You don’t worry about it like you do with the Range Rover (the £130k price difference will do that to you), but there’s never quite the level of faith that tyres/brakes/clutch will do what you need when you need (the car’s 68-year-old age will do that to you).
Where the Jeep does feel happier is on a cross slope. It’s narrow at just 152cm wide but stable, and because it’s so light, it doesn’t pull itself down the slope.
The Range Rover is lucky today in that it’s dry, so the on-road tyres (a set of 20in Michelin all-seasons) don’t struggle to contain the 2695kg mass from slipping with the gradient. If it was wet, it would be a different story.
Still, the four-wheel steer means it navigates through a wood with the same ease as the Jeep, despite being 1.5m longer.
The system also gives traction in unexpected places, allowing the tyres to turn across a slope and keeping the contact patch more stable. It’s impressive stuff.
The downsides
There are some quirks with the Range Rover. It’s very clever, with all the systems talking to each other and sensors measuring every conceivable degree, but sometimes it has a brain-fart moment.
Like reversing back up a slope from a standstill, where the throttle is difficult to control and jerks the car up the hill rather than smoothly climbing. (The second time around it’s much smoother, like it has learned the grip parameters.) Or there’s an occasional random rock that upsets the traction control, sending a thump through the cabin.
