Range Rover Sport SUV review - Carbuyer / Mat Watson

the old Range Rover Sport was a bit of a lie because it was neither particularly sporty nor a proper Range Rover because underneath the skin it was actually based on the Land Rover Discovery this time though the sport does share the same architecture as the bigger Range Rover even though in terms of the design it's actually more like a giant evoke now the Range Rover Sport might not have the handy spit tailgate at the larger Range Rover but because there's no load lip it's still easy to slide heavy items straight into the back but just remove the parcel shelf you'll see that the actual boot volume is very big interestingly it's actually slightly smaller than on the old Range Rover Sport but it's still about as big as it gets for these kind of sporty SUVs and if you need to carry larger items there you go fold down the rear seats and it's when it's almost as big as a van I'm going to put those back up because I want to show you the back seats now there's as much knee and Headroom as you get on similar SUVs but because the sport is slightly wider it's actually better for carrying three abreast it also helps that the floor is completely flat and the way they sent a console is cut away so then the person in the middle seat doesn't have to fight for foot space you need to carry more people you can actually get an optional third row seats and will actually come back to talk about that later on first we need to talk about the luxurious interior Range Rovers always feel very special inside and the latest models have a much more minimalistic design with fewer buttons than before the Range Rover Sport comes with an impressive array of standard equipment all cars get satellite navigation leather interior xenon headlamps rear parking sensors you've got cruise control climate control just bluetooth for your mobile phone and da B digital radio storage is good as well this centre cubby is very deep you can fit a large bottle in it and there's also room for it in the side door bin the glovebox is huge as well oh there you go yeah don't ask as it expect from a Range Rover you sit up nice and high so you get a commanding view over other traffic and feeling a little bit more superior than other motorists it also has a handy rear quarter light it's nice and big so you get good visibility when you have to look over your shoulder when you're pulling out a filter junctions or driveways but unlike a normal range rover in the sport you actually sit in it rather than on it and the fact you've got a steeply raked windscreen and the cockpit wraps around you you actually feel more like you're sitting in a coupe a that's on stilts despite being tall though the brains Rover Sport is very quiet on the move with very little wind or road noise entering the cabin you can pack the laminated windows for that this makes the Range Rover Sport a very relaxing cruiser it helps the standard air suspension does a great job with dealing with battered tarmac here in the UK and the set up is actually firmer than you get on the normal big Range Rover and so you do feel the bumps a little bit more however the car always remains very composed and as a result it's actually the most relaxing of these sports SUVs to traveling speaking of which it will trance them off road to the all-wheel drive setup including low ratio gearbox and locking differentials all of which are controlled by various electronics so that even the novice can exploit the sport offroad thing is though most people won't use any of this cars off-road capabilities but considering it's called the sport they probably will want to thrash it down a back road and while it does go round corners pretty well with no body roll at all yeah a Porsche Cayenne is still better handling so while it may be a proper Range Rover it's still not that sporty then there are the engines which are actually very good you can get a supercharged petrol which flies a hybrid diesel which is Swift and economical a v8 diesel which is super smooth and a v6 diesel which is punchy and quiet obviously the diesels will be the biggest sellers here in the UK but life alike those that you get in the BMW x5 a more economical it also faster that carp also gets a better infotainment system to the one in the Range Rover Sport is getting a bit old now with low resolution graphics confusing menus and a slow response time then there's the fact that Land Rover products don't exactly have the best reliability record and if you want you can click here to tell us about your car at driver power co uk and now we need to talk about that optional third row of seats which i mentioned earlier there may be electrically operated but really they're neither good for man child nor beast as they're just so cramped and getting in and out isn't particularly easy I think that's probably the most undignified exit I've ever made from a car in a video review another problem with those seats is that they take at the space of the spare wheel and they cost 1500 quid that's not worth it speaking of which the Range Rover Sport is a bit more expensive than its main rivals but if you ask me it's worth paying extra for because there's something about it which is a bit special and I'm not just saying that cuz I'm British honestly now you've seen our video of the Range Rover Sport click on the windows to watch our reviews of the BMW x5 and Porsche Cayenne and click on the car buyer logo to subscribe to our Channel

Channel: Carbuyer

Views: 1,534,242

Keywords: Range Rover Sport, RangeRover, Land Rover, LandRover, RR, RRS, BMW X5, BMW X6, 2013, 2014, Porsche Cayenne, Mercedes ML, M-Class, Merc, car, cars, review, carbuyer, car buyer, luxury, 4x4, suv, off-roader, off-road

Id: EU1TyZQqmeY

Length: 5min 58sec (358 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 31 2013