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.
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.
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 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.
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!”.
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