It’s #chooseday and the past few days have been amazing. I spent them with the Range Rover Velar. This beautiful car continues to impress us as it did at launch last year. Inside the Range Rover Velar boasts class leading style and sophistication. The new Touch Pro Duo infotainment system features two 10-inch high-definition touchscreens integrated seamlessly behind hidden-until-lit surfaces. The elimination of a lot of buttons in the dash gives the Velar an overall sense of modernity which matches the car’s fresh exterior design. The crisp Meridian Sound System 825W with 17 Speakers made every trip turn into a concert. As if that wasn’t enough, my back passengers had DVD screens with a remote control, Bluetooth headphones, HDMI and USB ports. Overall, the cabin of this mid-sized premium SUV is classy, roomy and the boot is decent. Outside, the Velar distinguishes itself from the rest of the line up with its slender full-LED headlights and the flush deployable door handles. Our test unit is the was 221 kW diesel Velar R-Dynamic HSE. The Velar range is priced from R976,500, and that’s the catch. You do pay a premium for this gorgeous SUV. I went from it’s a lot of money to pay for an SUV it’s size to feeling that every penny justifies the premium and brilliance you are paying for. Ultimately you’ll be the judge when it comes to buying. If you must know, we’d buy it if we had the cash. • • • #rangerovervelar #rangerover #velar #britishcar #suv #luxury #premium #class #excellence 📸 @forever4tune

A post shared by The Car People (@khulekani_on_wheels) on May 28, 2018 at 10:12pm PDT

The Velar arrived last year with a big bang. We were impressed with what we saw. We enjoyed driving it at the launch and thought it was the vehicle to look out for from Land Rover, notwithstanding the tough completion from the likes of BMW X3 and Audi Q5. Recently, I spent a couple of days with the Range Rover Velar 3.0 diesel 221kW HSE and I was also impressed by the newest Land Rover SUV.

Inside the Range Rover Velar boasts some class-leading style and sophistication. The new Touch Pro Duo infotainment system features two 10-inch high-definition touchscreens integrated seamlessly behind hidden-until-lit surfaces. The elimination of a lot of buttons in the dash gives the Velar an overall sense of modernity which matches the car’s fresh exterior design. Overall, the cabin of this mid-sized premium SUV is elegant and spacious. The boot is decently sized at 673 litres. This extends to 1,731 litres if you drop the seats.

Outside, the Velar distinguishes itself from the rest of the line up with its slender full-LED headlights and the flush deployable door handles. The Velar and Velar R-Dynamic range comes in Standard, S, SE and HSE versions. You can also opt for Black and Premium exterior packs for an even more distinguished appearance. My test Velar R-Dynamic was HSE trim and it had extras such as powered gesture tailgate, 20-way seats with driver/passenger memory massage and heated/cooled front (including rear armrest and power recline), extended leather upgrade (which includes Windsor leather door top roll lower and Windsor leather mid instrument panel), 825W Meridia surround sound system with 17 speakers, Drive Pro Pack and Park Pro Pack.

The Drive Pro Pack includes Adaptive Cruise Control with Queue Assist and Intelligent Emergency Braking, Blind Spot Assist and Lane Keep Assist. Blind Spot Assist monitors for vehicles approaching from behind or those in the vehicle’s blind spot. In driving conditions, the Blind Spot Assist system could pick up vehicles quite far behind the Velar without being intrusive. Lane Keep Assist was useful in providing gentle corrective steering inputs if the vehicle veered out of the lane without indicating which happens in city traffic at times when a minibus taxis suddenly stops in front of you.

It’s #chooseday and the past few days have been amazing so we are high on happiness. I spent them with the Range Rover Velar. This beautiful car continues to impress us as it did at launch last year. Inside the Range Rover Velar boasts class leading style and sophistication. The new Touch Pro Duo infotainment system features two 10-inch high-definition touchscreens integrated seamlessly behind hidden-until-lit surfaces. The elimination of a lot of buttons in the dash gives the Velar an overall sense of modernity which matches the car’s fresh exterior design. The crisp Meridian Sound System 825W with 17 Speakers made every trip turn into a concert. As if that wasn’t enough, my back passengers had DVD screens with a remote control, Bluetooth headphones, HDMI and USB ports. Overall, the cabin of this mid-sized premium SUV is classy, roomy and the boot is decent. Outside, the Velar distinguishes itself from the rest of the line up with its slender full-LED headlights and the flush deployable door handles. Our test unit is the was 221 kW diesel Velar R-Dynamic HSE. The Velar range is priced from R976,500, and that’s the catch. You do pay a premium for this gorgeous SUV. I went from it’s a lot of money to pay for an SUV it’s size to feeling that every penny justifies the premium and brilliance you are paying for. Ultimately you’ll be the judge when it comes to buying. If you must know, we’d buy it if we had the cash. • • • #rangerovervelar #rangerover #velar #britishcar #suv #luxury #premium #class #excellence 📸 @forever4tune

A post shared by The Car People (@khulekani_on_wheels) on May 28, 2018 at 10:07pm PDT

R976,500The stress of a car in general is elevated when you have to manoeuver in and out of tight parking spaces. This quadruples when you are in a loan car. Fortunately the Park Pro Pack in the Velar had things on control. With the 360° cameras, I could move in and out of tight spots quite easily. Parking was made too simple with the Park Assist which enables the vehicle to take over when parking. This is critical especially when parallel parking such a large vehicle.

The Range Rover Velar is not exclusively designed for Sandton pavements contrary to the popular narrative. The Velar features a sophisticated all-wheel drive system and four-corner air suspension. The latter is an optional extra, however. Range Rover claims class-leading ground clearance of 251mm (213mm when equipped with coil springs) and wading depth of 650mm (600mm when equipped with coil springs). The latter refers to the height from the ground up to the crucial level where your car’s sensitive electronics, air intake and vulnerable areas are located. This is of particular concern when driving in water. To ensure the Velar’s off-road manners are up to par, it also has Land Rover’s set of traction technologies including Terrain Response 2 and All Terrain Progress Control. This gives the Velar – like all Range Rovers – exceptional all-terrain capability.

The meaty 221 kW of power and 700 Nm of torque of the V6 engine are unbelievably pleasant. The 0 -100 km/h sprint of 6.5 seconds was never attempted but the Velar always seemed keen off the mark. Although a pretty large vehicle, the Velar took corners very well, and often invoked a sense of confidence you would not necessarily expect from SUVs in these situations. The ride quality of the Velar was equally pleasing. It is really comfortable and quite in there, especially taking into account the good noise insulation.

The Range Rover Velar range is priced from R976,500.