Range Rover Sport
Sep 5th, 2007
The chavmobile, the lottery winner’s dream (surely you’d have more imagination - wouldn’t you?), the footballer’s wives taxi.
Unfortunately, despite the excellent provenance and engineering, this is all this is ever going to be. Too expensive to be used until they’re about 10 years old (when they’ll be great for the rich guys to mod!), and too big and cumbersome to be a real car this is another project which seems to have fallen flat.
The stupidly large petrol engines (with a combined fuel economy of 17.8 mpg/15.9l/100km!) do a phenomenal job of propelling over 3 tonnes of tank around at pretty impressive speeds, but are expensive, inefficient and in the real world - pointless.
The diesel engines are slightly better, but we have to say that this beast is never going to be the eco-warrior’s friend.
Off road it is actually surprisingly good, something that owners will tell you - they’ve seen the videos - they saw Clarkson on Top Gear, but would they let you show them what THEIR £50k would do when asked? Not a chance in hell.
On road, the Discovery chassis (is it really a rangie at all, or is it a disco you’ve just shelled out all that cash for - just with a few luxury bits added on?) holds the road reasonably well, but that’s because of all the gizmos. As soon as the car is about to topple - the hydraulics prop it upright again. As soon as it wants to go straight ahead at the corner instead of around it, the traction control, EBA, EBD, ABS, DR etc kick in and do all of those things that are needed to be done because you’re driving a tank and not a car.
The question I would then pose would be: why not buy an M5 instead? If it’s only going to be a road car - the M5 is faster, smoother, more luxurious, more reliable, cheaper to run, safer to other road users and the occupants. It just doesn’t have the Sport Tractor’s ”ned factor” as my friends in Scotland call it.
Apparently Richard Branson threw one over the barriers on a motorway and was so impressed that his family survived he bought them for his key employees. The point he may have missed is that only a 9 foot tall tank like this would topple over the motorway barrier in the first place. False sense of security - the main reason why 4×4 owners are actually statistically MORE likely to be killed or seriously injured on the roads.
So with it’s uses being limited to wandering across a field at a gymkhana, or driving up the treacherous gravel path to the mock tudor mansion in Cheshire this is one car I would remove from the line up entirely if I was to be the new owner of Land Rover.
Guess what though - this is the one car which is keeping Land Rover profitable.
Long Live the Range Rover Sport (and the footballers who fork out for her!).
Find out what Clarkson thinks of the Overfinch RRS.
(If you want to review the RRS yourself, feel free to post a review in the comments - a couple of links are allowed. Reviews will be moderated as impartially as possible.)
Youve obviously never driven one then. Not all 4×4 users want to go off-road. I use my RRS to pull a 3 ton boat. brilliant pice of kit.
I would however reccomend that prospective buyers of defenders simply buy a tractor instead, cheaper faster and more comfortable!!
Thanks for contributing Dave.
I’ve driven one, but as the title of the site says - I’m interested in what they’ll do off road, and no-one will let me do that with one - not even the dealers!
Sounds like you’re one of the minority of owners who use it for the right reasons - it’s a good tow vehicle, and yep, it’s a heck of a lot more comfortable than a defender. Personally I’d use the disco that it’s based on - it would be a lot cheaper, but that’s because I couldnt’ afford the RRS, and I’d be a bit iffy about chucking the RRS off cliffs - it’s £20k extra if anything goes wrong!
The tractor wouldn’t get 5 people (or even 2) across the pennines (and I don’t mean the motorway!) with a good amount of kit, let alone Africa or Siberia.
This is a great car on the road, but off road it’s limited by the tyres supplied by Land Rover. Having driven RR’s for over 25 years - this is my sixth RR, but all the others have been Classics, with proper compromise tyres - the late lamented BF Goodrich Trac Edge - on which I haven’t been stuck off road for at least 10 years! Brand Loyalty - it normally does what it says on the tin. However, for all the on board electronics, with the RSS when you encounter deep mud - not unusual with global warming! - you need a tyre with some shoulder. Stuck three times so far in the RRS in the last three months and I need to buy some tyres which can cope with both the on road capability and off road potential. 20″ wheels and Continental tyres at present are feckless; I’m looking to downsize to 18″ and either Grabber AT2’s or Avon Ranger Sports. Is ther anyone else who uses this great 4×4 for it’s real purpose and if so, do they have a view on best compromise tyre?
Peter.