Zen and the art of decluttered cars: month 3 with the Range Rover

Published: 20 May 2024

► We live with the new Range Rover
► This month: how clean is the interior?

► It’s a diesel! Month 1 here

Part of Land Rover’s design shtick is to declutter its cars, both outside and in. So the Range Rover’s dashboard sweeps across the car like a wide-open prairie, completely unadorned and uniformly clothed in caramel leather.

No ostentatious vents here or wacky recesses there.

Range Rover interior aircon shot

This clean expanse is punctuated by the twin digital screens, but Range Rover persists with a physical air-con panel. It masquerades as a touchpad but is actually a series of little buttons with an indistinct action. I still find JLR’s dual-function temp/blower dials fiddly too.

The gear selector often fails to acknowledge I’ve nudged it from D to R or back again during tight manoeuvres. That runs the risk of a parking ding when the car goes in the opposite direction to what I’m expecting.

It’s one of the few things that spoil the Zen-like serenity of a lovely cabin – that and having three kids in the back.

Read month 2

Range Rover front on

Logbook: Range Rover D350 HSE (Month 3)

Price £113,120 (£128,180 as tested)
Performance 2997cc turbodiesel six-cylinder, 345bhp, 516lb ft, 6.1sec 0-62mph, 145mph
Efficiency 37.2mpg (official), 36.8mpg (tested), 207g/km CO2
Energy cost 15.0p per mile
Miles this month 1152
Total miles 15,558

By Phil McNamara

Group editor, CAR magazine

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