Australia's Range Rover Vogue Approaches A Quarter Million $

Go ahead and gawk (that much is free!) but the really cool stuff is on the inside...

Like a standard, drive-it-off-the-lot Range Rover isn't good enough? The Range Rover Vogue series is being released again in limited numbers down under, but unless you look carefully at the Vogue nameplate on the rear, you might mistake it for just your garden party variety Range Rover.

Unless you enter the cabin.

Sure, the Range Rover Vogue TDV8 and 5.0 V8 come with leather upholstery and a leather-clad dash, steering wheel and gear selector. You'd expect that. Demand it, even. As you would Bluetooth, a sunroof, satellite navigation and an 11-speaker Harmon Kardon stereo system. But that old-fashioned instrument cluster had to go, in favor of a 12-inch TFT display, which allows the driver to configure it his (or her) way and can display a wider variety of vehicle information.

Get into the Vogue TDV8 Luxury model (like they had to remind you about the luxury thing!) and you not only get all 14 Harmon Kardon speakers, you also get heated - and cooled -  front seats, heated rear seats, a heated leather steering wheel, two headrest-mounted rear DVD screens and Range Rover’s way-cool “Venture Cam” which monitors what's going on all around the car.

A set of 20-inch alloy wheels also replace the 19-inch items worn by the based TDV8 and 5.0 V8, which is nice but where's the champagne cooler?

In addition to the TDV8 Luxury’s features, when you get into the top-of-the-line Range Rover Vogue Autobiography and 5.0 V8 Supercharged Autobiography you're also getting a rear limited-slip differential, still more leather, and in addition to "Venture Cam", a “vision assist” package that monitors blind spots.

And remember when we first reported on Range Rover’s Dual View touchscreen interface? The Dual View screen somehow enables the driver to view the sat-nav screen and the passenger to watch a movie simultaneously - on the same screen! (Guess it's a viewing angle thing.) The touchscreen’s voice control system has also been upgraded for 2010.

So... how much for all of this "we couldn't think of anything else to add" luxury? The 2010 Range Rover Vogue range kicks off at $155,000 for the base TDV8, and rises to $229,500 for the 5.0 V8 Supercharged Autobiography. But seriously... if you had to ask...