Range Rover Sport TDV6 Autobiography 2011

Price Guide (recommended price before statutory and delivery charges): $121,300
Options fitted (not included in above price): Body styling package $9300, rear seat entertainment $4100, electric/glass sunroof $3170, Tow bar pack $530
Crash rating: TBA
Fuel: Diesel
Claimed fuel economy (L/100km): 9.2
CO2 emissions (g/km): 243
Also consider: BMW X6 xDrive30d, Mercedes G 350 BlueTEC

Overall rating: 3.0/5.0
Engine/Drivetrain/Chassis: 3.5/5.0
Price, Packaging and Practicality: 3.0/5.0
Safety: 3.0/5.0
Behind the wheel: 3.5/5.0
X-factor: 4.0/5.0

About our ratings

We can thank the Americans for the misnomer that is SUV. In the US, the term Sport Utility Vehicle grew out of a need to typecast a vehicle that will carry the stuff used in your personal sporting pastimes -- SCUBA equipment, equestrian kit or huntin' and fishin' gear -- and carry that stuff to places where conventional wagons wouldn't go.

By rights, it might have been preferable to call these offroad wagons 'Recreational Support Vehicles', because as soon as you mention Sport to driving enthusiasts, the first thought to mind concerns high-performance engines, close-ratio transmissions, dinner-plate-sized brake rotors and anti-roll bars thicker than Shrek's thumb.

Land Rover has a long history of building 4WD wagons that collectively turned offroading into a sport, somehow bridging that gulf between the two different contexts. In the case of the Range Rover Sport, the British company has created a most unlikely sports utility vehicle... One that is actually sporty.

The particular Range Rover Sport on test was the Autobiography model with 3.0-litre diesel V6. If a diesel seems like an unusual choice to power a vehicle with Sport in its title, it depends in part on how you define sport.

Does the Rangie with this engine go hard enough? Well, yes... and there's the end of the argument. It doesn't sound as musical as some high performance petrol engines (and in fact it's more conspicuously a diesel than the same engine powering the Jaguar XF and XJ models) but it remains a deceptively refined engine at higher speeds, emitting a subdued beat that's almost sporty in the conventional sense of the word. Give it a bootful below about 2000rpm, however, and it's quite blatantly an oiler.

There's little turbo lag from a standing start and it's quick to respond on the move, delivering decent performance from an engine this size in a vehicle as large and as heavy as the RR Sport. Fuel consumption for the week averaged 12.9L/100km.

The six-speed automatic transmission came with shift paddles that select the right gear promptly with a degree of refinement. Only on one occasion was there a mild thump when the engine and driver weren't quite in sync with the transmission.

Overall refinement is good. On smoother roads at higher speeds the barest rustle of wind is overcome by a hint of vibration from the driveline (as a constant humming undertone), but on a coarser bitumen mix the tyres swamp both.

The RR Sport rides well over smaller imperfections, but it's not a very compliant ride. It is well controlled, however, and the compensation is that body roll is negligible for a vehicle with such a high centre of gravity.

In fact, this is one SUV that can be tossed around by the driver with a degree of confidence. It does tend to understeer and steering response is naturally more in the range of what we'd expect from a prestige SUV, but the Rover can be pushed fairly hard into a corner.

Steering lets it down slightly once the driver starts demanding more though. There's some rack rattle for a start and the assistance ensures that while it's light enough for anyone to drive, the feedback is not what it could be. All that said, it's surprisingly good fun to drive through sweeping bitumen corners -- and capable.

Inside the RR Sport, the designers have gone for the traditional 'gentleman's club' look so beloved of British prestige marques. In other words, it's a bit cramped. That's the problem with basing this vehicle on the Discovery 3 platform. Indeed, this reviewer found the rear-seat accommodation to be unfavourably comparable with that of some much smaller softroaders – at least in terms of headroom and legroom for adults.

The front seats were comfortable and snug -- and looked the part, finished in 'Monza' red leather. But the driver's position is tight and if there's an adult sitting behind the driver, some of the driver's seat adjustment will be at the full extent of its range to accommodate both. For an adult's knees to clear the seat in the rear, the driver may have to sit further forward and/or with the backrest closer to upright.

Then there are issues such as adjusting the steering wheel rake for adequate clearance to view the instruments properly.

The rear seats fold flat in the Sport, which is always a useful facility, but one wonders how readily owners will take to using the Rover to haul gear. The separate lift-up tailgate window will probably be called upon to do duty more often than the whole tailgate. Simply put, lifting the tailgate in one piece is harder than in other, less expensive SUVs. It's supported and lifted by gas struts, but it's initially heavywhen opening.

Unlike most of its competitors, the Range Rover has doors that won't close securely without a fairly hefty slam. In this regard it's more like the Benz G-wagen, an older design and more expensive.

The start/stop button on the dash seems to take an aeon being held down before it will light up the dash and kick over the engine. In other vehicles, the button doesn't need to be held down for anything like as long and the driver can fasten the seatbelt while waiting. And it's not like the Range Rover doesn't require a bit of free time to fasten the seatbelt, hard to reach under the folding armrest of the captain's chair as the buckle is.

In other respects, the Range Rover Sport offers Jaguar Land Rover's commonsense approach to interior design and placement/operation of switchgear and instruments.

If it otherwise seems a little impractical against the very sensible Discovery 4, however, bear this in mind: the Range Rover Sport Autobiography offers near unattainable presence and heritage in an SUV.

It's all about old-fashioned, unapologetic social snobbery and it comes wrapped in a vehicle delivering genuine go-anywhere ability and on-road competence -- in comfort. In this light most of the criticisms above start to fade...

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