8.07.2019

Like A Locomotive That Needs No Tracks: The 2019 Range Rover 3.0 liter Td6 Diesel

Front view of 2019 Range Rover 3.0 liter Td6 Diesel
The 2019 Range Rover 3.0 liter Td6 Diesel.
Publisher's note: Normally, the cars you read about here at TireKicker are loaned to us by the press fleets of the various manufacturers for several days. Seven is typical.  Occasionally, we'll get a longer period of time, and sometimes it'll only be three or four days.  Our "30 Minutes With" series features cars we spent half an hour driving during the just-concluded Western Automotive Journalists Media Day in Monterey, California.

Needless to say, these are quick drives and brief impressions that we hope to be able to flesh out with a full review of the vehicle at some point in the near future.

Media Days is a driving program, with journalists taking cars from the staging area at Quail Lodge in Carmel Valley over Laureles Grade and back or off-road on the acclaimed Land Rover Experience on the grounds of Quail Lodge.

My fourth drive of the day was on the Land Rover Experience course---in the 2019 Range Rover 3.0 liter Td6 Diesel.



2019 Range Rover 3.0 liter Td6 Diesel rear 3/4 view
2019 Range Rover 3.0 liter Td6 Diesel.
Yes, diesel.  In a Range Rover.  You trade 100 horsepower (down from 355 to 255) when you choose the diesel 3-liter six instead of the standard gasoline version, but you gain massive torque---443 pounds per foot.  And if you intend to use your Range Rover as God intended---going places only a Range Rover can or should go---that torque is your best friend.  And on the pavement, the horsepower tradeoff is negligible in real-world terms---0-60 takes 9/10ths of a second longer.

Front 3/4 view of 2019 Range Rover 3.0 liter TD6 Diesel
2019 Range Rover 3.0 liter Td6 Diesel.
With a guide from the Land Rover Experience in the passenger seat, I took the Range Rover 3.0 liter Td6 diesel down some roads that, in any other vehicle, I would have put it in reverse and backed away from.  

Front and side-view cameras in 2019 Range Rover 3.0 liter Td6 Diesel
Front and side-view cameras in 2019 Range Rover 3.0 liter Td6 Diesel.

Between the massive dose of torque, the front and side-view cameras, the hill descent control and the fact that this is what Range Rovers do, there was never any question that even I, far from a pro at this sort of thing, was going to get through it without damage, injury or embarrassment. 

Interior view of 2019 Range Rover 3.0 liter Td6
2019 Range Rover 3.0 liter Td6 interior.
And let's face it---even tilting at a 30-degree angle, there's no place more comfortable than the cabin of a Range Rover.   Base price is $91.700.  My half-hour driving it on the off-road course at Quail Lodge?

Priceless.