At a Jaguar press event in Washington D.C. I attended a couple of years back, Simon Sproule, Jaguar brand manager before joining Nissan last year, quipped in his British accent, “We keep getting asked when Jaguar is going to build an SUV. We already do. It’s called the Range Rover.”

The British-built Range Rover, part of Ford Motor Company’s Premier Automotive Group, which includes Jaguar, Volvo, Lincoln, Land Rover and Aston-Martin, has been on sale in America since June 2002. However, the 2004 Range Rover is a huge departure from its predecessors.

Unlike many other Jimmy-Come-Lately Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs) — including the luxury ones — Range Rovers have a genuine history. They’ve been owned by English royalty, and are known as the most well traveled vehicles on Earth. Put quite simply, status comes with owning a Range Rover.

Walkaround: Although redesigned in 2003 for only the third time in 31 years, the Range Rover’s overall boxy shape and styling are retained, but modern design touches, make this vehicle much more desirable and friendly. This version is 9 inches longer and 2 inches taller than its already sizable predecessor, yet it feels like a smaller vehicle from behind the wheel.

Fit and finish compared with previous Range Rovers is noticeably improved and worthy of its $70,000+ price.

Interior: The new Range Rover isn’t just one of the most capable vehicles on the planet either on or off road, it’s also one of the most beautiful and striking inside. The luxury interior charts a new course in automotive design with wood-embellished “support beams” — in either cherry or walnut burl — in the middle of the dashboard, that are so striking they should be featured in an architectural magazine. Add this to all the leather and brushed metal, and the effect is stunning — elegant yet functional.

  Under the Hood: The 4.4-liter BMW-built V8 delivers 281 horses and 324 lb-ft of torque at 3600 rpm. In comparison to the 222 horses and 300 lb-ft at 2600 rpm in the previously used General Motors 4.6-liter V8. The BMW diesel engine offered in Europe isn’t available here.

To answer your question why a Ford-owned vehicle uses a BMW engine — BMW owned Land Rover for a time and engineered a lot of this new generation SUV before selling the company to Ford in 2000 and building its own brand of SUVs.

This new Range Rover is also the first with a five-speed automatic transmission that includes a manual-shifting mode that doesn’t require a clutch pedal. This feature is found in many sports cars and high-performance sedans, and adds a sporty touch to the full-size Range Rover.

Another new feature allows the Range Rover to be shifted from high range to low on the fly. Before, the vehicle had to be stopped to make the change.

Fuel economy in the 5,300-pound Range Rover is lackluster, delivering 12 miles a gallon in the city and 17 on the highway. On the other hand, if this is a consideration, a Range Rover isn’t for you anyway.

Behind The Wheel: The new Range Rover is an absolute pleasure to drive. On the highway, it’s extraordinarily comfortable both for the driver and passenger — as I found out on a trip from Charleston, West Virginia to White Sulphur Springs, which is about a two-hour drive through the Allegheny Mountains.

The flagship vehicle of Land Rover, The Range Rover boasts an all-independent suspension, which gives it an almost car-like ride on the highway with minimal bounce over bumps and rough pavement. That’s because it’s the first vehicle with monocoque construction — a process using a car-like combined body and frame unit for stiffness and better handling.

First time ever rack-and-pinion steering also gives the driver a confident feeling of control on winding mountain roads. Body roll in this more than 6-foot-tall vehicle also feels better managed than earlier versions and steering is more precise.

Off road, it’s not only comfortable, but extraordinarily capable. I had the honor of being invited to Land Rover’s off-road driving school, which is based at the historic Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia. We took the Range Rover through some extraordinarily rugged territory that included steep hills — up and down — deep mud, through streams and up and over some good sized rocks.

It’s almost sensory overload sitting behind the wheel of one of the world’s most luxurious SUVs while it’s perched at an abrupt angle in a rushing stream with only two wheels on the ground. Yet the Range Rover’s ability to easily traverse such difficult terrain didn’t seem to challenge my driving skills once I learned to master its fantastic mechanics.

In off-road mode, the maximum air-adjustable ground clearance adds 3.7 inches for a maximum of 11.1. This provides plenty of room to traverse rocks and other debris without damaging anything underneath. The Range Rover’s full-time four-wheel-drive system keeps all wheels working hard in muddy conditions, and the low range adds another level of capability when needed.

Range Rover’s updated Hill Descent Control (HDC) is designed to keep you moving downhill through any kind of footing — or lack of — at a controlled, slow speed. With care for the environment as well as the vehicle — in one spot, looking at a muddy hill so steep I was only kept from leaning into the windshield by the seat belt, all I had to do was steer straight down during the descent. With my feet nowhere near either the brake or accelerator pedals, HDC completely managed speed and braking.

The Range Rover, though big and heavy, conquered gullies, streams, mud and more with ease, as long as proper steering is used. Meanwhile, inside the vehicle, my ups, downs and overs felt gentle, although I’m certain they must have looked far more dramatic from the outside than they felt.

Whines: Although the new Range Rover is longer than its predecessor, it doesn’t include third-row seating — a must for many American buyers. Land Rover officials shrug and say it’s just not a requirement for a Range Rover. Getting in and out can be a climb, although the air suspension system can be set to the lowest level access mode for passengers.

Bottom Line: The Range Rover holds its own in a hot market segment that includes new variations of the Cadillac Escalade and re-engineered Lincoln Navigator. Both have powerful V8s and sticker prices some $20,000 less than the Range Rover. It’s also notable that those vehicles offer two-wheel-drive versions while the Range Rover is available only with permanent four-wheel drive. Closer in price are the Lexus GX 47 and Porsche Cayenne. Re-engineered for only the third time in 31 years, the Range Rover still assigns status to its owners, with a certain cachet that’s missing from all the others — not to mention its awesome off road capabilities.