Land Rover Range Rover Velar review

It’s not as tall as a Range Rover or a Sport, but you still feel elevated. Ahead is Range Rover’s usual minimalist rectangle of dashboard, with a T-piece coming down as the centre console. The shapes are clean and sparsely ornamented.

New for 2023, the Velar has grabbed its maker's latest screen system, a large tablet emerging from the centre dash. The typography, graphics and functional logic are as good as any rival's, and it works snappily.

But it's overloaded. Pre-facelift, the Velar had a second touch screen below, which you could easily set to carry the climate controls, off-road or dynamics settings, or audio. Plus it had a pair of nice graspable multi-functional control knobs. Now you have to use the upper screen to flick between these different functions: often putting things an extra finger-jab away.

Also, in place of the old lower screen there's a cubby box. It's useful, but nastily executed: it has a thin plastic lid that undermines the cabin's quality.

The Velar launched with the option of light coloured cloth. That has gone. Now if you want non-leather it's black or black. Still, it's a rich-feeling and comfortable material. In leather, there are other colours. Whatever your minimalist tendencies, we'd urge you to give serious thought to some colour, and the ash grey wood finishers. Otherwise the cabin looks surprisingly drab and plasticky.

Because the front seats are bulky, there isn’t quite the legroom you’d hope for behind, and the rakish roof slightly limits headroom. But it's still roomier than a Mercedes E-Class executive minicab. Back benchers get ports and vents and lights of course.

Cabin storage is tight, despite the added centre console storage bay. The boot is big in area but a little shallow, but because this is a long car the overall capacity beats many rivals.

Under the floor it only makes room for a space saver, but that’s better than just a can of repair gloop when you’ve slashed a tyre in the wilderness.

Special mention to the optional Meridian sound system, which sounds like music rather than like a music system.