I usually avoid giving a definitive assessment of a car's design because it's very subjective. With the latest model of the English company Land Rover - Range Rover Velar, however, I cannot express my admiration for the stunning appearance of this car. Velar looks on the gray streets of Sofia and outside the capital as an unreal car, like a concept, illuminated, for example, by the powerful spotlights of the Geneva Motor Show.

The huge Darth Vader-style grille, big wheels, beautiful rear end, and the entire stand of the crossover attract the attention of small and large to the point that anyone who has seen the car in the rearview mirrors gives way and slams on the brakes. take a detailed look at the luxury SUV.

However, a few thousand road users have a chance to drive a Velar. Inside the car is a real gem, it looks like a spaceship. At first, you may be a little surprised by the lack of plastic control buttons and instruments. Everything is mounted on two futuristic 10-inch touch screens. When the engine is started, they light up, the top tilts at an angle of 30 degrees to the driver. Two touch screens are complemented by two rotary controllers.

They can be programmed to perform several functions such as adjusting the interior temperature, setting the seat massage function or Terrain Response mode. Between them is a rotary knob for controlling the audio system.

Everything shines in the cabin - natural leather, wood accents, silver metal and polished glass. In addition, Velar offers durable premium textile seat upholstery as an alternative to the leather you can find in other parts of the cabin.

At 4.8 meters long, the Velar sits between the previous handsome Evoque (43 cm longer) and the Range Rover Sport (5 cm shorter). As such, the new model sits snugly under the large Range Rover Sport, meaning it offers an extremely spacious interior and a huge trunk (673 liters, rising to 1,731 liters when the rear seats are lowered).

The Velar relies on the lightweight yet strong aluminum architecture we know from the Jaguar F-Pace, air suspension (standard on more powerful engines), state-of-the-art aluminum engines with very high power and efficiency, and legendary Land Rover engineering.

The test engine was powered by a superb 300 horsepower 3 liter V6 diesel engine. But even more impressive here is the 700 Nm of torque available in the 1500-1750 rpm range, making the SUV a real hallmark when accelerating from standstill to 100 km/h (in 6.5 seconds), when overtaking in different conditions speed, as well as off-road problems.

The excellent 8-speed automatic transmission also helps. The catalog consumption is between 5.8 and 7.4 percent, but in fact it is 8.5-9 liters per 100 km of combined driving.

With a light and strong coupe, the Velar is more than dynamic for an SUV of its size and ground clearance. This is also possible thanks to the combination of torque vectoring to all wheels and the legendary Range Rover 4x4 SUV, which provides maximum traction determined for each wheel individually. The air suspension has 50 mm of travel and can raise the car 251mm off-road or lower it 10 mm to 205 mm when traveling at speeds above 105km/h.

If you're driving a luxury SUV on tarmac, you're trusting Terrain Response technology, familiar to us from other models from the company. It analyzes driving conditions, automatically adjusting the most appropriate engine, transmission, suspension and traction settings. The driver can do this manually in one of the driving modes - for dynamic driving, eco, for driving over large stones, trampling on grass, snow, mud or sand. It is worth noting that Velar is able to overcome water obstacles up to 65 cm deep.

The crossover is literally packed with all modern security systems. One of the most important technologies is the Autonomous Emergency Brake (AEB).

An innovative stereo camera in the windshield monitors the road in front of the car. If the AEV system detects that a collision with another vehicle or a pedestrian is imminent, the brakes are automatically applied to help avoid or mitigate a collision. The driver receives visual and audible warnings before braking.