CT Poll: Retro Range Rover Or Modern Range Rover? Vote Now!

It can't just be us that finds the concept of a vehicle that can go pretty much anywhere rather appealing.

That's why it's so easy to forgive the Range Rover for being a bit big, a bit thirsty, a bit "screw you, everyone - this is MY road."

We forgive it all that because it's really bloody good at what it does. Luxury? Absolutely. Off-road ability? Just try me. Looks at home outside the stateliest of stately homes and scruffiest of farms? Yup, that too. And these days they're rather quick and ever so slightly stylish, too.

Range Rover hasn't always represented luxury, but it's certainly represented that classless, go-anywhere ethos since the model debuted in 1970.

The first Range Rover had just two doors and the familiar flip-down tailgate, and Rover's V8 provided power to all four wheels.

Its chassis differed little from contemporary Land Rover models, which endowed it with the same mud-plugging abilities. It was just a little more spacious and comfortable, with a few added practicality benefits - famously, the vinyl and plastic interior could be hosed down if you got it a little muddy tending to your sheep.

Remarkably, that original Rangie lasted until 1994 with only evolutionary changes - not that a nineties Range Rover was all that similar to its 70s forebear - when it was replaced with the unloved P38A.

That model endured (well, endured whenever it wasn't breaking down) until 2002 when replaced with the L322, BMW-developed and a true luxury vehicle. And ten years later we arrive at the current model, the aluminium-bodied L405 and the ultimate incarnation of the Range Rover so far.

Impressively, these latest 'Rovers still share plenty of design elements with the original, just brought screaming up to date: a clamshell bonnet, a roof "floating" on black A, B, C and D pillars, an upright windscreen and largely squared-off proportions.

There's still a V8 engine too, albeit fired by diesel and producing a good 200 horses more than the original carb'd 135bhp Rover V8. It's cleaner too, and a great deal more frugal at 32.5 mpg combined.

It has class then, and luxury, and even style - but does it win your heart like the original Range Rover?

Tell us by voting in the poll below!