With the economic crisis in full bloom, driving around in the Range Rover Sport is like wearing a target on your back. Face it: Joining the Hummer as the poster brand for gas-guzzling SUVs, the Rover also screams “conspicuous consumption” at a time when fiscal restraint is mandated. Call me paranoid, but I swear I can feel the daggers being thrown at me by hybrid drivers as I thunder by them in a 2,572-kilogram beast consuming four times the fossil fuel of their parsimonious little Priuses, Insights, et al.

Debuting over 60 years ago, the Defender has done its part to get people across everything from the deserts of Africa to the jungles of your girlfriend’s panties. It has been a man’s man SUV since your dad was a kid, belonging to a group only the few and the proud have been able to join: hard-ass purpose-built-with-no-compromises off-roaders (think bricks that like to swim). Unfortunately, Land Rover and its new owners have decided to go and crap on its thick-browed-bully by luxurizing it (there’s a new word for you) even further with these Fire and Ice special editions.

The new 2010 Range Rover, new 2010 Range Rover Sport and new Discovery 4 will have their UK public debut at the 2009 Motorexpo, which starts today and runs until Sunday, June 14 in Canary Wharf.

The significant improvements to these vehicles include: two new refined and powerful engines, delivering improved fuel economy and CO2 emissions, striking exterior design changes, and completely redesigned interiors bringing new levels of refinement, technology and craftsmanship.

Prices for the 2010 Range Rover – on sale from mid July – have been announced today and reflect an increase in the level of specification (including some major technological enhancements) and an improvement in performance – which all add greater customer value.

Highway driving in the Land Rover LR3 is rather pleasurable. Despite the myriad of off road suspension components, weighty transaxle and robust platform, the LR3 is as sedate as an English gentleman. As I drove my brother-in-law, friend (who’s a middle school principal), wife and kids in the Land Rover LR3, questions flew. “I don’t understand,” asked my brother-in-law, “Why so much money for a SUV?”