Like A Locomotive That Needs No Tracks: The 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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.