By Tony Middlehurst / Sunday, 21 August 2022 / Loading comments
Bigger than an Evoque, smaller than a Sport. Ah yes, who can forget good old Bruce Forsyth on Play Your Cards Right. Sadly, Brucey never owned a Land Rover Range Rover Velar on account of how its arrival on the scene coincided with his departure from it.
Built in Solihull on the aluminium JLR iQ platform, the Velar might not have had a very catchy name – pronounced ‘vell-ar’, it was pinched from the original Range Rover prototypes – but, without wishing to generalise or claim any sort of evidence to back this up or enter into any arguments about SUVs, it was generally considered to be a very good looking car. Chief LR designer Gerry McGovern called it ‘the avant garde Range Rover’ that brought a new dimension of glamour, modernity and elegance to the brand. Somebody online bravely asked the question ‘is the Velar a woman’s car?’. Land Rover’s own data suggested that the Velar had indeed come out in research as being more female-friendly. Irrespective of whatever gender you assigned to yourself, the Velar really took the posh all-wheel drive SUV fight straight to Porsche (Macan) and Audi (Q5) on its debut in March 2017. Judges of the 2018 World Car Awards made it their World Car Design of the Year winner.
All Velars came with a ZF 8-speed automatic (8HP45 in the fours, 8HP70 in the rest), but the range of petrol and diesel engines they could be paired up to was six wide. You could immediately establish the drink of choice and the power of any Velar from the model badge on the tailgate: P for petrol, D for diesel, followed by a three-figure number for the PS output. All the engine variants didn’t come out at once though, and the ones that did come out didn’t all survive.
The summer 2017 launch selection included a base model D180 single-turbo Ingenium 2.0-litre and a D300 3.0-litre V6 twin-turbo diesel with 516lb ft on tap from 1,500rpm. A 237hp twin-turbo 2.0-litre diesel D240 was also available from launch, making these much more numerous and, by virtue of their extra age, more affordable on the used market than the D200 which didn’t come along until 2021. In that same 2021 model year a mild 48v hybrid assisted straight six 3.0-litre diesel was launched along with a plug-in hybrid P400e (still based on the 2.0 Ingenium petrol) offering 398hp and a claimed electric-only range of 33 miles. Supercharged 3.0-litre V6 P340 and P380 models were announced in 2017 but these never went on official sale in the UK. Both were gone by 2020.
Hopping back to mid 2018 for a moment, that’s when Land Rover introduced a list of enhancements for the 2019 model year including high-speed emergency braking, the option of four-corner air suspension on all V6 Velars plus the D240 and P300, and steering assist, which married up the existing adaptive cruise control with lane centering to steer the Velar within its lane while maintaining a set distance from the vehicle ahead.
A new twin-turbo D275 version of the 3.0-litre V6 diesel was added to the range at this time, and the fuel tank was enlarged from 63 litres (or 66, depending on who you believed) to a new capacity of 82 litres. The two petrol engines in the range – a single-turbo P250 and a twin-turbo P300, both using the JLR Ingenium 2.0-litre inline four petrol engine – were equipped with particulate filters from this point.
Wearing a sensible hat, the 201hp 2.0-litre inline four D200 diesel gave mpg figures in the mid-40s and decently speedy acceleration (low eights for the 0-62mph), but that engine didn’t arrive in the range until 2021 so D200 starting prices are still high at around £45,000. Throwing away that sensible hat took you to the suitably mad 542hp supercharged 5.0-litre V8 P550 SVAutobiography Dynamic that was available from 2019 to 2020. This would blaze through the 0-62mph in 4.5sec, and also through a lot of petrol. Today, you should be able to find one for £65k.
The core range covered Standard (find one of those if you can), S, SE and HSE, with First Edition topping the luxury offering on the first cars. These were 3.0-litre V6 petrol or diesels only and came with full extended leather, perforated Windsor leather seats, a 1,600watt Meridian Signature sound system, matrix LED headlights, hand-sprayed bodies in grey or two shades of silver, and 22in diamond-turned wheels.
R-Dynamic was popularly applied to Velars as a cosmetics package, the contents depending on what trim of car you were applying it to. S models had 19in alloys, leather seats, sat nav and a reversing camera. SEs added matrix LED headlights, traffic sign recognition, 12.3in interactive driver’s display and a 360-degree camera. HSEs included Meridian audio, adaptive cruise control and active lane-keeping assistance. R-Dynamic included different wheel choices, black grilles, copper accents, sportier bumpers, aluminium trim pieces, seat leather upgrades, leather steering wheels, satin chrome gearshift paddles and for some models a better sound system.
The good thing about the breadth of the Velar range and the number of vehicles LR built is that it has resulted in loads of them being on sale in the UK at any given moment – more than 1,100 at the time of writing, in fact, with nearly half of them on PH Classifieds. Boosting that big availability and big range was the willingness of first buyers to spec up Velars at any trim level, so if you’re in the secondhand market you can get much of ‘the look’ of the more expensive Velars without necessarily paying through the nose for it. A four- or five-year old 178hp D180 with the right wheels and bodykit/exhaust add-ons would look the part and could be yours for as little as £28,000, reversing the £82k you might pay for a mint low-mile SVAutobio.
Four or five years old. And the UK warranty for Land Rovers is what, you say? Three years? Hmm. Is a used Velar really a viable bridge between the Evoque and the Sport, or is it a bridge too far? Let’s take a look at what you get, good and bad.
Engine: 2.0 petrol or diesel four to 5.0 V8 supercharged Transmission: 8-speed automatic, all-wheel drive Power (hp): 178-542 (D180/SVAuto) Torque (lb ft): 269-516 (P250/D300 V6) 0-62mph (secs): 8.9-4.5 (D180/SVAuto) Top speed (mph): 130-170 (D180/SVAuto) Weight (kg): 1,959 (D300) MPG (official combined): 44.1 (D300) CO2 (g/km): 195 (D300) Wheels (in): 20 (D240) Tyres: 255/50 (D240) On sale: 2017 - on Price new: from £44,830 Price now: from £28,000
Note for reference: car weight and power data is hard to pin down with absolute certainty. For consistency, we use the same source for all our guides. We hope the data we use is right more often than it’s wrong. Our advice is to treat it as relative rather than definitive.
The D240 had 237hp at 4,000rpm and 369lb ft at 1,500rpm, delivering a 0-62 time of 7.3sec, a top speed of 135mph, and 48.7mpg on the old combined cycle – giving you a potential fill-to-fill range of close to 900 miles from a 2018-on car’s enlarged 82-litre (18 gallon) tank. Even if you went with the less optimistic WLTP standard figure of 41.1mpg and the earlier Velar’s smaller tank you were still talking about a theoretical range of 600 miles, enough to put plenty of distance between you and any Mad Max types who might try to nick your fuel come the apocalypse.
Pre-2019 Ingenium engines have not exactly covered themselves in glory reliability-wise, with engine-endangering problems centring on balance shaft bearings, turbochargers, drive belts and timing chain tensioners. We think that last one may have been addressed by JLR in late 2019. The wisdom of the Ingenium’s long oil change intervals (over 20,000 miles) has been questioned. Oil tests carried out on the 2.0 diesel by at least one disgruntled owner showed worrisome dilution and high levels of iron and aluminium. Exhaust gas/cat smells in the cabin have been noticed by some SVAuto owners when they hit the throttle hard.
A Velar might refuse to come out of Park when you started it up, or refuse to go into it when you stopped it, triggering a veritable light show of warnings like Transmission Fault, HDC Not Available System Fault, Adaptive Dynamics Fault and Stability Control Not Available. This would usually be down to faults in the Mechatronic/valve body/transmission control module assembly. A new TCM would be in excess of £500 including fitment. In some cases the problem was a faulty brake light switch causing the car to decide that it was unsafe to drive. The fix there would be to replace the switch.
Land/Range Rovers have acquired a bit of a reputation for battery drain over the past few years. This is very much not helped if you don’t lock the car when you come home, because leaving it unlocked leaves the infotainment system running, with predictable results the next morning. Stop/start might not work either if the battery condition is low, which it may well be if you’ve left it at the airport or whatever for a week or so. Same goes for the automatic tailgate and the buttons for the sunroof (whose glass incidentally, and somewhat inexplicably, has a reputation for cracking). With a bad battery you might also see warning lights come up for the air suspension.
Low engine coolant warnings could often be traced back to defective (leaking) thermostats. Diesel particulate filters have been known to require cleaning more than once, with reports of LR dealers asking for £1,700-£2,000 to replace them. A peculiar squeaking noise experienced by one D200 owner was eventually traced to the exhaust actuator valve, an issue also noted on some contemporary Discoveries.
Recalls were issued in the UK to rectify problems with inconsistently brazed fuel rail end caps causing fuel leakage into the engine compartment, sub-standard fuel return hoses, failure to routinely achieve the required levels of CO2 emissions and fracturing crankshaft pulley bolts on V6 and V8 engines.
The ride provided by the air suspension that was standard on all six-cylinder Velars (and the SVA) and optional on the others was quite firm, but the upside of that and of the Adaptive Dynamics dampers was a pleasing lack of roll in corners. Ground clearance was a hefty 251mm on air, with a 650mm wading depth. There was nothing chi-chi about those numbers.
As you’d expect from this manufacturer the Velar was packed with a big suite of driver assist and safety systems. Low Traction Launch, Hill Descent Control and Gradient Release Control were all standard but Terrain Response 2 (which offered basically the same package of traction, stability control and braking, engine and transmission settings as the original Terrain Response system, but in a fully automatic form, with no need to make manual changes) and All Terrain Progress Control (which helped drivers maintain steady progress at speeds of between 1 and 19mph on low-friction surfaces) were both optional.
The Velar’s towing capacity was 2,500kg and you could get an Advanced Tow Assist function which allowed the driver to use a Touch Pro Duo rotary controller to reverse a Velar with a trailer attached, obviating the need to counter-steer while reversing. An active locking rear differential was available as an option.
Brake discs could get very rusty on the inside surfaces and rear wishbones have been known to fail. The boot-located compressor for the air suspension could develop leaks, sometimes as a result of having to work overtime at keeping leaky air springs pumped up. Velar wheels of up to 22-inch diameter were easy to kerb.
The word used a lot by Land Rover’s PR folk to describe the Velar philosophy was ‘reductionism’. An aluminium-intensive body played a big part in that, although no Velars came in under 1,800kg so you could never really describe them as light.
There was loads of space in the cabin in a general sense, but those in the rear might have wished that the LR stylists had sacrificed a little of the coupe look for a bit more headroom back there. That styling choice also killed off any possibility of a seven-seat Velar variant.
The electronically-deploying door handles looked great but, perhaps not altogether unsurprisingly, sometimes disappointed owners when it came to extraction and retraction. Wonky retraction (got all their albums etc) where the handle came out more on one side than the other could sometimes be un-wonked by a hand shove. Although it seemed less than optimal in such a new and modern vehicle, applying lubricating spray in cold weather did mitigate some of the sticking issues. One commonly held view was that the motors simply weren’t man enough for the job. Some owners have had to have their handle mechanisms replaced.
Creaks could emanate from the driver’s door area. These were often down to a dicky fit of the plastic shroud at the base of the seat. A squirt of lube could effect a temporary fix. Noise could also be generated by the driver’s window when it was in the closed position. Pressing against the glass could effect a (very) temporary fix. More rattles could come from the area between the door and the dash.
A plastic part inside the LED headlight assembly might come adrift for no apparent reason, moving upwards and obscuring part of the DRL. Some owners succeeded in warranty claims on that. Replacement headlight units are reportedly £3,500-£4,000 each. Rear light cluster lenses could crack on the inside through heat-related adhesive debonding. Rear LED indicators could conk out and a malfunctioning rear radar module would cause the blind spot and traffic control functions to play up.
The Touch Pro Duo infotainment system featured two high-def 10-inch touchscreens. Darking out was an issue on the digi displays of some early cars. This should have been resolved by a 2018 update. An odd crackling through one or other of the audio speakers frustrated many owners, some of them thinking it was associated with the reversing beeper, others with the plugging in of an HDMI cable.
Pairing up your phone with the Velar over Bluetooth wasn’t usually a problem but using the phone’s call function once you’d paired it might be. There might also be difficulties in using the phone as a music source. A software update was issued to sort both of those out, but Apple CarPlay could be fritzy. At least one owner was told by LR’s customer services team that the Velar was not compatible with CarPlay, which isn’t correct. Some dealers have said that with up-to-date software CarPlay should work. Others have allegedly asked for £172 plus VAT (an hour’s labour) for the software update.
Some owners have been bothered by a high-pitched drone at motorway speeds which could often, but not always, stop when a bump was hit. LR told one owner that the dealer needed to re-upload and recalibrate the Active Noise Cancellation software but we don’t know if that resolved the situation. Incorrectly fitted brake or AdBlue pipes have been cited as possible causes for other low-frequency cabin noises with 1,500rpm on the (petrol) tacho. Re-aligning the tailgate or tightening the spare wheel locator bolt has brought improvements on some cars.
The Vehicle Location function in the In Control remote app might tell you that your Vehicle Could Not Be Located. The electronic selector control might fail to rise, rendering the car undrivable unless you happened to have some sort of suction device to lift it. The temperature of the air coming through the heating/ventilation system could go up and down in an apparently random fashion. Demisting was especially hit and miss on cars built between April and November 2017, leading to a recall to fix detaching air inlet door linkages.
Seats-up boot space was a respectable 632 litres, increasing to a more than respectable 1,790 litres with the seats down, putting the Velar somewhere between the Q5 and Q7 Audis. There have been instances of light-coloured Velar seats absorbing dyes from clothing. A specially developed textile covering was available instead of leather.
At the start of this buying guide we mentioned how LR design boss Gerry McGovern reckoned the Velar brought a new dimension of glamour, modernity and elegance to the brand. It was certainly a handsome and highly capable machine. Sadly, it appears that it also brought something more familiar to Land Rover owners: problems. The main UK Velar forum has a ‘Faults and Technical’ section which runs to 17 pages, with around 35 separate topics per page. Obviously not all of those topics relate to faults, but the vast majority of them are. We’ve detailed only a selection of them in this guide: there are plenty more.
Now, there’s no reason to suggest that any used Velar you buy will have all, some or even any of these faults but you definitely need to have your wits (and a strong warranty) about you when dipping your toe in this pond. That seems to be such a shame when a vehicle is otherwise so appealing on so many levels.
Which Velar to go for? If you’re in a position to consider diesels but can’t run to the later and therefore more expensive D200, the D240 offers a decent balance of performance and economy and it’s been around from the start, standing second only to the D180 in terms of the number of used examples for sale, so you should be able to find one at a reasonable price.
If you’re leaning more towards performance, the older-tech 3.0 V6 diesel in the D300 blends a 6.5sec 0-62mph time and 150mph with a combined fuel consumption figure of 44.1mpg on the old standard, with owners reporting achieving exactly that figure when cruising at 70mph, but the entry level for a D300 is close to £40k for a 45,000-miler. D240 prices start at around £31k for high-milers. Here’s a black-on-black one for £33k. For a few dollars more what about this 3.0 diesel at £34,985? Or if you want to push the boat out, or indeed a small ship, pile in on this 28,000-mile 542hp SVA at £65,500.
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