It’s not a model for the average market – far from that, in fact. Even though some mothers definitely go a little crazy and overprotective when it comes to investing in a safe SUV and driving their kids around town in it, even the new Ranger Rover Sentinel is way above that league and it’s aimed at a very specific niche of the market. The fact that it costs nearly half a million dollars and was first revealed at the Defense and Security Equipment International Show is probably a pretty good hint about its intended audience.
In any case, the new SUV by Range Rover is an absolute beast, and reviewers have been in awe of it. It brings quite a lot to the table and many have described it as a tank in a SUV disguise – and one look through the list of features is more than enough to drive that point home. The SUV can actually withstand a TNT blast and is resistant to various calibers of rounds, including 7.62 mm ammunition. Explosions can be safely dissipated and the energy directed away from the vehicle even when the bomb was placed directly underneath it.
In addition, the SUV doesn’t even have glass windows – it uses special materials that not only make the windows highly durable, it also makes it very difficult for anyone to see inside the vehicle while visibility for the driver and passengers is excellent. It’s also interesting to note that the rims and tires have been designed with the idea that the SUV can go on for quite a while even with flat tires.
All of this sounds nice and all, but it wouldn’t mean much without a good engine under the hood – and the 3.0 liter supercharger can definitely get the job done, with various special features that make this model much more durable and trustworthy than others in the same class. The engine features an exhaust pipe that’s very difficult to mess with, and it also has extra protection for the fuel tank. Not only that, but there’s a backup battery as well.
And of course, we don’t expect regular consumers to start comparing these features anytime soon – but on the other hand, we definitely wouldn’t be surprised if various government agencies rolled out a few Sentinels for their daily work in the next months. There’s already been a lot of buzz about this model from military enthusiasts on the Internet, and it looks like the company has managed to make quite the impression with this release.
It’s not cheap by any means – as we said above, it costs a little under $500,000, a price that’s obviously aimed at securing government contracts and working with large security firms. Of course there will definitely be the occasional random incident of a rich bored person buying something like this just for fun, but in the end that’s not the intended audience; there is definitely a lot of attention towards the model from people who’re meant to notice it though.
On top of all that, the new Sentinel is also quite the comfy ride, according to reports – it doesn’t make any compromises in this regard, and we would expect nothing less at this price anyway. After all, no matter how secure the SUV is, it doesn’t make sense to charge so much money for it and then make it look like the tank that it really is.