The front brake pads were completely worn. I braced myself for the worst…

It only seems like five minutes since its last service, but the indicator on the dash of the Range Rover started counting down the remaining few hundred miles to the next one shortly after we replaced its tyres last month. So a quick call to my nearest dealer, Marshall in Cambridge, was in order.

They sounded a little surprised when I asked to book in such a new car for its 30,000-mile service rather than its 15,000 one, and the earliest slot they had was almost a week away, but I booked it in anyway and tried not to rack up too many miles in the meantime.

It was with the odometer reading 30,159 that the Rangey finally arrived at Marshall early on a Monday morning. Unfortunately I was too late for it to be one of the first cars seen that day and I was told I’d have to wait until around 3pm for it to be ready. So I went on with my day until, around noon, I got the dreaded call. The front brake pads were completely worn and needed replacing. As the Sport has massive four-pot Brembos up front, I braced myself for the worst.

The final bill for the service and brakes came to £776. It seems that after almost a year of relatively little expense, the real costs of covering a high mileage in a Range Rover Sport are starting to reveal themselves.

So, did it feel any better for its service? Well, it’s hard to tell with a car that’s so unstressed and relaxing to drive in the first place, but the brakes were definitely stronger. And unlike the last time it was serviced (at another Marshall outfit, in Peterborough) there were no glitches afterwards, which was good news for Peter Tomalin, who borrowed the Rangey a few days later for a week’s holiday in its favourite destination: Wales.

As ever, it was the perfect long-distance companion, and alongside myself, Ollie and Paul, it seems the Sport has now gained itself another unlikely fan in the evo office.