Speaking of fine timepieces the Range Rover's analog clock on the bottom right side of the center stack is a work of art. Its hands look as if cut from sharp-edged glass and the tiny Land Rover logo is fitting. The remaining switches, knobs and buttons in the center stack are equally attractive. Especially noteworthy are its heated seat controls, one for each front occupant, that combine with the individual air temperature settings in one package. That said I was a bit disappointed in the heated seats themselves, only offering two settings. Air conditioned seats, a popular feature among luxury models in the Range Rover's price league, are also not on the menu. Below these, just left of the clock, is the Range Rover's height adjustable suspension control and display. The system is easy to use, raising or lowering the SUVs overall ride height significantly for easier ingress and egress - those are pretentious words for getting in and out of the vehicle in case you care to know. A bevy of alternative switches surround for the triple-zone (left-front, right-front, rear) automatic climate control system with pollen filter, plus one to open the rear liftgate and one more for disengaging its Dynamic Stability Control (DSC), another BMW technology.
Just above the center air vents its BMW sourced silver-finish navigation and infotainment interface looks impressive. That said it's as much of a pain to work in the Brit as it is in the German car. It incorporates a seek feature that hunts down local radio stations but its sensitivity isn't good, making it impossible to lock onto even strong stations unless you just happen to catch the frequency at the right moment (which incidentally never happened with Vancouver's strongest station CKNW over a week's period). Exacerbating the situation is its lack of a manual tuner. What were they thinking?! I noticed that it wasn't just me who was having this problem, as most of the presets weren't saved by previous testers. The interface also doesn't feature a CD player. Press what looks like an eject button at the top right corner and it slowly glides open in an intriguing display of techno-wizardry. What a letdown to finally see that only a cassette player resides under the cover. But I suppose that it's better than having no cassette at all. After all, a 6-disc CD auto-changer is hidden in the glovebox, not quite as convenient as it would be if reachable when driving but probably safer in the long run, being that it made me stop to change CDs.