This is your co-pilot speaking...

1 his is your co-pilot speaking…

I’ve been for a ride in the new Range Rover. Not a drive (that comes next month), but enough time in the passenger seat to remind me how meaningless are such evaluations.

I hate doing them generally, but never more so than when Mike Cross, the head of Jaguar Land Rover vehicle dynamics, is at the helm. I’ve sat next to him dozens of times over the past 20 years and he could make you think a Tesco trolley handled like a Lotus. So what can I reliably tell you about only the fourth all-new Range Rover of the past 42 years? It’s better looking in flesh than

photo, far more spacious inside than its predecessor and bizarrely quiet given its size. I was most interested however to see how it rode, if only because the challenge of making a car the best off-roader in its class while attempting to rival the S-class Mercedes for bump isolation seems nigh on impossible.

Cross was always surprised by how good a press the ride of the old car got, but he won’t be when plaudits for the new one start rolling in. It’s no S-class, but it still brings a new level of comfort to this class. As for the rest I, like you, will have to wait a few weeks.