2011 Land Rover LR4 review: 2011 Land Rover LR4

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2011 Land Rover LR4

6.6

2011 Land Rover LR4

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The Good

The <b>Land Rover LR4</b> is one of the most capable off-road vehicles to ever pass through the CNET garage, thanks to a sophisticated Terrain Response system and air suspension. The Rover is quite luxuriously appointed for a vehicle as rugged as it is.

The Bad

The cabin technologies we like to see are there, but they leave much to be desired where usability is concerned.

The Bottom Line

The 2011 Land Rover LR4 may not be sophisticated from a cabin tech standpoint, but its power-train technology is most certainly worthy of note.

If the automotive landscape were to be metaphorically transposed onto a typical TV high school, the 2011 Land Rover LR4 would be the dumb jock. It is absolutely massive, as strong as an ox, and immensely capable when in its element. However, where cabin tech is concerned, it's not what you'd call intelligent. The Rover checks many of the boxes that we like to see filled on our list of available cabin tech options, but it only just barely meets our standards for what's acceptable from a modern tech car, and what's there can be difficult to use.

For example, while setting up Bluetooth hands-free calling, we ended up having to break out the user manual due to the system's complete lack of visual or audible prompts. For techies such as ourselves, having to dig for the manual is truly a humbling experience.

Off- and on-road performance
Forward motivation is provided by the LR4's 5.0 liter V-8 engine, which sends 375 horsepower through a six-speed automatic transmission before the 375 pound-feet of torque is split between its four wheels via its complex Terrain Response system. This system ties together the Rover's front, rear, and center differentials, four-corner air suspension, electronic traction control system, two-speed transfer box with high- and low-gear settings, and braking systems to provide the best possible traction for a variety of situations. The system features presets for sand, snow, mud, and rock crawling, but gives a good deal of flexibility in adjusting the settings to nearly any situation.

There weren't many off-road obstacles that we could find in the San Francisco area that could stop the LR4's forward progression. In its default drive-train mode, we were able to get the big girl to climb a loosely packed dirt hill at over a 45-degree angle of inclination. A romp in the mud was handled with similar ease until a patch of wet grass and standing water nearly froze us in our tracks with the SUV's wheels sunken up to the rim in mud. However, with a quick twist of the drive mode knob to the slippery-surfaces mode and a steady application of throttle, we found the LR4 was able to quickly pull itself free from this trap as well. We spent the better part of an afternoon romping around in the dirt and mud, climbing hill after hill until an attempt at a nearly vertical climb (we estimate it at a 65- to 70-degree angle of inclination) stopped the Rover in its tracks. Satisfied that the 'ute would handle much more than your average soccer mom or weekend warrior would ever run into, we turned our attention to the LR4's on-road behavior.

The LR4 features Terrain Response presets for snow, mud, sand, and rock crawling.

On public roads, the same suspension that soaked up the bumps when bouncing around in the mud combined with the SUV's tall stance, high center of gravity, and relatively stiff air suspension to create a good deal of body motion when traversing simple speed bumps and potholes. We found ourselves bouncing around in our seats considerably more than we were comfortable with. Fortunately, the seats themselves were quite comfortable, with their adjustable armrests, lumbar support, and heated and cooled surfaces. Jostling ride aside, the Rover LR4 handled fairly well for a vehicle of its size. Acceleration was good (the manufacturer estimates that 0 to 60 takes 7.5 seconds) and the Rover changed direction readily. Body roll was ever-present, but when driven within legal limits, we never felt that the beast was about to buck us.

The air suspension can be adjusted to access, normal, and off-road ride heights.

In crowded San Francisco, we thought that parking would be more of an issue than it was, but thanks to front and rear proximity sensors with audible alerts and a rearview camera, we were able to easily parallel park the Rover, getting into and out of spots without a scratch. When it came time to take the LR4 overnight, we got a little panicked watching the low ceiling of our apartment building's parking deck. Fortunately, the Rover's 76.3-inch height ducked all obstructions. Later we discovered the air suspension's access mode, which lowered the vehicle height by 4 inches. Even though we knew that the LR4 would be OK at the stock height, we began to use the access mode every time we parked, mostly because it made climbing into and out of the vehicle much easier. In addition to the access mode, the LR4 also features an off-road setting that raises the vehicle by about 2 inches over the default height. Exceeding 10 mph in access mode or 30 mph in off-road mode caused the LR4 to reset to the standard ride height.

In the cabin
Overall, we found the LR4's fit and finish to be top-notch, capped off by an optional Lux package that, among other things, bumps the interior trim to premium leather, adds eight-way power adjustment to the front seats, and drops a small refrigerator into the hollow of the center console. However, not once during our entire week with the Rover were we able to successfully close a door or a hatch on the first attempt. Every time we went to close a door, it would catch just shy of full lock, requiring a reopening and second slam. The situation was the same for the rear hatch. Perhaps the doors were merely heavier than we thought they were, but more likely we simply weren't accustomed to brutally slamming the portals of a $60K vehicle, particularly the glass rear hatch.

With the doors firmly shut, the LR4's cabin proved to be quiet and comfortable. Most of the controls fell naturally within our reach, including the Terrain Response knob, the steering wheel controls, seat adjustments, and climate controls. The color touch screen that sits at the top of the center stack was a bit of a stretch, but we didn't anticipate needing to tap it too much while the vehicle was in motion.

Our infotainment features started with standard Bluetooth hands-free calling. As we mentioned earlier, this first bit of tech proved to be extremely difficult to set up. The system provides no onscreen and few audible prompts, so we were left taking stabs in the dark with spoken commands. Further complicating matters was the fact that the hands-free system used a unique four-digit PIN that was only documented in the owner's manual. After about 20 minutes of poking around, we finally got our phone paired. Fortunately, once paired, the hands-free system automatically imported our phonebook, allowing us to access and initiate calls with the touch screen.

The standard Bluetooth hands-free system featured no visual and few audible prompts to help us through setup.

The Rover fares slightly better when it comes to digital audio sources. Satellite radio is available as part of the HSE trim level, as is iPod/USB connectivity via a proprietary connection and cable. Of course, there's a single-slot CD player with MP3 playback capability. The touch-screen interface through which you interact with digital audio sources is easy enough to understand at a glance, but it feels a bit overdesigned, dedicating too much screen real estate to interface chrome and animations and not enough to the display of information. If we had to pick one nit that consistently annoyed us, it would be the odd placement of the screen's bottom row of soft buttons, which places the "display off" button far too prominently and crams the back button into the corner farthest from the driver. Both buttons are ambiguously labeled, leading to many accidental deactivations of the screen during song selection or destination entry.

You can connect an iPod or iPhone, but a proprietary cable will be needed.

Speaking of destination entry, our Rover was also equipped with the optional hard-drive-based GPS navigation system. The system is quite rudimentary, with no traffic data and no weather forecasts. Destination input is intuitive, trip routing was speedy, and the spoken turn-by-turn directions were easy enough to follow--even if its robotic voice was ever so slightly irritating.

Upgrading to the Lux trim level also replaces the stock 240-watt, eight-speaker audio rig with a 480-watt, 14-speaker Harman Kardon job that sounds fantastic. Audio quality on the flat EQ curve is balanced and distortion-free at nearly any volume. Staging is also very good thanks to the LR4's speaker placement and Logic7 signal processing. A bit of playing with the audio controls allowed us to tune the system to bring out the best in most genres of music we tested. But don't go too crazy with those bass and treble levels, as this system will let you tune it to distortion. Overall, this is a premium audio system worth upgrading to.

In sum
Our 2011 Land Rover LR4 HSE LUX earns a good performance score for its go-anywhere off-road power train and its surprising on-road performance. We didn't dock too many points for the Rover's truckish ride because, well, it's a truck. Fuel economy is a bit on the low side with an EPA estimated 12 city and 17 highway mpg, but when you consider that you're hauling around about 5,617 pounds of vehicle everywhere you go, the numbers aren't really that bad. Cabin comfort scores are middling. The LR4 offers everything we like to see in a vehicle of its price (navigation, standard Bluetooth, great-sounding premium audio), but the execution of these features (particularly the Bluetooth system and the plain-vanilla navigation system) leaves much to be desired.

The LR4 is an impressive blend of luxurious appointments (particularly at our Lux trim level) and rugged capability. Earlier we characterized the Rover LR4 as a big, dumb jock, but perhaps it's more of a gentle giant, a hulking athlete in a well-tailored suit. However, such a vehicle comes at a price.

In literally the coolest feature of the Lux trim level, our Rover was equipped with a small refrigerator.

Starting at $47,650 for the LR4 V8 gets you the one of the most capable off-road vehicles to ever pass through the Car Tech garage, and standard Bluetooth and a rear proximity sensor. Increase that price to $52,750 for the LR4 HSE and you get navigation, satellite radio, and iPod integration. At this trim level, you also get a fold-flat third row of seats and a rearview camera--the latter of which is very necessary for Rover owners in urban environments. Our LR4 HSE LUX starts at $57,665 and adds premium leather seats, a front proximity sensor, smart keyless entry and start, the 480-watt Harman Kardon audio rig, and the very cool center console refrigerator. Add $2,500 for 20-inch alloy wheels, $350 for black lacquer interior trim, a $100 gas guzzler tax, and an $850 destination charge to reach our as-tested price of $60,615.