Range Rover Velar review - Reliability & safety
Land Rover’s reputation is on the up, but there is still work to be done. At least it scored five stars for safety
The Range Rover Velar didn’t feature in the top 50 cars from the 2024 Driver Power owner satisfaction survey, but the mechanically-similar Jaguar F-Pace finished in a 14th-place spot – a bump up from the previous year when it came 50th out of 75 cars.
We’d expect to see similarities from the Velar, but similar strengths too, with F-Pace owners praising their cars’ ride and handling, as well as their engine and gearbox traits and practicality. Running costs weren’t rated quite as highly, nor was infotainment and connectivity – but with a PHEV powertrain and the new Pivi Pro screen, the Velar is in a good position to rectify its sibling’s shortcomings.
Range Rover Velar reliability
While there’s no data specific to the Range Rover Velar, as a brand, Land Rover has been climbing the ranks in our annual Driver Power survey in recent years, finishing 10th out of 32 in the 2024 manufacturer rundown. That’s an improvement of four spaces compared to the brand’s result in 2022 (out of 29 manufacturers).
That’s not the whole story, though, because despite customers liking their Land Rover experience as a whole, a whopping 40.6% of owners reported faults with their cars in the first year. Aside from sister-brand Jaguar, that was the highest of any maker in our survey, suggesting more needs to be done for Jaguar-Land Rover to improve its reliability issues.
Safety
The Range Rover Velar was tested by Euro NCAP in Autumn 2017 and received a reassuring five-star crash-test result. This was the result of impressive scores of 93% and 85% respectively in the adult and child occupant protection categories. The Velar also achieved an impressive 74% for pedestrian safety.
All Velars come with autonomous emergency braking and emergency braking assistance (that helps apply full braking pressure in an emergency stop scenario), adds blind spot assist, adaptive cruise control and high-speed emergency braking. Upgrade to the Driver Assist Pack (a hefty £1,600 on the entry model) and you’ll also get adaptive cruise control, blind-spot warnings and sensors designed to warn the driver of any passing traffic when reversing.
