the piano gloss finish throughout the center, the screens, the leather stitching on the top and half.

The central parts of the dashboard, the steering wheel design with alloys, the LED style buttons that disappear when you are not using them. Now you see it all over the cabin, although some of this is very eye-catching, it has a big wow factor, meaning with This white interior there are some negatives, but let's go over the positives first. If you want to be in a quiet Sanctuary, you better have comfortable seats and the V does not disappoint in this Windsor Ebony color. It really sets the mood now that your The seat control is really intuitive, it has a great

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of lumbar adjustment, the headrests can be electronically adjusted up and down and it has electronically adjustable thigh cushions, there's no manual adjustment here, so you can actually move any way you want, now it's also heated and cooled.

Both seats work quite well and the coolers aren't too loud and you get a massage function in the infotainment. Now it only covers the lumbar and middle part of the back and goes up and down, but it is quite delicate. It's kind of like a three-year-old's nuisance, so if you're someone who needs a deep tissue massage, you'll have to look elsewhere. The next big plus in the Valar's interior is its level of fit and finish. It feels very well put together here, there's nothing cheap about the feel of plastics or leather materials or anything like that.

Now there are some creaks here when you drive, that is, when you go over some kind of potholes, but that's because it's so cold. you know you have that expansion and contraction, but everything feels great to the touch and does it again, it has that wow factor when you first walk in here for most people. Now there are some other subtleties that you will appreciate. the v like the frameless rearview mirror, metal grille and windshield to help defrost the front window without having to wait for the HVAC controls to activate the activity key that you can wear around your wrist and you can activate it, so if you go to the beach or swimming and don't want to carry the key with you, you can wear this on your wrist and go back to the car and unlock it.

I mean, there are subtle things they're doing here and really Trying That is great overall and I think a lot of people who will get it will appreciate it, but let's move on to some of the downsides of the fashion industry. You constantly hear that you can't look good without it. a little sore and there are some high heel like features that the V has that I'm going to talk about, like these exterior door handles that go inside the body and then come out when it's time to open the door, they look cool, right? Don't you realize it creates an extra step to get into the car?

I walk up to the door, press to unlock and have to wait for the handle to come out before opening it or if you're in bad weather like me, we get ice. or freezing rain, you get ice on this side of the car, you go out in the morning and you can't open the car because the door handle won't come off, it's something to keep in mind, the next thing I'm worried about is this dial swivel style change, but if you're okay with that and you're okay with glossy black piano plastic being covered in fingerprints and dust all the time, you're okay with the cleanliness, you won't be okay with the microphone. scratches that there are around this dial because this thing only has about four 5,000 mils and there are scratches around it from people turning the knob or wearing cufflinks or

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, everything is covered in scratches and you can't fix it, you have to replace it to Let this be something they can remedy with a scratch resistant surface like Gorilla Glass or something you use on phones that doesn't do that.

The second thing is this silver bar here that says Land Rover to release the cup holder, it's too reflective. In fact, when I have this Moon R open in the middle of the day and the sun comes in, it always blinds me, so this is something you might consider, you know, changing the surface material, now it's time to talk about technology , something that they Marketing is pushing the Valar and a lot of it has to do with this central gauge cluster and its dual screen infotainment called The Touch proo Duo and I looked at this and thought it looks like Ford Sync in terms of colors and sure.

Enough, it's another infotainment system designed by Panasonic Auto Motive and this was made in the UK. Now Panasonic has been doing infotainment in cars for a while and they also did it as single D head units ages ago in the 80's and 90's. this is their work modified by Land Rover to suit them so it has two 10-inch screens, both with 2K resolution, so they have high definition, a really clean and smooth look, and all Land Rover wants to do here is eliminate a lot of the physical buttons and control reminds of the cleanliness that are trying to achieve and in terms of looks here and for the most part it works, the user interface is quite fluid and quite intuitive, its top screen is pretty much all its infotainment you can move swipe left and right like a tablet you can create your own home screen with your own icons like I have the ambient lighting or the clock and of course the functions that you use the most so you don't have to waste time This is a lot now, so you have your multimedia navigation, your navigation, your Maps works great, looks good, pinch to zoom is fast, your media controls are pretty intuitive, you know, they're media controls, you have Sirius XM, you know, USB. your Bluetooth connectivity and your phone screen and then of course all your submenus with eco data where it shows you how you're handling fuel economy, your dynamic IM mode, which will show you once you're in dynamic mode, it'll show you its performance meters like throttle and brake position, you can see what you're doing there with the pedals, a GeForce meter, a lap timer which is ridiculous and then of course all your individual settings for dynamic mode, the engine gear shift mode, the steering suspension, so you can write to set the firmness or aggressiveness of each of these modes, now the upper screen can be disabled and the type of screen tilt can be adjusted to avoid glare and this is exactly how every car should do its infotainment by incorporating it into the dashboard where it is integrated and I am going to say I take my hat off to Land Rover for doing this because this is how I have always imagined infotainment would be done as you put on the dashboard you have a widescreen screen done.

There is no need to put something generic on the top of the dashboard, it's just a very good implementation. Now you can turn this screen off, of course, and then just use the bottom one, which is pretty much for the rotary knob HVAC controls. your seat heaters your driving modes for the dynamic ego Comfort gravel snow all that and then your off-road modes for the all-wheel drive system or the four-wheel drive system because that's what Land Rover and Range Rover are all about, You can still take this as much as it's prepared, you can take it off on some trails and all these modes help you do it and this is all pretty good except for the fact that it's extremely slow to start, it's not as fast as it should be. there is a lot of input lag a lot of times it doesn't pick up my touches i have to tap it twice sometimes it freezes completely and this is what happens with tech and infotainment in cars in the gauge cluster you can full screen the maps you can full screen certain things you can go to one indicator two indicators uh you can configure it however you want, but the biggest problem is the physical controls that are on the steering wheel, which also change the LED turns on if you are not using the function, the volume can be sensitive to touch or pressing, but when you enter the menus I am constantly, it constantly lags, does not respond to clicks, responds slowly or just not at all.

It doesn't work at all and then I go out of the menu sometimes because you know it's easy to press the wrong direction here even though it's also a little touch sensitive. I don't know it just seems very st

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to me depending on the situation um and it's something that you want to set it up the way you want to set it up and never touch it again now getting into the back seats these are extremely comfortable and you have a lot of room back here you have a center armrest. you can recline electronically with the switch that's somewhere here, you can go forward and backward and then you have your own HVAC controls back here, which are very similar to the front with the rotary dial, it's very easy to use, the vents They're easy to control, it's really nice space back here and it's a really good vehicle for almost five passengers.

I have almost no complaints about headroom or just the way in. I wish the doors opened a little more, but that's my only complaint, the last one, but no. The least is the rear hatch and this is an electronic liftgate, it's pretty slow, but for the most part it's, on average, what most of the industry knows is that there's a ton of space and really good tie down areas here. and it is not seen. This in many cars or SUVs you have metal tie downs where you can tie down your cargo or whatever you are moving, it's really nice, nothing is going to move your controls to lower the seats, they are mechanical which is probably a good thing for the most part. part because you don't have to worry about electronic braking, you have power outlets back here and then you have a button to raise and lower the cargo floor, which is very useful if you are shorter or if you are taller and you have a lot of things that you're charging here and thanks to the air compressor it works very fast, this isn't some cheesy up and down thing, there's a lot of adjustment range here so I think most people are going to like this in terms of charging usage , uh, it's pretty good, welcome to the segment in the workshop with the Range Rover Valar on the Benack lift.

Now that you've seen the setup of the exterior, you've seen the interior. technology and I could even go into more detail on that, but now is your chance to take a look at the fundamentals of what makes the Valar tick now. Land Rover has a long history and pedigree in creating off-road vehicles that still have a level of luxury. that combine a sort of utility truck and a car-like ride and that's hard to do. The Valar uses double wishbone suspension at the front and this is all aluminum. All in aluminum. Lower control arms. The fork. The upper AR.

The design of the knuckles. The dust. In fact, the shield on this vehicle is almost entirely, the body is almost entirely composed of aluminum and primarily recycled aluminum, where they could afford to do so. Now you know you're talking about something like this when you say truck or SUV, this has a legitimate usable approach angle. maintains approximately 9 and a half inches of ground clearance between the ground and the side cells or frame. The second thing you can do is it's about 26 inches deep, which means you can completely submerge this front end underwater to that depth and I know that takes a lot of work in terms of body adhesive sealant and there's a heavy use of body adhesives here, partly because it's aluminum and the other part is you don't want water getting into our Dynamic now.

The trim level comes with standard air suspension and that's exactly how you want to choose this vehicle if you plan on doing any type of off-road driving because it takes full advantage of the terrain management system and if you don't you get the air suspension. you lose about 2 inches of ground clearance so that's something to keep in mind if you don't plan on driving off road don't get the air suspension it's just a waste now, up front you'll see a matched set of air spring and shock absorber in the The rear of the V is where things get more interesting.

You've got these huge aluminum lower control arms and the aluminum knuckle design that houses this huge air spring assembly and this is what helps raise and lower the rear of the car and helps you lower the cargo floor. when you go out or charge it charges and gives you ground clearancethat you are looking for, it also includes a traditional shock absorber and this is to help with additional loading or towing the Valar is capable of towing around 5,500 lbs if you are interested in that for the most part you will see a stamped steel subframe here there is not a aluminum bracket and an aluminum or sorry, a stamped steel lower control arm that is for toe adjustment and you Also see the links here that help neutralize the suspension change or camber angle and toe angle When the car goes up and down, so it tries to maintain a neutral alignment at all times, now it's not always in high mode or low mode. of course, and tries to level out again and go to a normal ride height during normal driving.

I mean it. You often get what you pay for and much of your money will go towards Land Rover's extensive history in suspension system design. Versatile suspension systems. In the case of the Varar, with air suspension, you can literally drive it like a sports car. with the help of the locking differential, its electronic control, its ability to downshift, you can literally put this in manual mode, shift this and almost turn it because of all the power going to the rear and that's part of the dynamic experience and Then you just put it in auto or off-road mode, it picks itself up and gets smoother.

You can take it to trails. You can put it in water. It's crazy what you're able to do with this and now it works. The disadvantages Is it there? This is extremely complicated and if you're going to have this out of warranty, your best bet is to believe that things like this air spring module and all the associated electronics and aluminum components, if you screw it up, are going to be prohibitively expensive if you're prepared for that or you might even be prepared to have an extended warranty applied to it so just enjoy it and drive it now before we talk about that it's time to talk about weight and balance which is an incredibly important part of developing a car or SUV.

The development and Land Rover spent a lot of time on this architecture because this is one of the four Range Rover products, this is the fourth, it's completely new for them and they wanted to get it right and when I checked the weight of the vehicle on my tablet. In fact, I lifted the vehicle again and zeroed the scale again because I couldn't believe it weighed only 4,800 lbs with a full tank of fuel, which means all this aluminum and weight saving has worked and the best part is the distribution of the weight, it's almost 50./50 front to rear and the transverse weight is about 52%, but that's not too bad, but they really did a good job with this now on the engine, if you're in the US.

USA and you have the money for it, just get this 3 l. supercharged v6 engine or the p380 option is more than most people would want it's so fast it's a lot of fun to drive you have dual air boxes it sounds good you can hear some supercharger wine I'm not going to spoil it Let's get straight to the driving segment with the Valar. Ah yes, setting off in the Range Rover Valar. I already feel like a celebrity or I just signed a contract Max because that's what it's all about. Most of it is just style points. anything else that's supposed to make you feel good is supposed to match your fashion senses and now driving it on the road combines the history of Range Rover and Land Rover to make off-road trucks or SUVs, this is the next evolution that it feels. bigger than conjuring, it feels more masculine than conjuring, just what it really comes down to is how this is conducted because I say this all the time, appearances are just one part, while appearances are an important part of This, they drive it better.

I know good for the price so what you will notice when cruising is that this is an extremely quiet cabin, there is nothing that will catch your attention except the fact that I hear some creeks and rattles in here and mainly because it is cold outside. I can say that the fit and finish inside this cabin is very tight, now those rattles can disappear especially after going over rough pavement, like if I'm turning and going over a pothole, I hear creaks and rattles in the rear while those plastics relax. In the heat, that could probably improve now that we get to this stop, you know the stability and traction control system is really aggressive on this and I've noticed this on the highway if you're going full throttle accelerating or pretty much anything.

When you smash it, you cut the power right away, but it feels secure the entire time. The ESC system always does what it's supposed to do to keep the entire car in a straight line and I think that's the same for most of you who are going to drive. This is a ghost vehicle. Now the most important thing to talk about with a vehicle like this is how it handles on broken pavement and this is where the Valar lets me down. I'll be completely honest. I feel like it should be like that. better than the broken and Choy payment than it is and I just got the BMW 640i with air suspension and that thing was absolutely amazing on every pavement surface it was so smooth and then I came in here and this also has advanced air suspension but it just There is too much commotion that is transmitted to the driver's seat and the entire cabin in general.

I know there are some trade-offs when building a truck-type SUV and I think it still has the underpinnings to be that off-road capable vehicle. I still get a truck like ride when the pavement gets really rough, I drive now because of all the different driving modes you have, a vehicle settings on the screen where you can toggle your different driving modes here, from Eco to comfort, that I always leave in comfort. and then Auto and then of course Dynamic and Dynamic is a kind of track or performance setting, it allows you the greatest slip angle, it allows you to enjoy the most without the traction and stability control trying to hinder all the horses of force. now let's get straight to it, you go into dynamic mode, you stop, you hold down the traction control for about 5 seconds, the DSC will turn off, you launch this into sport mode, you press the paddle to put it into first gear.

Turn up the revs man, that's where this thing is at its best, does this thing move and is it partly because of the supercharger? I'm a big fan of superchargers on streetcars and largely because it feels so good all the time you crank it up a notch. from the supercharger came and then it just boosts you all the time there is no turbo lag it feels like a naturally aspirated car now i want to talk a little bit about the transmission this is a zf8 speed like the one used in so many vehicles now and for the most part part is extremely soft.

I'm very happy with it the one time and I know I noticed straight pipes mentioned that this is the way it downshifts in auto mode if you're in auto and you're in a gear like eth. and you don't even know what gear it is, you press the accelerator and it's like that, you feel like it goes down every gear before you get to the one you want and it's really annoying because there's a huge lag and lag, it's like that. Not able to queue up the correct gear? It can't skip enough gears to get you down into the gear you need, so if you're driving this like a Maniac or just crazy, you'll want to drive it.

Manual mode just takes control of the paddles, it will let you shift or just put it in sport mode all the time, that's when it's at its best transmission. Now let's be totally realistic: you won't be driving it in dynamic mode. You won't use the paddle shifters unless you know you like to control the transmission manually. You'll leave this in auto and comfort mode almost all the time. You will never notice any problem in the transmission. It's really nice. uh, 90% of the time, and the transmission and engine are this Valar's best point. I mean, you can argue interior quality and technology and all that, and you know style comes before function, but for the most part I've had the moment I enjoyed the most was just pushing this thing around, it's so quiet, the engine is so fantastic, the TR is very rewarding and it's pretty comfortable overall, and that's what it's about for the most part, this is going to be the City Suburban, I'm just going. to the lean and cruise type vehicle, now I'm going to stop here and I have the traction stability control off and now when you're turning and you have to go out fast again, you know with this stability system off you can just hit it and you'll feel the rotation , you feel the rear end want to kick, it's incredible and that's when you also get full control over the transmission.

Yes, it will allow you to press the rev limiter when you have the stability system, the stability and traction control turned off and in manual mode it will allow you to bounce on the rev limiter, it will not change gears for you, but if you do not have the rev limiter stability off, it will upshift automatically, so that's something to keep in mind. I'm going to put this back into you know, the Comfort mode, the automatic mode, the stability and traction like you always drive it and really what it comes down to with this V is that you're going to buy this for pretty much the status, the You are going to buy for the state and simply to roll.

In the city you will feel pretty cool driving it and do you know, does it do things better than other vehicles like a tram? No I think the main problem for me is the suspension it's just not soft enough it should be a lot softer than it is but the truth is you can really take this off road and on trails and you know that's where it becomes confusing because you're trying to make this a luxury off roader and you know what happens if you're going to make it off road. many times you just buy a truck, you know no, you don't buy this because you're just going to destroy it, the interior isn't going to hold up if you do, you're going to be in the mud.

I mean, it's just a strange idea, it's a strange idea to make this luxury off-road combination, but I know it works well and I know the type of people who want it, they just want it, they would never consider a truck, so if you agree with that style, mainly Comfort, excellent transmission and engine. You will love this. You just have to find a place to put all your wallets and bags. Final thoughts on the Range Rover Valar when I first got into this. vehicle I didn't understand it at all and that bothered me because this is the first modern Land Rover I've ever been in, so I spent a ridiculous amount of time researching how to drive it in different ways than I normally do, including playing with all the technology and it would literally take you more than a week to understand all the things that this car and this SUV can and can't do and I found that this was a very focused vehicle for them, it was an important vehicle for them. and is aimed at a very specific demographic, those who appreciate modern aesthetics and use a lot of words in their marketing like reductionism to soften areas and reduce things or remove things that don't need to be there and that affect the overall look of this.

SUV and the result is one of the most attractive SUVs on the market and it combines a little bit of the type of feminism in the evocation and a new masculinity and I think a lot of people are going to like this interior space. It's pretty clean, for the most part it's well put together. I have a few complaints about some quality issues and material choice and I think they can improve that, it's a simple thing, the base is really solid here, it's still Land Rover underneath, the balance is good, it drives. Well the ZF transmission is really good and the supercharged engine is a pleasure to try and I think when you put it all together and look at the good and the bad, if you are someone who is looking for a Range Rover. product I don't see why you wouldn't choose this one other than the price, obviously I mean it's expensive when you specify it, but this is definitely one of the best SUVs I've driven on multiple levels and I hope they continue to do so. improve this.

I'll be curious to see how this performs over time. It's okay, take care. See you in the next video.