Range Rover And Sport (2012) review
by David Finlay (3 November 2011)
Range Rover's first act in what one of its employees quaintly described to me as "the post-Evoque era" has been to revise its more conventional products - the Sport and the Range Rover proper - for the 2012 model year. We're dealing with both in the same article because it's possible that a potential buyer might consider one or the other, and despite the fact that the Sport is much more closely related to the Land Rover Discovery.
There are no major technical changes to the Range Rover, which is still offered with the 309bhp 4.4-litre TDV8 turbo diesel engine, the 503bhp supercharged LR-V8 which hurls this large, heavy vehicle from 0-62mph in just over six seconds and the naturally-aspirated LR-V8 which produces a maximum of 370bhp.
The supercharged car is exciting, but the diesel is the one to go for. Not only is it the only version which exceeds 30mpg (admittedly only just) on the combined EU fuel economy cycle, it also sounds great when pushed, makes very little sound at all when not pushed, and needs no more straightline performance than it already has.
It is, however, my sad duty to inform you that on the international media launch event a large quantity of the diesel fuel which should have been used to power "my" car instead started pouring out from the engine compartment. I knew nothing about this until colleagues in the car behind - we were motoring gently along an A-class road at the time - started waving their arms and flashing their headlights.
I'm glad they were there, because if they hadn't been I would have continued dropping fuel on to the tarmac and put other road risks, and perhaps also (of more immediate concern) on to my own tyres. That could have gone quite badly.
A Range Rover person said it was difficult to see what had gone wrong in a quick examination, but he guessed that a fuel line had been damaged during an earlier off-road session, and that the pressure of the fuel itself had eventually caused the line to fail. If I'm told otherwise, I'll update this article to suit. If, on the other hand, that explanation turns out to be correct, it's possibly just as well that most customers use their Range Rovers as luxury cars rather than workhorses, though there remains no doubt that these machines are, for their size and weight, extraordinarily capable off-road.
Anyway. The main features of the 2012 upgrade concern style and equipment levels. There's more black in the exterior design details than there has been up to now, while the choice of wheels now includes 20" diameter V spoke alloys. The Vogue trim level is available with optional Silver Pack or Black Pack, both of which include a Harman Kardon Logic 7 1200W audio, heated and cooled seats and the quite brilliant Dual View system which allows the front passenger to watch a video and the driver to check the satellite navigation on the same screen at the same time!
The range-topping Autobiography model is available with no fewer than three Packs called Prestige, Dynamic and Technology, the last of these including Vision Assist, four-zone air-conditioning, the Harman Kardon set-up and rear-seat entertainment.
Like the "real" Range Rover, the Sport also uses the supercharged versions of the LR-V8 petrol engine (though not the naturally-aspirated one), but again it seems reasonable to opt for a diesel instead. In this case, there are two - as before, they're both three-litre six-cylinder units, but for 2012 the power output of what was previously the 242bhp version has been raised to 253bhp. The 208bhp engine still produces 208bhp.
Despite all this, fuel economy has improved to 33.2mpg (for the less powerful engine) and 32.1mpg (for the more powerful one) and CO2 emissions lowered to 224g/km and 230g/km respectively. That's partly because these engines are now mated as standard to eight-speed automatic transmissions, which among other trickery can drop anything up to six ratios at once without having to work its way through them all individually. The idea is to make sure that the engine is working at its most efficient speed for any given situation at any time.
On tarmac the Sport is every bit as quiet as its larger relative, as well as being somewhat nimbler. Off-road it's significantly better, not least because it has the full Terrain Response system found in the Discovery rather than the more limited one used in the Range Rover.
As with the larger car, there are various exterior styling tweaks for 2012, though I suggest that you'd have to be quite well-versed in the company's products to notice them. A more useful new feature is the powered tailgate which you can set to open to the height that best suits you, reducing the chances of smaller owners having to jump up to reach it and of larger ones banging their heads against it.
The Dual View system is available on the Sport for the first time, and there are various enhancements to the infotainment set-up which are so varied that it will be more useful to discuss them with your local dealer than read about them here. Similarly, there have been audio system upgrades, the most impressive of which (in the Harman Kardon Logic 7 system) includes a power output of 825W.
Also new to the Sport is a Say What You See voice command for the satellite navigation which I must admit I haven't tried because there wasn't time. One day, I promise. The one thing I definitely don't like about the satnav - and I suppose it's saying something that this is my worst complaint about either of the new Range Rovers, apart from the bit about the diesel falling out - is a piece of confusion in its own voice commands to the driver.
Most of these are fine, but the system has a tendency to say "turn left" when what you're actually meant to do is follow the road to the left and avoid turning down one to the right. This is not the same thing. The command gives a false impression of which road has the greater priority. In the worst case I was told to "continue straight on", a direction which failed to convey that I was joining another road to whose traffic I would have to give way. This really has to be sorted, as it could lead to unpleasantness if a driver were to place too much trust in what the satnav was saying.
Prices for the Sport start at £48,795 for the diesel SE and rise to £74,595 for the supercharged Autobiography. Range Rover pricing begins at £69,485 for the diesel Vogue.
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