Ladies and Gentlemen of the civilized (read: English Speaking) world, you now have a reason to breathe again. Land Rover has introduced the first posh farm implement worthy of its badge in over a decade. I wasn’t a fan of the previous model, not being a footballer looking for a Bentley alternative or stupid enough to think a Discovery with it’s roof chopped off with worse suspension was worthy of 60-large; in fact, let’s get it out there: the old Range Rover Sport was kind of utter shit, really. However, the 2014 Range Rover Sport is brilliant, and the existence of such a superb ‘Rangie’ makes one wonder why JLR even bothers to build ‘big brother’.
The world’s best 4×4? Abso-f*%£ing-lutely!
Ok, I do have a bit of a qualm with this spectacular piece of British engineering; the name. The ‘real one’ isn’t worthy of the badge, so call that over-styled, alloy monstrosity something else. I’m sure they have some old Daimler laying around Browns Lane, and that brand represented over-priced crap towards the end. It’d be perfect, and they could do it in slightly different shaded of metalic white for each Emirate!
A real shifter; they listened!
Anyway, having sampled the supercharged V8 Range Rover Sport, I can say only one thing: I want one. I suppose this is where stating why might be a bit important, so here it goes:
- Ride quality: Jag-like
- Handling: Honestly, the best of any 4×4 I’ve ever driven, and my daily-driver is previous holder of this title.
- Design: Derivative of the original, functional, and simple… So, pretty close to perfect.
- Interior: Puts the Porsche Cayenne (the only real competition) to shame.
- Off-roading: Technically Land Rover’s best current model.
- Build Quality: Did Mr. Tata hire the man who used to make sure every Lexus was perfect, because it seems like that’s where he went after Toyota clearly sacked him.
- Does it have a V8: Yes, but they did replace the naturally aspirated model with a supercharged V6, which means you have to get the top-end one.
I’ll take one like this, please.
So, are there things I would change, obviously. There a few minor quibbles with controls and the like, plus the tailgate’s still wrong, which means you’ll have to bring a folding table with you, rather than just keeping a table cloth in the side compartment. Yet, none of these makes me not find it worth the obscenely large price-tag. Those of us intelligent enough not to purchase depreciating durable-goods new, should be able to pick one up CPO for a much more reasonable number of fundamentally flawed fiat-currency units in about three years time. Hopefully, someone ‘leaser’ specs theirs in green with the big brakes, standard wheels, wood trim and the black over tan interior. At least one of them has to have good taste, right? Yes, the 2014 Range Rover Sport is brilliant, but you can still spec it like a pikey, unfortunately.
