New Range Rover rolls in – 2022 Motoring Newsmaker No 10

Two-thousand and twenty-two in the South African motoring industry proven once again that Mzansi is undoubtedly bakkie country.

While there were lots of activity in the SUV, hatchback and sedan segments, it was the bakkies that got the most attention. Bakkie news span from Peugeot’s re-entry into the segment by virtue of the Landtrek, the first Jeep bakkie in the form of the Gladiator and the hottest production Toyota Hilux yet to the all-new Isuzu D-Max, Ford Ranger and VW Amarok.

ALSO READ: WATCH: New Range Rover Sport makes its mark on South Africa

In fact, five of the ten most popular motoring topics on The Citizen’s website this year were bakkies. Over the next 10 days, The Citizen Motoring will reveal these five along with the rest of the top 10 Motoring Newsmakers of 2022.

Our first entry at number 10 is the new Land Rover Range Rover. Starting just shy of R3 million it’s a car few are privileged to afford, but is nonetheless desired by many.

Since 1970, when the Range Rover was born as a more luxurious offering to the original Land Rovers, this large SUV has set the benchmark.

Jaguar Land Rover gave the local media a sneak peek of the first all-new Range Rover in almost a decade early in the year before officially rolling it out in August.

Even though we expected the new model to be nothing but brilliant ahead of attending the launch in Cape Town, we were still in awe when we finally got to pilot the new Range Rover. The combination of styling, performance, capability, technology, elegance and comfort borders on pure perfection.

A few months later, we got the opportunity to spend another week in the new Range Rover when the test car in D350 First Edition guise showed up at our offices. We took it to Gerotek test facilities where Road Test Editor Mark Jones performed a high-performance road test. Despite the D350 not really being performance-focussed, its test data was nonetheless impressive for a monstrosity weighing almost two and a half tons.

Those fortunate enough to afford its price tag will have to be patient though as the waiting list for the new Land Rover Range Rover is said to be around 12 months.