2018 Range Rover SVAutobiography: Long-Wheelbase Luxury
CARS.COM — At a special customer-reveal party in the warehouse district of downtown Los Angeles, Land Rover revealed its most luxuriously appointed long-wheelbase Range Rover to date. The 2018 Range Rover SVAutobiography LWB — unveiled during the 2017 Los Angeles Auto Show — is priced at $208,895 including destination, taking the top spot away from the SVAutobiography Dynamic.
Related: 2018 Range Rover SVAutobiography Writes Its Own $200K Ticket
For those not familiar with the Special Vehicle Operations tag, this is Jaguar Land Rover’s newly formed division in which designers and engineers are able to create more focused special editions aimed at buyers who might be interested in having elevated amounts of luxury content, more racing performance or more off-road capability.
On the extreme luxury end of the spectrum, the Range Rover SVAutobiography LWB enters the segment with a unique interior featuring all-new wood-trim accents and couchlike deep-cushion seatbacks, as well as newly styled reclining and massaging rear passenger seats, along with a one-touch button to automatically close your door for you.
Think of the rear passenger area more of a first-class seating experience on Emirates airline, or like a small luxury hotel, with electric pop-out tables, a hidden refrigerator, all sorts of armrests and door cubbies, as well as glass, stitching and grab-handle details like you’ve never seen before.
To the touch, the seats feel inviting and comforting. The extra 8 inches of wheelbase are all transferred into extra legroom for rear passengers (there is no third-row seating). For those long-legged athletes, musicians or celebrities likely to find themselves in the back of the SVAutobiography LWB (driven by a chauffeur or close family member), they’ll find comfy lounge-chair leg supports ready to pop up and transport.
Wood, aluminum accent trim and roof padding are equally top-notch, designed to both look and feel like plush furniture to the touch. We were told there’s plenty of extra insulation in the vehicle to provide an impressively quiet interior chamber when the doors are closed. Additionally, there’s a surround-sound audio system controlled by new 10-inch dual-touch screens now on the full Range Rover lineup.
The supercharged 5.0-liter V-8 engine is functionally the same; however, output is up to 557 horsepower while torque is rated at 516 pounds-feet. Likewise, the four-wheel-drive system carries over, with the SVAutobiography LWB only being offered with the two-speed transfer case (as opposed to the full-time all-wheel-drive version available in most other vehicles). The active air suspension carries over on the SVAutobiography LWB as well, but it’s been retuned to accommodate the slightly heavier weight of the new trim level.
Vehicles will be available at dealerships by the end of the first quarter of 2018.
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