Land Rover has redesigned its luxury midsized Range Rover Sport SUV, following the trail blazed by the larger Range Rover. The new Sport has a smoother ride, quieter cabin, and a more luxurious interior than the previous model. It glides majestically down the highway and is a composed handler on a curvy road, all of which make it more competitive with some of the best in this high-class (and high priced) segment, including the Audi Q7, BMW X5, Mercedes-Benz GLE, and Porsche Cayenne.
But the convoluted controls can be frustrating to use, and we’re unable to recommend the Sport due to Land Rover’s below-average brand reliability.
Somehow, even with a turbocharger and supercharger generating 355 horsepower from the inline-six engine, the Sport can be bogged down with an initial delay off the line, followed by a rather abrupt burst of power. Once underway, the silky engine feels plenty powerful and is very satisfying to drive, aided by butter-smooth upshifts from the eight-speed automatic transmission. But with a 0 to 60 mph time of 7.2 seconds, the Range Rover Sport is noticeably slower than much of its competition. Fuel economy is also on the low side for the segment, at 20 mpg overall on the required premium fuel.
Handling is surprisingly agile for such a substantial vehicle. It turns into corners with verve and exhibits little body roll, although the steering is vague and delivers minimal feedback to the driver. Even with our test car’s optional 22-inch tires, the ride is composed and comfortable, thanks in part to the standard air suspension. And that air suspension can also lower the vehicle substantially when parked, helping passengers to get in and out more easily.
The cabin is impressively hushed and super-swanky, with lots of fine stitching, gorgeous wood trim, and plenty of leather and chrome. Everything feels solid and well put together but then, at just over $92,000 as-tested, delivering anything less than that would be a huge letdown.
The elevated and upright driving position gives excellent sightlines out over the hood, while the SUV’s boxy shape yields large windows that give a mostly clear view all around. There’s tons of front headroom, a clear view of the driver’s instrument panel, and zero right-knee intrusion from the center console. The front seats were universally praised for their plush cushions, along with the large bolsters that keep the driver in place through corners. Rear seat passengers are treated to roomy accommodations as well, with plenty of foot space under the front seats, and a comfortable and well-cushioned seat that compliments the abundant headroom.
But there are several problems with the day-to-day controls that give us pause. For example, the large climate-control knobs are forced to do triple-duty—turning the knobs adjusts the temperature; push the knob in and twist to adjust the seat-heater and seat-cooler; pull the knob out and twist to adjust the fan-speed. This means the driver has to pay attention to which climate function is selected before making any adjustments. Plus, it’s natural for the driver to want to rest their wrist on the electronic gear selector while, for instance, pulling the knob out, but doing so usually results in pushing the selector forward by mistake. Luckily it doesn’t shift out of gear, but it does give an annoying pop-up message about what you just tried to do.
Also, some of the steering-wheel buttons don’t always respond when pressed, the cruise control buttons are confusing, and we despise having to go into the center infotainment screen to make some comfort adjustments to the front seats, such as to adjust the lumbar support. At least the Meridian audio system has a concert hall sound quality, delivering deep, crisp tones through its 15 speakers. And there’s an easy-to-use volume knob on the center console.
The Range Rover Sport comes loaded with active safety and driver assistance features, including automatic emergency braking with pedestrian and cyclist detection, automatic emergency braking that operates at highway speeds, blind spot warning, rear cross traffic warning, lane centering assistance, lane departure warning, lane keeping assistance, adaptive cruise control, and automatic high beams.