Range Rover L322 review: third-gen luxury SUV is solid gold

Its parentage was chaotic, but its purpose and character felt wholly unadulterated. The L322 was developed largely in Munich, and BMW had the expertise to give it dynamic sophistication. But BMW, led by R&D chief Wolfgang Reitzle, knew there was no point in building an X5 clone. So Land Rover engineers provided the vision.

Team Britain, under Geoff Upex, also provided the design. Its awesomely clean discipline won out over rival proposals from Chris Bangle's Munich studios. The interior too is like nothing else, and it works as well as it looks.

For years Land Rover engineers had insisted only a separate chassis and live axles could do the necessary when off-road. The L322 was a major about-turn and you wonder how much arm-twisting there was from Munich. It has a monocoque steel body and independent suspension. But Land Rover clearly insisted on ultra robustness and long travel. The low-ratio transfer case and air springs remain, the traction boosted by clever new electronics. So the Range Rover-ness was fully intact.

But oh my on the road it was transformed. It’s in the accuracy of the steering, and the freedom from shudder and bump steer – the ride is just as soft as ever, but much smoother overall, and actually by the time of this 2010 car it had adaptive dampers too, spreading its net of abilities still wider. You're so much more confident at road speeds on an undulating curving surface. It might be a bit wider but drives narrower because of the precision.

The twist of its birth saga is that it wasn't actually launched by the BMW Group. Just before it went on sale Land Rover was sold to Ford. But the sale contract locked-in BMW engineers until it was successfully on sale.

And then over the years Ford began to expunge the BMW bits – superficial stuff like the switchgear, and more fundamental assemblies too, including the engines and electronics.

So by the time of the 2010 example I'm driving here, BMW's V8 petrol and V8 diesel had been evicted. That was Ford's planning, but the ownership saga continued, and in 2008 Tata Motors had taken over JLR.

In came Jaguar V8 N/A and supercharged petrols, and a magnificent Ford-JLR V8 diesel, latterly 4.4 litres. It makes 313bhp and 516 lb ft of torque with basically no diesel chatter, and is hooked up to an eight-speed auto. Surprisingly economical too. What a marvellous and thoroughly appropriate powertrain.

This facelift also brought a TFT instrument screen. Everyone thought Audi was first with this, but no. It was here. At the same time the central screen has a novel bidirectional filter so the passenger can watch movies while the driver sees the sat nav. A surround-camera system makes it even easier to keep on-track off-road.

By the way, this particular one was originally part of the company's VIP fleet and worked at 'an estate in Norfolk'. So of course I did an image search but can't find any shots of a Royal seat in its seat. Never mind, it has, like any Range Rover, a regal bearing.

Perhaps more than any other of the five generations, the L322 feels like a car you really can live with every day. It's not too big to be useable, but it's wonderfully refined and practical and a terrific long-distance thing, as well as engaging in the countryside, on roads and off. Solid gold.

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