Range Rover Sport SDV6 review

Range Rover Sport Sdv6 Review 3 The Land Rover I know from my army “daze” is a dirty diesel vehicle with battle scars, black war paint and all the comfort of an NSman’s SBO. This particular Land Rover, on the other hand, is a clean diesel machine with flawless bodywork, perfect blue paintwork and all the comforts of a small bungalow.

It’s a 5+2 cabin, which means the additional pair of seats are only suitable for kids with toys, or toy dogs. I tried to park my 1.77m frame back there and ended up with my knees nearly touching my chest. It’s quite warm, too, with precious little chilled air reaching the third row. But the seats’ electrical operation is pretty cool, taking about 10 seconds to deploy or stow at the press of a button on the right-side panel of the boot. Those tall head restraints for the third-row occupants look weird, but work well otherwise.

Weird, too, was seeing a distance-to-empty calculation of 800km on the trip meter display of the fully fuelled, 3-litre diesel Range Rover Sport (RRS), because big SUVs like these tend to have an equally big thirst. The tank capacity of the RRS is 80 litres, so that worked out to an average of 10km per litre, in theory – I got surprisingly close, in practice.

Some credit for this impressive fuel economy (by 2.1-tonne Rangie standards) goes to the engine’s auto stop/start system, but the catch is, it also stops the air-conditioning, which starts blowing “unconditioned” air instead. Not ideal in the hot spell we’ve been suffering on our tropical isle.

Providing a form of relief is the “thunderstorm” that is the RRS doing its thing. The turbo-diesel V6 is noisier and grittier than its petrol equivalent, but pulls with torque-laden gusto and partners the 8-speed automatic perfectly. It’s always in the right gear for any driving situation, and it’s ever ready to drop a cog or two for a burst of acceleration. “DIY” drivers would be happy to use the gearlever, which is similar to the one in the racy F-Type, but they’d be less happy using the paddle-shifters, which are too plasticky and therefore more Rover than Sport.

Range Rover Sport Sdv6 Review 2 Pure Range Rover Sport, however, are the throne-like seats (clad in Oxford leather), unstoppable persona and comprehensive equipment. This HSE-spec SDV6 model also happens to be the least expensive Rangie in the Land Rover, um, range, although $455k is still a lot of money, enough to buy two Freelander 2s.