This Range Rover is a Lottery winner’s dream

A RECENT Irish Lottery winner said that one of the first things he was going to do was learn how to drive and buy a VW Passat, as it was a sturdy, comfortable car.

He must never have heard of the Land Rover Vogue because I’m sure this SUV would be many Lottery winners’ choice of car.

The model I drove last week has a basic price of

?¬119,335 and goes up to

?¬135,075, but despite that price tag already this year Jaguar/Land Rover has sold 48 units, that’s 16 more than the total number of luxury cars sold in Ireland last year.

So it looks like the economy must be picking up, or maybe it’s all old money.

Appropriately the colour of my test car was champagne, but a quick glance at the windscreen shocked me when I saw the annual road tax is

?¬1,200. But as a colleague remarked that if you can afford a car that costs as much as a small house, you won’t be worrying about the road tax.

In the past I have often raved about the views over the Irish hedgerows from various People Carriers and SUVs. But if you travel any distance in this new version of the Vogue you should find yourself humming the old Roger Miller hit

‘King of the Road.’ Naturally there is massive power in the 3-litre turbo diesel engine and it’s considered ideal for towing.

I found it easy enough to climb on board by grabbing the steering wheel, but my wife, who has a touch of arthritis, found it difficult getting into the cabin. For a few days she used a small stool to climb on board until I discovered a button that lowered the suspension.

Yes, it’s high and the interior is gorgeous. The seats are so comfortable and easy to adjust. Plenty of room for five adults, massive boot space and a full-size spare wheel. There are so many life-easing gadgets, like the button to open and close the boot and then there are buttons in the boot to fold down the back seats. Also the driver and front seat passenger can avail of a permanent back massage.

An excellent reversing camera and there are also cameras to help you watch what’s happening to your left and right as you drive along. If happen to go north of the border kilometres are automatically converted to mph on the dash, which should help you stay within the speed limits.

It’s such a stylish car and naturally I got a lot of comments during the week, from both male and female. Posh Spice has worked on designs for the interiors of the Evogue for Jaguar and our own Amy Huberman drives an Evogue. You may remember that last week I said that the Range Rover won the Luxury class in the Women’s Car of the Year awards.

After all that luxury it’s very hard to find a fault and there were not, just a mention of the radio controls. I listen to a lot or radio when driving and I could have done with a proper button to scroll up and down the wavelengths.

But then I can hear you say,

‘he has little to worry about.’ So what are you waiting for? Head down to your local newsagents and do the Lottery….