Range Rover Sport: Giving it large

It might have the look of a car belonging to a moderately successful drug dealer, but Sean O’Grady finds this luxurious model a little too expansive for city streets

This Sport is properly big, state of the art and uncompromising (Sean O'Grady)

My first reaction on test-driving the latest Range Rover Sport was that it ought to have a big sticker on its exquisitely styled, leather-encased steering wheel stating: “UNSUITABLE FOR URBAN USE!”. Which is a shame really, because the car that Jaguar Land Rover sent me was painted black, with black trim, massive black 23in alloy wheels, and heavily tinted windows. Even the ultra-slim headlights were sort of a smoky grey. If they’d been able to paint the number plate black, they’d no doubt have done that, too.

The unquestionably sinister look was very much that of a moderately successful urban drug dealer and XL bully owner, but one who’d very likely get stuck down a city street and have to deploy the Rangie’s multiple cameras and driver assistance aids to reverse out of trouble. Well, that sort of trouble at any rate.

It is, in other words, very much a Range Rover, and it shares engines, interiors, and it’s all-aluminium monocoque bodywork with its marginally taller Range Rover siblings – this is really a Range Rover coupe rather than an outright sportier alternative.

The cabin exudes luxury, with an impressive range of features (Sean O'Grady)

When they first invented the Range Rover “Sport” line, about 20 years ago, it looked the part but was actually a redesigned previous-generation Land Rover Discovery. It sold well, because it was cheap by RR standards, but those days of automotive subterfuge are behind us. This Sport is properly big, state of the art and uncompromising – up to and including a defiant reluctance to be driven down a one-way street with cars parked on both sides.

My second reaction to the Range Rover Sport was to be fully impressed. The cabin exudes luxury, and the list of standard and optional luxury items fitted to my example would almost fill its capacious boot. It is a luxury vehicle, and deserves its “premium” status – in this case the Range Rover badge stands for something special. I particularly appreciated the little fridge between the front seats (with two settings of cool!), powered glove-box lid, and deep-pile carpet mats of the kind that you used only to get on a Rolls-Royce.

The ventilated leather upholstery is heated or cooled according to need, the touchscreen easy to navigate – with voice controls, naturally – and of course there’s Range Rover’s traditional high “Command” driving position, much imitated but rarely bettered. The spirit of the classic 1970 original lives on (and versions of that magnificent original can be purchased, albeit at considerable cost, from Jaguar Land Rover Classic).

There’s no shortage of headroom or legroom, and there’s a handy switch at the rear of the boot that will lower the rear seats electronically. The boot is vast enough for any conceivable need. It’s a five-seater, with no seven-seat option; bigger families will need the Range Rover proper.

The Spec

Range Rover Sport Dynamic SE Ingenium 

Price: £118,275 (as tested; range starts at £75,255)

Engine capacity: 3-cyl petrol V6 + 31.8kWh battery, 8-sp auto

Power output (hp): 460

Top speed (mph): 140

0 to 60 (seconds): 5.3

Fuel economy (mpg): 340

CO2 emissions (WLTP, g/km): 19

Is the Sport sporty, though? No and yes. Nothing that weighs approaching three tonnes and has a centre of gravity as elevated as this can really be termed thus, but it is as lively, agile and manoeuvrable as it can possibly be, at least until Newton’s laws of motion are abolished (probably by a Donald Trump executive order). The Sport is endowed with a flexible drivetrain, switching from rear- to four-wheel drive as appropriate, along with variable air suspension and four-wheel steering: if you succumb to the temptation to see how it corners, you will not be disappointed.

I can’t vouch for how this Range Rover performs off road, but its siblings, which incorporate the same technology, remain among the best in the world at all-terrain driving, and I have driven them with confidence in challenging conditions. As we all know, though, Range Rovers tend not to get muddy anyway. Less certain is the car’s longer-term reliability – somehow the Land Rover and Range Rover marques have survived finishing towards the bottom of countless driver satisfaction surveys.

Nothing that weighs approaching three tonnes and has a centre of gravity as elevated as this can really be termed ‘sporty’ (Sean O'Grady)

The most refined and potentially economical of the Range Rover Sports are the plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) in various states of tune, where the smooth V6 petrol unit is mated to a suitably beefy battery pack and electric motor, chargeable from the mains or faster chargers. That will give you 50-plus miles of cheap, silent, pure electric propulsion, and explains the stratospheric official fuel-economy numbers – but driving it round with all the extra PHEV zero-charge kit on board is bad for both the wallet and the planet.

The twin-turbo V8 model speaks for itself as a sort of fat supercar; and there’s a single diesel option for those who actually do need to get it off road and need the torque. Trim levels and option packs are extensive, and an all-electric battery-powered model is promised to arrive soon.

Frankly, I wasn’t expecting to actually like the Range Rover Sport – partly because of its compromised past, but also because it’s an SUV, and therefore just too big. Well, it is still too wide for an easy urban life, but I say that with some regret, because I found it quite endearing.