Lamborghini Urus 2018 UK first drive

Which, to me, demonstrates a point: if the Urus isn’t the kind of car that will make you wake up early on a Sunday morning just to go for a drive, no SUV ever will be. They are simply too high-riding and too heavy, and no amount of technology or hardware can get around that.

There’s no doubting the Lamborghini Urus has presence, but to my eyes, the detail styling is overwrought, particularly around the fussy front end, while the slightly contrived coupé roofline just doesn’t look right. Meanwhile, the interior is spacious - although the rear seats may be a little claustrophobic for really tall passengers - and the quality throughout is very good indeed. It feels solid in there.

A pity, though, that anybody at all familiar with other premium Volkswagen Group products could pick out component after component that's shared across the group. Lamborghini has at least tried to give the cockpit a bespoke feel with the drive mode and gear selector mechanisms, but I’ll leave you to decide how tasteful you think they are.

Inevitably, the Urus has a more connected, less isolating ride quality than the Porsche Cayenne or Bentley Bentayga. On smoother roads, the ride is fine, but even on rougher sections it isn’t unduly harsh.

One of the main reasons for testing this car extensively in the UK is that our sometimes appalling roads might well have been its undoing. As it is, the Urus - on 22in wheels rather than 23ins, the largest available - feels busy and tense over the worst stretches of Tarmac, without being hopelessly uncomfortable. At least that’s true in Strada mode, in which the air suspension is at its most pliant, and just about in Sport mode, too.

In the firmest setting, Corsa, the ride does go to all hell on anything other than super smooth asphalt. There's also what Lamborghini calls Ego mode, incidentally, which allows you to adjust the various parameters independently.

The Urus's seating position is very good, because while you sit high above the road surface, you do so in much the same repose as you would in one of the company’s more on-brand models. That is, you feel snug with the bodywork rising up to meet the glass somewhere around your shoulders, while the steering wheel reaches out towards your chest. It’s a sports car seating position, just a couple of feet higher up.

When you start pushing the Urus a little harder, then, it doesn’t feel completely alien. You start hustling the car, despite its size and weight, with much the same confidence you’d feel in a more overtly sporting car.

The steering is a highlight. It's electrically assisted, of course, and therefore not remotely communicative, but it is precise, consistent and so natural in its rate of response down at the front axle that you pour the car into corners more instinctively than you do in any other SUV. There's just enough body roll to let you know you’re working the chassis, masses of grip on turn-in and even, when you chuck the car around a little bit, a sense of balance, of harmony between the front and rear axles. The Urus doesn’t merely plough on in hopeless understeer, at least not at road speeds.

Away from corners, there's athleticism and agility, but not any real playfulness, despite the rear-biased four-wheel drive system and active torque vectoring. Again, not at road speeds, anyway. Body control is exceptionally good for a car of this size, meanwhile.

What of the Audi RS6-sourced twin-turbocharged petrol V8? It’s a monster, frankly, and with its bundles of low-rev torque, it's very well suited to a car like the Urus. Throttle response is sharp, the rate of acceleration under full load in second gear is more unsettling than that of any other SUV you care to mention and the soundtrack, while clearly manufactured and programmed, is at least quite amusing.

The automatic transmission, meanwhile, is smooth and refined when left to do its own thing, but when you take control yourself you're aware of a slight delay between tugging either paddle and the shift actually happening.