I was reading the section on Fly/Drive for Vehicle Maneuvers on page 232, and I'm baffled by the way speed is handled. It seems to suggest that the vehicle can't get to medium range unless it has at least speed 2, and can't to long range unless it has speed 5. This can't be right? Surely it just takes longer to get there?

The rules assume that the opposing vessel is always trying to oppose your effort. If you try to close, it tries to maintain distance. If you try to break away, it tries to maintain distance. This breaks down when the opposition is either immobile or trying to do the same thing you are (two Speed 1 ships certainly can move to long range from one another if they both point their tails at each other).

Yeah, this is one of those things were the GM needs to apply a bit of fiat.

Like HappyDaze mentioned, the rules appear to be written under a specific set of circumstances.

Part of how I've been handling it is at the start of each round, recalculate where the acting ship is in relation to the target destination at the end of its turn, particularly if said target isn't moving, treating it a bit like character scale movement.

So if two ships (a Firespray with a lone pilot and a YT-1300 with both gunner positions filled) are traveling at Speed 3 are at Long Range from each other and are moving towards each other, this is how I'd handle it:

Ship 1 (Firespray): Spends its maneuver to move from Close range (its starting point) to Short Range relevant to its starting point, making the distance between the two ships Medium Range at this point at the end of the Firespray's turn, with the pilot's action probably spent on the Fire Discipline action for when he gets within shooting distance on his next turn.

Ship 2 (YT-1300): Spends both its maneuver and action to take two Fly/Drive maneuvers, moving from Close range (its starting point) to Medium Range (in relation to its starting point), putting both ships at Close Range at the end of Ship 2's turn. If the gunners on the YT-1300 haven't acted yet (something quite possible), then it's now open season on the Firespray, as it's within range of their guns.

In the case of a stationary object, if we're in structured gameplay mode (i.e. a combat situation or a race), I'd simply recalculate the range at the end of that ship's turn. So for our YT-1300 above, if they wanted to reach the protection of a friendly CR90 Corvette while being pursued by enemy CloakShape fighters, and the Corvette started out at Extreme Range, then it'd take the freighter three turns to get there.

Turn 1 - moves from Close Range (its starting point) to Medium Range in relation to its starting point as two maneuvers, putting it at Long Range from the CR90 Corvette at the end of its turn. I only downgraded the range from Extreme to Long as both range bands cover pretty huge distances, while Short and Medium are considerably smaller in comparison, but that's purely a GM call.

Turn 2 - again moves from Close Range (its new starting point for this turn) to Medium Range in relation to its starting point as two maneuvers, now putting the Corvette at Short Range from the freighter.

Turn 3 - spends one maneuver to move from Short Range to Close Range with the Corvette, and a second to "engage" aka dock with the Corvette.

In HappyDaze's example of two Speed 1 vehicles (such as a pair of Jawa sandcrawlers) moving away from each other (and figuring they started at Short Range), the first sandcrawler's one maneuver would put the two craft at Medium Range, while the second's maneuver would put them at Long Range. Though I'd imagine in most cases of two vehicles or starships moving directly away from each other, you're probably in narrative gameplay mode, at which point tracking range bands really isn't that much of an issue.