Range Rover Sport review

The clue is in the name with the Range Rover Sport. If you like the idea of a Range Rover but want a bit more sport in your SUV, Land Rover hopes this is the car for you.

It’s an alluring recipe – and a clever one too. You see, the Range Rover Sport is based on the same platform as the Range Rover, so it benefits from the bigger car’s very similar luxurious interior, great off-roading ability and an impressive engine line-up that includes a fire-breathing 626bhp petrol V8, a diesel and a couple of potentially frugal plug-in hybrids (PHEVs).

The Range Rover Sport has all that in a package that's more compact, more nimble and arguably more usable than its longer, taller stablemate.

New Range Rover Sport video review

So what’s the catch? Well, the biggest drawback is that the Sport is only available with five seats. But then again, has the lack of a seven-seat Porsche Cayenne hurt that model's sales? We think not.

Speaking of which, while the Range Rover Sport is quite a bit cheaper than the Range Rover, it’s still significantly more expensive than the entry-level versions of the Audi Q8, BMW X5, Lexus RX and Cayenne – but does that mean you shouldn’t buy one? This review will take you through the pros and cons so you can decide for yourself.

Most engine options for the Range Rover Sport are mild hybrid 3.0-litre six-cylinder petrols and diesels. First up for the diesels is the D250, which isn't slow buy any means (0-62mph takes 7.7sec), but we reckon it’s worth stepping up to the D300. Producing 296bhp, it’ll get you from 0-62mph in 6.4sec and feels more than strong enough to haul along this heavyweight luxury SUV at speed. The D350 diesel brings the 0-62mph sprint down to 5.8sec, but we’re not convinced it’s worth the extra outlay.

The six-cylinder petrols kick off with the 355bhp P360 that hits 62mph from rest in six-seconds flat. The 395bhp P400 is even more punchy, as you'd expect (0-62mph takes just 5.5sec), but if it’s pace you’re after you’ll be interested in one of the 4.4-litre V8s. The P530 has 523bhp and whooshes to 62mph in just 4.5sec, but the flagship Sport SV P635 has 626bhp and smashes the four-second barrier. It blasts from 0-62mph in 3.9sec – accompanied by a suitably rorty soundtrack. 

Those with an eye on efficiency will appreciate the two plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) – the P460e and a P550e. Both come with a 3.0-litre six-cylinder petrol engine combined with an electric motor and a 31.8kWh (usable capacity) battery. Performance is effortless in both but we’d stick with the P460e; it doesn’t feel much slower than the P550e and increases the official electric range to 76 miles – over 10 miles farther than the BMW X5 xDrive50e. When we tested the P460e against the X5 xDrive50e it logged 0-60mph in 5.3sec, while the BMW managed the same run in 4.6sec and felt a lot sprightlier off the line. 

No matter which version you go for, the Sport impresses on the road. The air suspension is a little firmer than on a full-size Range Rover and you’re a bit more aware of bumps in the road as they pass beneath you, but thanks to tighter control, those obstacles are dealt with quickly, with very little aftershock. There’s also less vertical body movement over undulating roads. 

We’ve sampled the Sport on 22in and 23in alloy wheels, but any car's ride is invariably better on smaller wheels. So, we reckon to get the best ride go for a spec that includes the free-to-option 20in alloys. Also, avoid the expensive Stormer handling pack that includes Dynamic Air Suspension, which makes the ride more aggressive over undulating roads. 

The suspension has four ride height settings – from Access to Off-Road 2 – so you can lower the car to make it easier to climb in or lift it to avoid damage on rough terrain.

Every Range Rover Sport has four-wheel drive and feels stable and relatively agile, although despite its name, we’d stop short of calling it truly sporty. The BMW X5 and Porsche Cayenne offer more grip and tighter body control, helping them to shrink around you when you start to pick up the pace, while the Sport always feels a little top-heavy.

The exception is the Range Rover Sport SV, which is lighter and has a lower ride height. The SV gets 6D Dynamic air suspension that all but eliminates body lean when cornering, and pitching and diving when accelerating or braking to remarkable effect. You can add carbon-ceramic brakes for great stopping power. It’s very good, although the similarly priced Aston Martin DBX and Lamborghini Urus handle just as well, if not better.

No matter which version you go for, the Sport is an easy car to drive along a twisty road. Rear-wheel steering, which is fitted as standard on the P635 and P550e, helps make the car remarkably agile at low speeds by greatly reducing the turning circle. That also helps during off-road driving, where the Range Rover Sport is leagues ahead of its rivals, with the help of a barrage of tech, including Adaptive Off-Road Cruise Control, Hill Descent Control and Wade Mode.

There’s some wind noise on motorways but disturbance is generally limited to a gentle flutter around the door mirrors and front pillars. Road noise is worse with the biggest wheels fitted, but even then, it's not overly intrusive. On versions with an upgraded sound system, you also get an active noise-cancelling feature that uses microphones to monitor exterior noise then cancels it out with the speakers.

The diesels are delightfully silken and quiet, remaining smooth even when pushed hard, but nothing in the range beats the PHEVs in electric mode for refinement. With their engines switched off, they’re both almost completely silent. The SV, conversely, provides an entertaining muscle-car soundtrack.

The eight-speed automatic gearbox is fine at low speeds, but if you want a quick burst of pace, it does feel rather sluggish – certainly when compared with the Cayenne’s snappy auto box. We should also mention that the brake pedal in the PHEV is consistently weighted, making it easy to stop smoothly, but there was an odd issue with the P460e we tried: when you released the foot brake there was a second's delay before the regenerative braking disengaged.

"Using Adaptive Off-Road Cruise Control, I found negotiating challenging terrain felt straightforward and safe, while four-wheel steering is helpful when manoeuvring this huge SUV on or off road." – Steve Huntingford, Editor

The Range Rover Sport sits you 20mm lower down than a full-size Range Rover, but even so, the driving position is brilliantly lofty so you're perched above most other road users. What’s more, there’s a logical relationship between the placement of the steering wheel and pedals, and a very wide range of adjustment for the steering wheel and front seats (which can be heated, ventilated and massaging depending on the spec). That said, we reckon the seat cushions, though okay, aren't as immediately comfortable as they are in rivals like the Volvo XC90. 

The Range Rover Sport SV adds new Body and Soul front seats with built-in vibrating transducers so you can feel music from the stereo through your body. Land Rover says they also help with well-being, reducing stress and increasing alertness behind the wheel. They could do with a little more lateral support to hold you in under hard cornering though.

A 13.7in digital driver's display comes as standard, offering crisp and clear graphics and a useful level of customisation to choose what you want to see. It’s a bit of a shame the user-friendly physical air-con controls have been removed in an attempt to tidy up the dashboard – you now adjust the temperature on the infotainment touchscreen, like in a BMW X5 or Lexus RX.

The high and commanding driving position is matched by good visibility. As long as you don't drop the driver's seat all the way down, you should be able to see down to the bonnet to the nose of the car. The door mirrors are helpfully big, and a rear windows give you a great view out of the back – although not quite as good as the full-size Range Rover or the XC90 with their taller glass areas.

You get a 360-degree surround-view camera with a variety of display modes as standard, along with all-round parking sensors.

On Autobiography trim and above, you get a rear-view mirror that, at the flick of a switch, becomes a digital screen showing a view from the back of the car. It lets you see behind you even if the boot is loaded to the roof, and is available as an option lower down the range.

Every Range Rover Sport gets a 13.1in infotainment touchscreen that responds swiftly to inputs. Its resolution is impressive, and there aren't too many sub-menus to dig through to find a particular function. An optional Rear Seat Entertainment pack adds a similarly crisp 11.4in screen to the back of each front seat.

Amazon Alexa and wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay come as standard, so you can use your phone apps rather than the Land Rover system if you prefer. Even so, it’s a shame you don't get physical buttons or dials to help operate the touchscreen. Searching and making selections using the rotary dial controller in the BMW X5 is easier to use than a touchscreen while you're driving.

All Range Rover Sports come with a Meridian stereo. The basic one has 400-watts and 15 speakers, while Autobiography trim ups that to a 3D surround-sound system with 800-watts and 19 speakers. If that's not enough for your high-fidelity needs, then there's a mega-pricey upgrade that gets you 1,430-watts and 29 speakers.  

In terms of quality, the Sport’s interior generally impresses. There’s a sturdy, high-quality feel throughout to rival the X5, and most of the materials match the more expensive Range Rover, which is great given the jump in price between the two models. And we love the attention to detail, from the stitching on the leather upholstery to the numerous chrome inlays.

That said, there are some minor lets downs. The action of the gear selector as you rock it between drive and reverse feels a bit limp for such a premium product, and the foam material used to cover it feels a tad low-rent, too, but that's us being ultra-critical. 

"In the main, I find it hard to fault the Range Rover Sport's interior – it looks and feels as impressive as you'd expect in a luxury SUV, bar one or two details." – Steve Huntingford, Editor

As you might expect given its size, the Range Rover Sport provides generous space for long-legged people up front, and there’s plenty of elbow room as well. There's fractionally less headroom than there is in a full-size Range Rover but you’d have to be wearing a top hat to notice.

There are two cupholders on the centre console that can be covered by a sliding lid. The two gloveboxes and centre cubby are a good size (a refrigerated version of the cubby is available as part of the Comfort Pack option), although the door pockets are quite slim.

While some of the dimensions are a little smaller than the Range Rover, the distance between the front and rear wheels is the same (and greater than in the previous-generation Sport).

So the back seats offer the same generous leg room that you’ll find in the Range Rover (although the BMW X7 and Volvo XC90 offer even more space to stretch your legs). The reduced height of the Sport, compared with the full-size Range Rover, and its slightly sloping roofline, means rear head room is a wee bit less, but it's far from stingy. Even tall adults are still able to sit up straight with room to spare underneath the sunroof.

While the previous-generation Sport was available with seven seats, the latest model is a five-seater only. If you need to fit in more passengers, take a look at the Range Rover LWB or see our guide to the best seven-seaters.

The back seats electrically recline at the press of a switch to several set positions to help passengers get comfortable. They also split and fold in a handy 40/20/40 configuration. The Sport's rear seats don't slide back and fourth, though, as they do in some rivals, including the XC90. 

Like the driver, the front passenger is treated to 20-way electric seat adjustment (22-way on Autobiography models), including height and lumbar controls. Heated front and rear seats are standard, and a cooling function is available if you pay extra.

The boot is big enough for even the most profligate shopping trip, with no reduction in space if you opt for a PHEV model. We managed to fit in nine carry-on suitcases below the parcel shelf, matching the number we fitted into the BMW X5 PHEV and the Lexus RX. Need even more space? Well, we managed to fit 10 cases in the back of the XC90.

Handily, you can raise and lower the height of the car's air suspension using two buttons in the wall of the boot, making it easier to load in heavy objects. A powered tailgate is standard, and you can flip up part of the boot floor to make a backrest, allowing you to sit comfortably in the boot with the tailgate open.

"The Range Rover Sport's interior is plenty big enough to take me and three or four of my tallest friends with space to spare." – Steve Huntingford, Editor

There’s no getting around it: the Range Rover Sport is an expensive car, costing a good 10-20% more in the showroom than many like-for-like luxury SUVs. Even so, it still looks compelling next to the much more expensive Range Rover and it’ll hold its value just as well – and in that respect outperforming many rivals including the Audi Q8, BMW X5, Volvo XC90 and even the Porsche Cayenne.

Fuel economy in the diesels will average around low to mid 30mpg, while the petrol P400 will hover around the mid 20s. The SV will be even less. Likewise, with a depleted battery, even the plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) will see fuel economy dip to the mid 20s – we averaged 23.6mpg in the P460e with no charge in the battery. 

The financial appeal is clearer to see for company car drivers. Thanks to the outstanding official electric range of around 75 miles, both the PHEVs are placed in a low BIK tax bracket – lower than rivals including the X5 and the Lexus RX 450h+. That's balanced out slightly buy the Sport's generally higher P11D values, but still makes for a surprisingly competitive company car option. 

The PHEV Range Rover Sports have a maximum charging speed of 50kW so they can go from 0-80% of charge in less than an hour if you can find a quick enough charger, or 0-100% in five hours from a 7kW home EV charger. The PHEV X5 can charge at a much slower 7.4kW and the RX 450h+ manages 6.6kW. They both require around five hours for a full charge.

There are five main trim levels to choose from for the Range Rover Sport: S, SE, Dynamic SE, Autobiography and SV. Entry-level S is a great pick if you're happy with the D250 diesel because it gets loads of kit, including 20in wheels, keyless entry, two-zone climate control, a leather interior, adaptive cruise control,  touchscreen infotainment, powered tailgate, keyless entry and air suspension. Buyers also get a half-day training session covering the car's off-road capabilities. The only issue is none of the larger engine options are available with this trim.

SE is our pick because you can have it with our favourite D300 diesel and you get bigger 21in wheels, a panoramic roof, 20-way electric front seats (instead of 12-way) and heated rear seats. Dynamic SE just adds styling touches to the SE package, including dark grey wheels, black brake calipers, darker interior trim finishers and black roof lining.

Above that, Autobiography comes with a whole host of goodies, such as 22in wheels, heated and ventilated rear seats, an upgraded sound system and a sliding panoramic roof – but it is eye-wateringly expensive.

Likewise, the flagship SV is even more expensive (costing as much as the entry-level Lamborghini Urus S) and comes with 23in wheels, more aggressive exterior styling, bespoke suspension, and Body and Soul front seats. Carbon-ceramic brakes and carbon-fibre wheels are available as options. The SV Black includes all of the same, plus an all-black colour scheme inside and out.

It’s no secret that Land Rover has a terrible reliability record. It was one of the worst-performing manufacturers in our 2025 What Car? Reliability Survey, coming 26th out of 30 car makers included.

That said, the latest Range Rover Sport itself came out as one of the more reliable luxury SUVs in our 2025 survey, and should something go wrong it comes with a three-year, unlimited-mileage warranty, which can be extended at a cost. That’s par for the course but doesn’t come close to the 10-year, 100,000-mile warranty you get for the Lexus RX if you service it each year at a main dealer.

In 2022, the Sport was awarded the full five stars for safety by Euro NCAP. If you reference that against rivals such as the X5, Cayenne and XC90, it appears they also get five stars, but they were tested so long ago that their ratings have actually expired. 

The Sport scored well in all areas and comes with lots of standard safety equipment, including adaptive cruise control with steering assist, lane-departure warning, rear cross-traffic alert, automatic emergency braking (AEB), Hill Descent Control.

"At just over 30mpg, the fuel consumption I've been averaging in a D350 diesel Range Rover Sport is nothing to brag about but isn't too bad for a 2.5-tonne SUV." – Steve Huntingford, Editor

Buy it if...

– You like a smooth six-cylinder diesel engine with pretty decent fuel economy
– You want an uber-commanding driving position
– You need an SUV that can really go off road

Don't it if...

– You need seven seats
– You want luxury SUV motoring on a budget
– You need the roomiest luxury SUV

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