Land Rover Range Rover Sport

The Range Rover Sport is a high-performance, five-passenger SUV built by Land Rover and sold since the summer of 2005. It shares its platform with the Land Rover Discovery (LR3 in North America) rather than the larger Range Rover. Land Rover calls the vehicle a sports tourer.

See Wikicars' comprehensive Land Rover Range Rover Sport Review.

Recent Changes

 * For the 2009 Frankfurt Motor Show, Land Rover introduced the limited edition Range Rover Sport Autobiography. Boasting numerous design tweaks, the Autobiography is elegant and exclusive. For the exterior, the company added a mesh grille, an aerodynamic body kit, and 20" diamond-finish alloy wheels. Inside, the Range Rover features two-tone leather upholstery, dark wood trim, and plenty of Autobiography badging. Only 500 units will be made while pricing is TBA.

Styles and Major Options
The Range Rover Sport comes in two trims, the HSE and the Supercharged. Both are equipped with full-time four wheel drive and a 6-speed CommandShift automatic transmission, but the HSE is powered by a 4.4L 300hp V8 engine and the Supercharged has a powerful 4.2L 390hp V8. The Supercharged also comes with a few more standard features than the HSE. Some of these features are equipped on each trim as follows: HSE
 * 19" silver alloy wheels
 * 8-way driver (6-way passenger) power seats
 * Leather seating, shift knob, and steering wheel
 * Express open/close sunroof
 * Dual zone front automatic air conditioning
 * 13-speaker Harman Kardon AM/FM/in-dash 6CD changer audio system
 * Cruise Control
 * Homelink Wireless Control System
 * Systems monitor, trip computer, and navigation system

Supercharged

Adds to or replaces HSE features with:
 * Dynamic Response sport ride with adaptive suspension
 * 20" silver alloy wheels
 * 8-way driver (6-way passenger) power sports seating
 * Leather seating, door trim, shift knob, and steering wheel
 * Heated front wiper jets

Pricing
Today's actual prices for the Land Rover Range Rover Sport can be found at CarsDirect.

Gas Mileage
As seen on the FuelEconomy.gov website, the City/Highway MPG averages are as follows:

Engine
Specifications, details, graphs, pictures and other information regarding the powertrain is placed in this section.

Performance
Please make sure to write information of the vehicle's performance in a third-person point of view. This section should include information about the car's acceleration figures, handling, braking, etc.

If using information gathered from Road Test articles from a reputable automotive source, then please make sure to cite the quote.

Reliability
The Range Rover Sport only debuted as a brand new vehicle in 2005, so accurate long-term reliability information is not yet available for it.

Safety
Safety test informatin is not available on the NHTSA website, but according to Autos.com, the Range Rover Sport is tied for 4th in safety with, among a slew of others, its relatives, the Land Rover Range Rover and Land Rover LR3. Other vehicles which ranked higher in safety than the Range Rover Sport include the Mercedes-Benz ML-Class, BMW X5, Acura MDX, Lexus RX, and Cadillac SRX.

Colors
The Range Rover Sport is available in a wide variety of colors, and a full list of them is viewable at CarsDirect.com. Some of the available choices are:

Exterior
 * Arctic Frost
 * Blue Buckingham
 * Bonatti Gray Metallic
 * Cairns Blue
 * Giverny Green
 * Java Black Pearl
 * Maya Gold
 * Rimini Red
 * Tonga Green Pearl
 * White Chawton
 * Zambezi Silver Metallic

Interior
 * Alpaca
 * Aspen
 * Ebony
 * Ivory

Main Competitors

 * Acura MDX
 * Cadillac SRX
 * Lexus RX
 * Infiniti FX
 * Land Rover Range Rover
 * BMW X5
 * Cadillac Escalade EXT
 * Hummer H1

Hybrid Models
There are no hybrid models of the Range Rover Sport in production at this time.

Interior
This section should include information on the interior's design, build quality, ergonomics, space (head and legroom, front and rear), features, stowage compartments and overall comfortability and livability. Add pictures wherever applicable and keep information in a third-person point of view.

Resale Values
According to Kelley Blue Book, "resale value of the Sport is projected to be toward the top of the performers in the segment."

Criticisms

 * "Is it fast? Well, let's just say "Sport" is a bit of a stretch. ... 5,468 pounds in the HSE and 5,670 pounds for the supercharged model. That's fatty-fatty 4x4." - Los Angeles Times
 * "Though based on the smaller LR3 platform, the Range Rover Sport still tips the scales at nearly 5700 pounds. That substantial weight assures the big V8 will have a thirst for fuel, yet despite its size the Sport offers no third-row seat and only average cargo space." - Kelley Blue Book
 * "... it can be a little rumbly-jumbly, with side-to-side sniggles." - The Car Connection

Current Generation/Origins
The Range Rover Sport made its first appearance late in 2004, badged as the Range Stormer. This was a bright orange, low-slung, 3-door concept car, that hinted very heavily at the styling of the new model. When the production model was released, it had morphed into a five-door, was not much shorter than the standard Range Rover, and its styling was much less radical, although still identifiable with the concept model. This disappointed many people, though it is still selling well. It is questionned, however, whether this model will actually add sales, or simply cannibalise the Range Rover's sales.

The top-level Sport is powered by a supercharged 390 PS (287 kW/410 hp) 4.2 L AJ-V8, making it the second most powerful vehicle in the company's history except for the larger Range Rover Vogue SE supercharged (450BHP, 420lb/ft). A normally-aspirated 4.4 L version is available with 300 PS (220 kW/295 hp). Both models have six-speed automatic transmissions and fuel capacities of about 88 liters. The vehicles are 4.788 meters long, 2.170 meters wide (including the side mirrors), and about 1.8 tall. The Premier Automotive Group claims the Range Rover Sport can wade 70 cm of water.

Design quirks and oddities
The Range Rover Sport made the Premier Automotive Group the target of a protest by Greenpeace in 2005. The protestors infiltrated an assembly facility and temporarily delayed production of the vehicle. Greenpeace quoted issue with contributions to greenhouse gas emissions, and by extension, global warming, that would result from the vehicle's (relatively inefficient) combustion of hydrocarbons. A test performed in late 2005 using a Range Rover Sport with only 1 gallon of fuel in the tank resulted in the car covering barely 8 miles (roughly 30L/100km) before running out of gas and spluttering to a halt.

Near the end of the music video Bodies, a Range Rover Sport appeared to pick up Robbie Williams and drove off.