Range Rover Sport: such guilty pleasure

Just because I write nice things about some vehicles that don’t get very good gas mileage, don’t think my conscience doesn’t bother me.

While driving the 2008 Range Rover recently and feeling completely enthralled by its design and handling, I had a head-on collision with guilt.

But I also had an epiphany:

Instead of expecting everyone in this country to drive small cars, which isn’t going to happen, we should demand that car companies produce only vehicles that use little or no gasoline, which is feasible. That way, we could overcome most of our automotive-related oil problems and still have wonderful vehicles like the Range Rover.

The Range Rover is Land Rover’s largest, most expensive model. It comes in HSE and Supercharged trim levels, priced in the $70,000s and $90,000s, and is renowned for its luxuriousness and off-road capability. Its dashboard and center stack design, which was inspired by racing yachts, is my favorite in all of autodom.

Another vehicle in the Land Rover lineup is the Range Rover Sport, which was road-tested shortly after the Range Rover HSE. Since I liked the Sport best, it’ll be featured here.

On the outside, the Range Rover Sport looks almost identical to the Range Rover, only smaller. Although the Sport is shorter in length and has a lower stance, the two vehicles have about the same width. The Sport’s compact dimensions make it more maneuverable and livelier, therefore more fun to drive than the Range Rover HSE. It’s also about $20,000 less expensive.

There are two trim levels, HSE and Supercharged, both powered by a V8 engine paired with a six-speed CommandShift automatic transmission with Normal, Sport and Manual shift modes.

The HSE engine is a naturally-aspirated 4.4-liter generating 300 horsepower at 5,500 rpm and 315 lb-ft of torque at 4,000 rpm. The 4.2-liter Supercharged V8 makes 390 horsepower at 5,750 rpm and 410 lb-ft of torque at 3,500 rpm.

My tester was an HSE, and with nothing to tow and nothing to prove, I found its acceleration perfectly satisfying. The transmission’s behavior is as good as they come.

Standard mechanical equipment includes permanent four-wheel drive, electronic traction control, a two-speed transfer case with locking center differential, anti-lock brakes, electronic brake-force distribution, cornering brake control, brake assist, dynamic stability control, hill descent control, and a Terrain Response system featuring a console knob with five different settings: grass/gravel/snow, mud and ruts, sand, and rock crawl.

Range Rover Sport’s passenger cabin is quiet and comfortable, its ride solid and sporty but smooth. Interior design is splendid but no match for the full-size Range Rover’s.

Standard equipment contributing to the interior experience includes dual-zone climate control, eight-way power-adjustable driver and front passenger bucket seats, power windows and sunroof, programmable remote entry key fob, an easy-to-use navigation system, 14-speaker Harmon-Kardon Logic7 surround sound audio system with six-disc in-dash CD changer and steering-wheel-mounted controls, and a Bluetooth-compatible phone system. My tester’s optional Sirius satellite radio added the finishing touch.

Saving the worst for last, the tester’s EPA rating is 12/18 mpg.

Range Rover’s conscience must be having trouble, too. The company is now engaged in a number of sustainability, CO2 offsetting, environmental and humanitarian projects. For more information, see www.landrover.com.