9:00 am, June 2, 2023
In the quiet village of Radlett, nestled between Elstree and St Albans on the outskirts of London, a sports field is busy filling up with SUVs worth millions of pounds.
When I arrive there’s already two Lamborghini Urus – awkwardly in exactly the same colour – parked up, two Porsche 911 Turbos and enough Range Rovers to make you think you’d stumbled across the significant others’ car park of a Premiership football team.
But this isn’t football, this is car sales – with a twist.
Two miles down the road car manufacturer Range Rover has hired a £10m luxury house to show off its new £171,000 Sport SV models to some of the first UK buyers to put deposits down.
The buyers, of which there are just 500 in the UK, have been selected by their local dealerships for an allocation of the new high performance Sport SV model – and this is their first chance to see it.
A man with a clipboard in the car park is directing people towards a constant stream of new Range Rovers that are whisking people away. I get in line and head off there myself.
The house – currently available on Right Move for sale for £10m – has been hired by the brand (no, they wouldn’t tell me for how much), and is busy hosting customers until Sunday.
The ultra modern, six-bedroom home is incredibly imposing. The slabs of white walls and huge glass windows wouldn’t look out of place on a Bond villain’s lair.
As we pull in the electric gates, waiting at the bottom of the drive are more people with clipboards and tablets, welcoming guests to the experience.
For this visit I’m allowed to mingle with the buyers, but not talk to them (specific instructions). However, I do get to experience the same treatment they’re receiving.
The Range Rover House is one of several that will be set up around the world to treat buyers of the car to a first look and give them the chance to configure their vehicle with the help of a product experts.
Others will pop up in Dubai, Miami, LA, Tokyo and, er, Cheshire (naturally).
Customers – mostly middle-aged men – are met by their product experts who walk them through the house and show them different displays.
The cinema room is playing a bassy video full of CGI and special effects to excite the buyers about the car they’ve just bought. It’s not the one above, that’s just one I found on YouTube of the car – but it gives you an idea…
The Sport SV is the fastest Range Rover ever made with a 0-60mph time of 3.6 seconds and a top speed of 180mph. The video tries to portray that.
It’s impressive, but not quite as impressive as the sound system in the home’s eight-seat cinema.
In the next room, I get to try the ‘Body and Soul seat’. This has been designed in conjunction with Coventry University and shakes moobs and your middle-aged spread with either relaxing or exciting vibes.
Think of it as a massaging seat on overdrive, matched to music and you’ll get the idea. The customers before me seemed to really enjoy it.
The next room is the home’s swimming pool, but Range Rover has covered it over and made it into a lounge for the week. Three different displays show off the car’s big brakes, clever suspension and colour palettes.
Everywhere I look there are experts with tablets chatting about the cars and helping the buyers choose whether they want the carbon wheels or not. They probably do.
In the corner, what looks like a bookshelf is actually the car’s colour choices. The paint is shown off on vases and the seat leather is draped over a shelf. I would have taken a picture to show you, but I wasn’t allowed.
‘We want the customers to experience this for themselves, not see it in the press,’ said my host.
In the beautifully sculpted garden, the new car is taking centre stage. Buyers are pointing and prodding. They look very happy.
Elsewhere others are eating food knocked up by Michelin starred chef Adam Byatt. He’s preparing salmon smoked in London, lobster cooked in sea water and duck. I didn’t get the time to try any of it (mostly because I felt in the way).
The Range Rover House event is part of the manufacturer’s new plans to move its brands towards the ‘modern luxury’ market. It’s all part of its ‘Reimagined’ strategy, part of which wants to make buying its cars more experiential. Yes, lots of buzzwords, but you’d expect nothing less would you?
‘Customers can come to this event and relax with their family, find out more about the car and enjoy the hospitality,’ added my host.
The event is paid for by the manufacturer with ‘no cost’ to the dealers, I’m told. Once the customers have specced their cars, the details are sent back to the dealerships for the orders to be finalised.
I wanted to ask one of the guests what they thought of the whole event, but I wasn’t allowed.
Upstairs in the bedrooms, the manufacturer has set up digital studios to showcase the car to those who couldn’t make the event.
‘They’ll get a similar experience with experts showing off all the different things you have seen here, but virtually,’ explained my host.
‘They’ll be walked through the car with the product expert, but just like it is here the whole thing is client led. They can get as little or as much information about their new car as they want.’
The Range Rover House style event will be used for many other product launches in the future.
