http://www.imotormag.co.uk/carreviews/362007/holland_and_holland_range_rover_by_overfinch_review.html

Marketed outside of the U.S for supposed DOT approval reasons – the Dual View technology for the 2010 Range Rover refresh allows the driver to view the Satellite Navigation system while the front seat passenger is watching a DVD, etc…

This isn’t a Land Rover specific technology – Mercedes has also announced their adding it as an option to the 2010 S-Class – as Splitview.  I do think this is great news, if they’ve gotten their regulatory approval, hopefully Land Rover won’t be far behind.  And it will fit right in on the now extensive (for a U.S. Range Rover anyway) options list.

Reference Article: Mercedes-Benz Launching Splitview Technology At L.A. Auto Show

While checking out a high-resolution shot of an Autobiography interior, I noticed a few things I hadn’t noticed before.  There aren’t too many other pictures out there so I’m not sure how this picture compares to the final vehicle – you can click it for the full resolution 14.6MB image.

While I do think they really did a great job with all the new leather trim, there are a few issues I have.  First, check out the sun visors – if they are going to the effort to cover everything in leather, why not spend the extra money in this $110,000(minimum) Range Rover and wrap the sun visors in leather – that cloth look just completely out of place and cheapens that part of the interior.  This has been par for the course with Land Rover, making these odd trade-offs – do they think no one notices?  Going back to the 2007 interior refresh, they remade the door cards – like what you see above, the new plastic that surrounds the door handles is just smooth texture-less plastic and immediately behind it was the new leather wrapped armrest.  Was it a designer or an accountant that said “as long as we put some leather here, they won’t notice this other terrible piece of trim”?  In these pictures, it does look like they have finally leather wrapped it for the Autobiography, but that’s something that should be in all models, these cars cost too much money to have exposed hard plastic trim in a p lace where your had will rest – your forearm gets leather, your hand gets plastic.

Another observation, and I’m hoping this is just a pre-release vehicle that they photographed – check out the high-res version of the picture above and look at the leather trim at the top of the a-pillars(door posts).  Here are some close ups and you can see those wonderful sun visors there too:

Again I hope this was a pre-release because those seams are a little too rough for production, it’s actually a little embarrassing.  The current Range Rover interior has never been afraid to show its gaps, but this is a little crazy.  I just feel if you’re going to the trouble of taking pictures like these, wouldn’t you try to make it as perfect as possible, I wouldn’t even blame them for a little Photoshopping.

I’m going to stop beating them up now, there are a lot more spots that just seem to be way too rough for an official high-res picture like this – if you take a look you’ll see how they stick out.

Now having said this, I of course can’t wait to get one!  And I do have to complement them on adding some leather to the trim on the door pockets – this has gone back and forth through the years.  Originally it was wood trim then with the 2007 refresh it went to plastic and at least the Autobiography package dresses it up again.

BBC News posted an article back in August about a Welsh company, Calsonic Kansei – they were awarded some govnerment financing, which was great news for them, but the part that interested me the most was in the last paragraph:

"This announcement coincides with the news that Calsonic is successful in winning a major new contract with Jaguar Land Rover for the next generation Range Rover platform and will ensure that the work will come to the Llanelli plant which is great news for our employees."

Just reading that makes me wonder how many people out there really know what’s coming to the Range Rover for the 4th generation.

Clearing out some old links I never posted – here’s a press release on the latest 2010 Armoured Range Rover – http://www.defpro.com/news/details/10170/