Landrover

18 JANUARY 2010

Gaydon, Warwickshire, 5th January 2010

Autocar readers have chosen the Range Rover as their ' Car of the Decade', voting in a poll on leading car review website Autocar.co.uk during the last fortnight.

Autocar's resident car experts nominated and championed 17 great cars launched during the past ten years for readers to choose from – or voters could suggest their own star car.

Of more than 7,500 votes, some 18 per cent – nearly a fifth – were for the Range Rover, a car launched in 2001 to widespread acclaim.

"The Range Rover is a fine choice for Car of the Decade," said Autocar editor Chas Hallett. "Most polls like this have results skewed towards the latter end of their timescale, but not this one. That the Range Rover was launched nine years ago yet remains a benchmark speaks volumes for the brilliance of its design – and for the taste of the people who voted for it."

The Range Rover saw off strong showings from the MkII Lotus Elise, which took second place with 12.5 per cent of the vote, and the Bugatti Veyron and Nissan GT-R, which each polled 8.8 per cent of the total to finish joint third.

Autocar associate editor Hilton Holloway championed the car, saying: "The Range Rover defined a new type of luxury. Technically sophisticated, beautifully detailed, modern and yet retrospective. It was an overwhelming presence, but in a way that the majority could admire."

Other notable placings in the survey went to the Lotus Elise-based Vauxhall VX220, Ford Focus, Audi R8, Rolls-Royce Phantom, Tata Nano and MkII Toyota Prius.

For more information on Range Rover click here.