2009 Range Rover Sport – Off-road Luxury and Performance

by Jim Meachen – www.car-data.com

In 2006, Land Rover added a stylish high-performance model to take on competitors such as the BMW X5, Mercedes M-Class, Porsche Cayenne and Volkswagen Touareg.

The goal with the Range Rover Sport, now entering its fourth model year relatively unchanged, was to plug a hole in the British brand that has been known for decades as offering an unsurpassed combination of ultimate luxury and off-road toughness.

Land Rover, now owned by Tata Motors of India, had an initial goal of 15,000 Sports a year. It surpassed expectations in both 2006 and 2007 with 18,757 and 16,989 sales respectively. A sales breakdown for 2008 is not available, but Land Rover sales overall are down significantly.

The 2009 Sport, which features a combination of horsepower and handling while retaining the company’s vaunted off-road characteristics, looks much like the flagship Range Rover, but in a smaller package and for about 20 grand less.

It’s aptly named.

It appears sporty and aggressive with a shorter wheelbase, raked windshield and rear hatch, well-placed brightwork, a roofline that extends over the tailgate and great-looking 19-inch wheels.

The sporty nature continues inside with a wide sloping center stack.

The traditional lavish use of Range Rover wood is limited to the edges of the console. The wood has been replaced with more sports-car-like polished metal accents. High-quality black leather fills the cockpit.
The center stack houses a DVD navigation system and a 14-speaker, 550- watt Harman Kardon audio system with a six-disc CD changer.

It offers a luxury environment on a modern, high-tech scale.
There are things here that you may never have considered a necessity until you have them.

One such is a cooler box housed in the center console. Take an extra Pepsi with you on your three-hour journey and it will be cool when you reach the half-way point.
Another is a $2,500 rear-entertainment system that is one step above the standard rear DVD players found in half the minivans and crossovers sold in America these days. This one features screens in the back of both the front-seat headrests.

And a six-disc DVD changer allows back-seat passengers to watch different movies at the same time.
Happy trails to you guys in the back!

The real teeth in the “Sport” moniker comes from the engine options and the suspension setup.

The standard Sport comes with a 300-horsepower twin-cam 4.4-liter V-8 mated to a six-speed automatic transmission with manual shift capability. The uplevel Sport gets a 4.2-liter supercharged edition of the V-8 good for 390 horsepower.
The engine is derived from the Jaguar, and the supercharged version can be found in the XJR and Super V8 sedans.
The engines are asked to pull about 5,500 pounds. And they acquit themselves quite nicely with times from 0 to 60 measured at 8.2 seconds for the 300-horsepower edition and 7.2 seconds for the supercharged edition.

Last year we found the 300-horsepower Sport HSE test vehicle quick off the line and responsive in merging and passing situations. It is satisfying performance.
But for bigger thrills, the supercharged V-8 rockets the nearly three- ton sport utility from the stoplight.
The downside to both engines is poor fuel mileage that could deplete even a well-heeled pocketbook. EPA ratings are an anemic 12 city, 18 highway for both engines.

We found the Range Rover Sport’s road-holding ability extraordinary considering the usual tippy feeling we get from Land Rover products with their high center of gravity. This is due in part to the Dynamic Response system, standard on the superecharged edition, which stiffens the roll bars to hold the vehicle flat in hard cornering.

The system only intervenes when necessary, helping the Sport retain the very compliant on-road ride derived from an air suspension system that keeps the jarring effects of rough-road surfaces outside the passenger compartment. The Sport also has an automatic load-leveling system.

Off-roaders have the best stuff in the business at their disposal.

Equipment includes an electronic transfer case and an electronic locking center differential. But the most high-tech feature is Land Rover’s Terrain Response System, which can be set in five positions — on-road driving, grass/ gravel/snow, sand, mud/ruts and rock crawl. This feature aids driving in all conditions by adjusting everything from throttle response, traction control and electronic stability control to varying off-road conditions.

Equipment that has become standard fare on high-end sport utilities these days such as hill decent control is standard fare.

Safety features abound. They include four-wheel antilock brakes, side- impact and head-curtain airbags, traction and stability controls and front and rear park distance control. Interestingly, the Range Rover Sport is not built on the Range Rover platform, but is actually a shortened version of the smaller LR3.

And here’s the rub. While we found the Range Rover Sport a very compelling vehicle for several reasons not the least of which is that it looks like a smaller version of the flagship Range Rover, it doesn’t offer much more than the LR3. And the LR3 comes in at a more attractive price for basically the same performance and amenities when outfitted with the 300-horsepower engine.

The Range Rover Sport starts at $59,000 including destination charge.

But options will quickly send the sport toward 70 grand territory. Our most recent test vehicle, a 2009 supercharged edition, carried a bottom line of $72,450. The few available options including rear entertainment and adaptive cruise control can send the price skyrocketing toward 80 grand.

But regardless of price, both the LR3 and the Sport offer the personification of style, luxury, performance and off-road capability.

Pick your truck and you can’t miss.

Land Rover LR3 – Queen of the Road

by Cindy Stagg – www.car-data.com

I have never felt more at home with a car than I did in Park City, Utah with the LR3. It’s not because of its superior mountain climbing capabilities, either. It’s because as I rounded the drive-through lane at the local Taco Bell, parked in front of me were a Bentley and a Jaguar. Who knew Park City was such a hot spot for British luxury vehicles?

And that’s exactly what the LR3 is: a luxury vehicle. Yes, it can climb slippery slopes and crawl across a jagged rock bed; but who would want to? My favorite feature had nothing to do with its off-road capabilities at all. In fact, to fully enjoy my favorite feature, I’d prefer to have the car parked on a level surface. That’s because I fell in love with the 550-watt, 14-speaker Harman/Kardon surround sound system. Because I’m a mom with a little boy, we watched Disney/Pixar’s “Cars” and, as I was driving, I felt like I was right there on the track with the Piston Cup racers. Of course, I could only actually see the movie on my screen when the car was in park. On the rare occasion that I drove sans children, well, let me just say that Michael Buble sounded as good as if he were crooning right in front of me. I also have to give the driver’s seat high marks. It’s comfortable and held me in place when we were on less than flat surfaces.

On paved roads, the LR3 has a remarkably refined ride. Its four-corner air suspension tames even the slightest bumps. It also steers and maneuvers easily, handling like a much smaller SUV. The suspension can be lowered for easier ingress-egress; however, there is one slight annoyance that I found when getting in. There is a large, rounded, integrated cup holder in the door, and the first few times I closed said door, I banged my left ankle with the aforementioned cup holder. Needless to say, I quickly learned to move my leg out of the way before I closed the door. The 300-horsepower V8 is robust, though it took some coaxing to keep it at 75 mph when making highway ascents.

I did do what many Land Rover owners don’t do themselves – I went mountain climbing. Now when an automotive journalist goes mountain climbing, there are no ropes, pulleys, or karabiners involved; we do it with just five wheels: one in our hands, and four on the ground. Coming down one narrow, rocky slope, I was able to put the Hill Descent Control to the test – it passed with flying colors. The ABS went to work and allowed me to focus completely on steering. The kids in the back hardly noticed, as they were much too busy enjoying their movie on individual screens.

At $57, 800 the only options on my LR3 were the black lacquer wood, Sirius satellite radio, and the 6-disc DVD entertainment system. The DVD changer is located in the very back cargo area, and I think I would have found it more convenient to have it located in a more easily accessible spot.

So how does the LR3 shape up as mom mobiles go? I’d call it a mom mobile for the pampered mom. It’s completely luxurious on the inside, it has enough room for the family and all the stuff that goes with a family; and its high class statement will have you feeling like the queen of the road. Especially if you happen to pass through Park City.