Video: 2014 Land Rover LR4 Review

So how does the LR4 drive? Pretty much like you'd like a luxury SUV to drive. It's got a 340 horsepower, supercharged V6 engine. Although that sounds pretty impressive in this car, it drives a little more sedate than it's more expensive brethren, the Range Rover Sport. But there's no problem in passing it speed or getting to a good start off the line. Inside, Land Rover achieves what I would call it rugged luxury. What I mean by that is the touch surfaces are nice and soft, but there's no wood trim, whether real or fake, that you'd find in some of its luxury competitors. In addition, the controls have a nice rubbery feel to them. They're easy to find and easy to remember where they are, and they're not the capacitive buttons that we don't like. Now, it also has these armrests. Very comfortable, nicely touched with leather. But the downside is that every time I got in the car and buckled or unbuckled, up came the armrest. It was a real drag. We were big fans of these seats in the front row of the LR4. Very soft, supple leather, but still supportive without being taxing over long distances, no matter what road we're on. Now, getting in was another issue. Even at the lowest hydraulic setting, I found a little challenging. My wife, at five-foot tall found it extremely challenging without running boards. So that was a bit of an issue. Now, in the second row, and this one had some issues, where you can see with the driver's seat, where I normally sit, there's not a lot of space there for my legs. and the seats don't recline, nor do they move forward and back like a lot of competitors. Remember earlier where we talked about the third row, the difficulty. The first difficulty we have is actually getting to it. To move the second row, you need to pull a lever to flip the seat down and reach behind and grab a strap, pull the seat out of the way. There are a lot of competitors who have a second row where there's a one-hand, one-lever function that will move the seat out of the way much easier than this. And that brings us to our biggest point of contention with the LR4, the third row and the cargo space. Now, there's the clamshell opening tailgate. That's great if you're tailgating, right? 'Cause it gives you this nice, wide ledge. Very supportive. But the downside, though, is if you're just trying to get stuff into the LR4 or out. That extra distance of the tailgate really keeps you back from the stuff you wanna get at. Then there's the third row seats. So you can tell they're fairly thin, not terribly supportive, and not a lot of leg room. They're meant for kids, not adults. And frankly, putting them down is a multi-step process. Now at an age where many competitors have power folding third row seats, these just don't stack up. Now, we found the LR4 to be both comfortable and have plenty of power. Now, for that third row, it's an option, $1,250 option. And if you need that kind of seating, we'd opt for something else. (engine revving)