• It boasts a full suite of off-road driving assist technology to cope with snow, mud, sand with hill start and decent plus option wading assist. It really is a go-anywhere serious piece of kit.
• Luxury oozes out of every element of the Autobiography’s interior – 18-way adjustable perforated leather powered front seats, cooled and heated with massage setting and even heating for the rear passenger seats. Brushed alloy panels and suede-effect headliner and chunky switchgear complete an environment of comfort bordering on the indulgent.

• Onboard wi-fi is complemented by full smartphone integration allow endless possibilities for app downloads including Land Rover’s Remote Control app to operate functions like beeping the horn, flashing the lights to help finding the car in low visibility, GPS tracking of where it is parked with route guidance by road, public transport or walking and even the facility to start the engine to set a temperature before the journey.
• Simply stunning array of ‘standard’ equipment includes such highlights as a Volumetric Alarm (with plus tilt sensor, battery back-up sounder and other perimeter spotting features), visual display rear camera parking aid including hitching guidance and rear junction view, adaptive cruise control with queue assist, intelligent emergency braking and active seat belts, keyless entry and remote controlled powered tailgate with foot gesture control.

• But before we lose ourselves in all the gadgets, this remains a seriously capable load carrier boasting a luggage carrying capacity of 1,698 litres of space with the rear seats folded.

What’s not?

• Naturally you’ll not see terrific fuel economy on a performance diesel lugging 2.5 tonnes of weight but struggling to reach 19mpg around town is a bit poor especially when speeds, these days, rarely trouble 30mph.
• These figures equate to a bit of a pummelling over benefit-in-kind tax with the car ranked alongside supercars attracting a whopping 37% tax that company car drivers will have to find for the first three years of ownership.
• While copious amounts of storage space do exist, I couldn’t get the rear seats to fold completely flat and there didn’t appear to be a release to pull up the seat cushions as you could in early Range Rover Sport models. Surely this is an easy design fix, especially considering some of the car’s premium competitors do boast completely flat loading beds?
• Not being the tallest of drivers, I would have preferred a higher seat height to see the extremities of the car’s bodywork properly á la the Range Rover Vogue and not be so dependent on parking sensors which, as I discovered, are not always fool-proof!

Business Car Manager Road Test Verdict

Apart from costs of running this huge beast in a real world environment, it’s really hard not to fall head-over-heels with it because it does everything you’d want from car and then some, completely unfazed by road or off-road conditions.

It’s true that, unless you’re among the unfortunates caught in the recent freak floods that hit Cumbria, it’s unlikely many will ever have to ford a raging flood but it’s comforting to think that should the need arise to make a mercy dash into the wilderness loaded with the best victuals Fortnum & Mason’s can supply, there won’t be many cars able to do it with such pace, style, grace and comfort.

The Low Down…..

…..and what it costs