2024 Range Rover SV Quick Review

Welcome to Extra Throttle House. I'm Tom. And I'm James. And this is a Range Rover. And I have yet to understand how it's different to the other Range Rovers that we've filmed. Well, this one, I've been living with this. This has two special letters on it. SV stands for Stolen Vehicle. Okay. Because they're pretty much the most, I think in England you can't even get insurance on them. No, no, I've seen in Toronto some people that have Land Rover products, they've actually installed in their driveway little bars. Yeah, bollards. The bollards that come up behind them. And at night, so you can't steal them. Well, that's just the state of Toronto, which has just become a place where you can just take a car off a driveway. But as a result, I've been really paranoid living with this and I can't wait to get rid of it, even though it is very nice. A part of the reason is because it's so expensive. Why is it wrapped? It's not a wrap. This is, adding to the expense, this is a $13,000 paint job. Whoa! Called Copper Sunrise. Oh. In matte finish. Okay, so just so I understand, so this is a Range Rover SV. It's an SV. Which stands for Special Vehicle. And then there's an O. The SV exists within an O, like it's even on the key. SV-O. That is a nice key. Okay, so I have seen this before. I understand what this is. Entirely separate facility at JLR. This is where it gets the good stuff. Like a supercharged V8. Doesn't get a supercharged V8. Oh. The old SV-R got a supercharged V8 and there was an SV autobiography. But now they've consolidated the names and they're all just SVs. Right. And the idea is that it amplifies the characteristics of the vehicle that the badge is on. So how much more horsepower does this have than the normal one? So this came out last year. Yeah. And it didn't have any more horsepower. Same 523 horsepower from a BMW-sourced twin-turbo V8. Okay, so then it's not that much more money than the regular Range Rover. It's a lot more money. But this year, in 2024, it gets a mild hybrid version of that motor. Right. 606 horsepower. Okay, so that's a lot of horsepower. 83 horsepower more. Fancy paint job. So 130, 40 grand? 250, 250 grand plus luxury tax. Yeah, so you're over 300 grand. So it's like a Bentley Bentayga price. But think about the 0 to 100 kilometer an hour time. Because on the 523 horsepower, this had a 4.6 second. Yeah. And now this is a 4.5. Okay. All right, so just again, recap. Fancy paint job, looks like a wrap. Looks exactly like a Range Rover on the outside. Has a special SVO badge. Not much more horsepower. Are the seats made of gold? No. Platinum. No. There is special stuff going on inside. Rhodium. No, no, it's just. Is it filled with a rare noble gas? I think it's quite regal. Can I drive it? It does look good. It does look good, I will say. Yeah. Let's go for a drive. All right, here we go. Why is this plastic? That's not plastic. That's part of the SV treatment. It's ceramic. And Range Rovers say, it's something you'd usually find on jewelry. But it's plastic though. Looks and sounds. No, it's just ceramic. Like plastic ceramic. It's ceramic, yeah. Okay. So this is the Intrepid theme. You got two themes with the SV. Wait, what? Intrepid or Serenity. Okay. Serenity, I believe is the white exterior with the gold accents. Okay. So this is the Intrepid. Yeah. And then inside here, we have this, I think it's like cloud front. Okay. And gray rear. It's a two-tone interior front to back. Like a Civic Type R. Oh, that is cool. But Range Rover style. But Range Rover, yeah. Okay, the jokes aside and cost aside, because you have to put it aside because it's so much money, you can't even begin to fathom it. This is very nice in here. Oh, it's wonderful. Yeah. A change that we've experienced, or sorry, a change that we're experiencing now since the last time we were in this, this screen I think is a bit bigger. Okay. And we've lost the physical HVAC buttons. Oh. They're now in the screen. Oh, well that's not the right direction. It is annoying. Okay, okay. As is driving mode. So like driving mode is this now. Oh, that's not, that, no. That doesn't make any sense. That's your air con stuff. Like I like the visually clean interior, but this looks too Tesla to me. There's nothing here. No, and part of the SV stuff is you can get fancier materials here. Like some of the stuff gets really nice. This is quite a simple spec. Yeah. And also because this is the short wheelbase, in the rear, we don't have the ability to get what's called the signature suite, which is where it joins up the whole rear console into one big fancy with a table. So we don't have that. We still have the armrest that electrically goes up and that has the cocaine mirror. I mean, the mirror in the back. Yeah, exactly. For not cocaine. That's what it's called, sorry. It's for not cocaine. The mirror for not cocaine. The mirror for not cocaine, yeah, yeah. 606 horsepower, right? Yeah, and all for 150 grand. Yeah, well. All right, foot down, see what she's got. Oh yeah, it moves. So it's not a huge difference from the 523. But it's not like, these things used to be raucous and loud, right? Yeah, yeah, the SVR, the supercharged V8 was nuts. That's what I remember. It was nuts, same as the F-Type engine. But it still suffers from some of the ride issues that I've had in Toronto. Like out here on this smooth surface, it's perfect. But once you start getting into cracked roads, it fights its weight. Even there, did you feel that? Yeah, it judders. It judders. And backseat passengers have felt sick. And that's something that, for some reason, the Range Rover always includes. So it's like, I wish it didn't have that. The difference now, though, that I do experience in this versus the normal Range Rover is the mild hybrid. That's new for this year. Even the trims below now benefit from a mild hybrid. So if I come to a stop, it should be really smooth. Yeah, it's much, much smoother. If you remember, that was the one thing that was missing when we did it. This is the X7 in the GLS. Coming to a stop, engine is off. Smooth. Very smooth. It's very good. Top, top, top. And again, that was the one thing it was missing when we compared it to the X7 and the GLS. So it's back. All right, I know I've been driving an Ineos Grenadier. Yeah. Just a solid front axle and recirculating ball steering. It's basically a Wrangler. Yeah. But I think that the steering is too sensitive in this. I think a part of that is that you've been driving an Ineos Grenadier, but it is sensitive steering. Like, it's super light, and the rear wheel steering's really aggressive. And I'm having a hard time kind of keeping it going the direction that I want it to go, because every time you think about the steering wheel, it sends you in a different direction. You're saying it's taking our definition of luxury of minimum input to maximum output to 1.75. Any input at all. Yeah, it creates maximum output. All of the output, yeah. But like, even still, I'm finding it really delicate. Like, super sensitive. It turns on a dial. Why don't we pop into dynamic mode? That's quite slow, isn't it, the way that happens? You're in dynamic. It's great. The clutch has gone red. Oh, it has gone red. And it's got like a tack that goes across this way. That's cool. The one thing that Land Rover products did not need to do was rely more on a screen. No, yeah. Right, and that was dumb. But it's cheaper, isn't it? That's what it is. It's cheaper, it's cost-cutting. So does it feel any different? So as a result, they can charge less money. No, it's more. No, it's more money. It's more money. Okay, I can't ignore the money anymore. Oh, okay, all right, all right. It's way too much money. One, because you keep bringing it up. Yeah. But two, because this really, as an experience, is not that different to the first edition or the ultimate. No, I'm honestly, genuinely having a hard time understanding where the extra money has gone into this. I think this generation, the SV, makes a lot more sense in the Sport. The Range Rover Sport gets, because it, as I said, it amplifies the characteristics. The Range Rover Sport and this is so similar. But once you get to the SV stage, first of all, the Sport gets 626 horsepower. It hits an all the 60 in less than four seconds. I think it did like a 3.6 for one of the outlets. I claim 3.8. Don't fact check me. Okay. But it's quick. And it gets like fancy Sport bucket seats. Like that. I think the Sports SV makes more sense. These are extremely nice seats. This is an extremely nice interior. Oh, it's beautiful. Everything is just gorgeous to look at. The stitching, the design, it's beautiful. The steering wheel is a masterclass in luxury steering wheels. But you get all of this stuff in the ones that cost $100,000 less. You do, you do. So what are you doing? Why are you panicking? Because ceramic. Oh, the plastic. And now it's more power. But it wasn't last year. But it isn't enough more power. No, I agree. And I think that the interior, like if you compare it to the Maybach GLS and the Bentayga, the Maybach GLS is a lot more exciting for a rear seat passenger. It's a bit more chintzy, a lot more chintzy, but it feels more theatrical. And the Bentayga's obviously got a lot of, this is definitely more minimalist. Oh, minimalist, it's very milky. This is for when you pull up in Malibu to the Blue Bottle Coffee and the person beside you doesn't have the SV. Yes. That's why this exists. I'm telling you, having this in my driveway, I've been so scared. Yeah. That someone's gonna come into my house. I don't blame you. And touch my bum.