2005 Land Rover Range Rover Sport Reviews

Given the way so many four-wheel drives have morphed into performance SUVs over the years, it’s no surprise Range Rover had its own take on a high-spec, high-stepping wagon. The difference being, of course, that with a Range Rover badge, the end result needed to be sporty(-ish) and capable of plugging through the worst forest tracks and trails imaginable.The product of that thinking became the Range Rover Sport.Although the badging and high-end interior materials said Range Rover, the platform with its semi-monocoque construction said Land Rover. Land Rover Discovery 3, to be precise. But when you started to explore the Sport’s on- and off-road abilities and its tremendous looking body, any misgivings might have been scratched.The range kicked off in Australia in 2005 as the L320 series and included a huge range of mechanical packages. They started with the 2.7TDV6 which used a 2.7 litre turbo-diesel V6 with a six-speed automatic. With 140kW performance was okay, but importantly, the L320 used a proper two-speed transfer-case with permanent four-wheel drive.There was also a 4.4-litre petrol V8 option with 220kW and a storming 4.2-litre supercharged petrol V8 with no less than 287kW at its disposal. Both of those also had six-speed automatic transmissions and all V8 models had a locking rear differential for more off-road prowess.A year after the model’s launch, Range Rover added a 3.6-litre twin-turbo diesel V8 model with 200kW.The Range Rover badge decreed that luxury could not be forgotten, so every version of the Sport featured 18-inch alloy wheels, dual-zone climate control, cruise control, LED lighting and leather upholstery. The 4.4-litre V8 version added a CD stacker, bi-xenon headlights, and rear parking sensors, while the diesel V8 carried the same specification but with 19-inch alloys. The supercharged Sport added 20-inch wheels, Brembo brakes, front parking sensors, memory seats and mirrors as well as hydraulically controlled anti-roll suspension.Air suspension was a much hyped part of the Sport deal with the (on-paper) ability to make the independent suspension work as if the vehicle had solid axles in tougher off-road settings.Range Rover gave the L320 a facelift (to Series 2 spec) in 2009 with new engines and improved suspension as well as interior improvements to make the driver’s job easier.The new engines started with a 3.0-litre turbo-diesel V6, while the V8s were replaced by a 5.0-litre petrol V8. Available in either naturally aspirated or supercharged form, the new V8s were good for 276kW and a massive 375kW.The model was eventually replaced in 2013 by the L494 model Range Rover Sport. The short answer is yes, and no.The Range Rover Sport is a pretty amazing thing dynamically, able to combine high-speed stability with good comfort and even exceptional off-road abilities. That’s the ‘yes’ part.The ‘no’ comes in the form of a litany of serious mechanical and electrical problems that have surfaced over the years, tainting the Sport’s reputation.This car is a classic case of buyer beware, but if you do get lucky and find one that is reliable, the driving experience is hard to match. The problem is picking a good one, because the odds aren’t great that it will be clear sailing. In a nutshell, not great. In fact, not even close. Too many owners have had expensive, often catastrophic failures to make any other judgment. The problems are wide and varied, too, so there’s no short-cut to finding one that won’t necessarily break the bank.The rusted-on fans out there will beg to differ, but the facts are the facts, and this vehicle’s a gamble at best. This is no short list and the Range Rover Sport’s reputation for fragility and dud engineering is based on many years of turning motorists into mechanics.Let’s start with the real elephant in the room, the 2.7 and 3.0 litre V6 turbo-diesels. These have a pretty shocking record for destroying themselves due to problems with the bottom end bearings. Speculation is that the bearings themselves were either fitted incorrectly at the factory, or that they could wear and 'spin' in service. Either way, once you hear the warning noises from under the bonnet, you had a handful of seconds to pull off the road, shut the engine off and call a tow-truck. Any longer and you were likely to destroy the engine completely as the crankshaft failed due to the bearing problem.Symptoms that you have those precious seconds remaining include a knocking noise that gets louder as you load the engine, and a low oil pressure warning on the dashboard. Ignore it and you’ll soon have the con-rods on the ground under the car. Not nice.Scandalously, despite this being a known problem affecting the very earliest L320 cars, it took Land Rover until 2012 to sort a fix with a revised bearing design.Early examples of this engine also had a major design flaw in the oil pump assembly which was too weak to support the tensioner for the rubber timing belt that was mounted on the pump casing. This often showed up straight after a new timing belt was fitted and the added tension of the new belt exceeded the integrity of the pump casing.At that point, all hell boke loose as the timing belt jumped ship, allowing the pistons to collide with the valves and reducing the engine to scrap in milli-seconds. A revised pump casing design fixed things, but not before plenty of owners were replacing entire engines.The single turbocharger unit fitted to the 2.7-litre V6 was also prone to internal wear. Lots of white smoke from the exhaust was a sign that this was the case. Replacing the turbocharger unit was the usual fix. EGR valve failures on this engine are not unknown, either.The 5.0-litre supercharged V8 was not without problems and it often developed a rattle or ticking noise. This was usually traced to the timing chain tensioner, requiring the tensioner and the timing chain to be replaced. An improved design of the chain and tensioner helped, but didn’t arrive until the 2012 model.The Sport’s air suspension has also caused its share of grief with many owners returning to their vehicle to find it lying almost flat on the ground. The cause is usually the air suspension’s compressor system which can either fail to maintain the required ride height or simply allow all the air to escape the suspension units. One theory holds that the compressor itself was too small and was overworked, leading to failures.We’ve also heard of a few instances where the suspension units themselves have failed requiring costly replacement. But even the plastic plumbing for the air suspension seems underdone in the sense of a car designed for off-road work.Those are by no means the only faults associated with this make and model, but they’re the ones that keep surfacing over time. None of them are minor. Again, this is a long list because the Range Rover Sport has been far from immune from safety recalls to fix things that should never have gone wrong.Let’s start with the transmission which could sometimes refuse to select Park. This affected very early build L320s.Then there was the ABS sensor which could chafe its wiring on the wheel under extreme cornering and suspension travel situations. Again, this affected early (2005 and 2006) models.Perhaps the recall with the greatest potential for mayhem was one for V6 turbo-diesel vehicles built between mid-2004 and mid-2009. In those, there was a chance the vacuum system and the entire braking system could fail, leading to a total loss of brake performance. And again, that’s an awful lot of cars to be affected by such a serious defect.The L320 was also recalled at various points in time to correct faulty crank angle sensors that would stop the engine in its tracks, door latches that wouldn’t (latch) and fuel pumps that could fail prematurely.You can find out more by visiting https://www.vehiclerecalls.gov.au/ Later built cars were definitely better than earlier-build examples, purely because Range Rover had time to sort things out (not that it always did). But the one vehicle we’d avoid would be the turbo-diesel in any of its forms as these were the ones with the dicky bottom end. This is a vehicle where the fewer kilometres covered, the better. That said, you do see the odd one with better than 400,000km on board still getting around, but it would be very interesting to find out how much of a grandfather’s axe it is. Those high-milers are also almost always turbo-diesel cars, too, but that’s as much a function of the fact that this vehicle arrived in Australia when diesel was the new black, and people were flocking to it. It’s very difficult to recommend this make and model unless you’re an expert in diagnosing and fixing them and don’t mind a bit of down time. The non-supercharged petrol V8 stands a better chance of going the distance, but even it lives in the shadow of air suspension failures and other maladies. A high-mileage turbo-diesel can be had for comfortably less than $10,000 these days. In fact, you see them advertised for as little as $5000 which still makes them a punt, but a much lower-stakes punt.There’s a wide spread of prices after that with something like a supercharged V8 version with 100,000km showing for between $45,000 and $50,000. The one thing in the Sport’s favour as a long-term proposition is the magnificent repair and parts industry that has sprung up around the brand. You could argue that’s a function of necessity to keep a flawed product on the road, but it also reflects the fanaticism the Range Rover brand has created for itself.There’s a legion of specialist workshops that know these vehicles backwards and can supply pretty much every part needed. Independent specialists are also usually a lot cheaper than Range Rover dealership repairs and servicing.The better news is that every time a Range Rover Sport is pensioned off or scrapped its parts help keep other Rangies on the road. There’s no way of knowing how many L320 Range Rover Sports were sold during the model’s eight years on sale. But we can tell you that the bigger online sales sites have between 50 and 140 L320s available for sale.The vast majority of those are turbo-diesel V6 variants.

For Ford's Premier Automotive Group (PAG) boss Mark Fields that point must have been perilously close in the mountains of the La Vinyetta region, north of Barcelona.Committing a couple of hundred million dollars to developing a car is one thing, watching your children ride the resulting vehicle up and down a 45-degree rock wall is another thing entirely."I had no idea that was going to happen," Fields says of the impromptu – and seriously impressive – display of the new Sport's off-road credentials.It's as well the Sport performs as it does off-road, not just for the future of the Fields' dynasty but for the wellbeing of the marque."The Sport is extremely important for Land Rover," Fields says during the launch of a vehicle tasked with bringing new and younger blood to the quintessential off-road brand."It does a couple of things. It broadens the appeal of the Land Rover brand ... obviously we are known for being the best off-road and all the things that go with that but what we have introduced now is the ability to get on-road credentials as well."With all the recognisable DNA of the Range Rover – albeit in a lower, slightly smaller package – the Sport comes to market with a choice of three engines and a couple of distinct road characters. Entry level for our market will be the 2.7-litre turbo diesel with 140kW and 440Nm, the model Land Rover Australia boss Steve Morten expects to account for about half of the estimated 1000 annual sales. "The diesel will be the volume car and it will be priced to go head-to-head with the (BMW) X5," Morten says.The car goes on sale in Australia on September 1 – the diesel will likely cost about $85,000. The two petrol engines are Jaguar-sourced V8s, tuned to provide the torque characteristics favoured by off-roaders.A 4.4-litre naturally aspirated eight which produces 220kW and 425Nm will be priced about $100,000 for Australia.The hero model, expected to provide about 15 per cent of the mix at a price tag of $135,000, is the 4.2-litre supercharged V8 with 287kW and 550Nm, 80 per cent of which is on tap from just 1500rpm. "The Range Rover Sport will fill that white space between Discovery III and Range Rover," Land Rover marketing manager Finbar McFall says."It is designed to compete against X5, Cayenne and Touareg but it is not a copy or a facsimile of any of those vehicles. Rather it is Land Rover's vision of what an on-road SUV should be like."To give the Sport its on-road abilities Land Rover's engineers have balanced the size and weight of the Sport – it is still a considerable 2572kg in supercharged trim – with an array of technical wizardry. All models come with air suspension and Land Rover's brilliant Terrain Response AWD selector which allows a simple dial-in choice of various conditions from dry roads through to sand, rock and mud. The system then sets optimum ride height, traction, engine, throttle sharpness and differential lock settings.FIRST DRIVEThe supercharged model offers active anti-roll bars – Dynamic Response in Land Rover speak – as standard while it can be optioned on the other models.Computer control stiffens and relaxes – to the point of disengaging to allow full wheel articulation over rough ground – the bars to produce a surprisingly taunt and controlled ride through twisting mountain roads.On the open road the Range Rover Sport is akin to a huge sports car. The supercharged model has unseemly urge with a seemingly singular intent of reaching the horizon as swiftly as possible. In truth, there are plenty of quicker cars with higher terminal speeds on the road. However, few that match its bulk can come anywhere near it for performance.The naturally aspirated model has a very different character. Still with plenty of power, there is a greater need to utilise the paddle-shift for the six-speed ZF gearbox. Top is for little more than cruising on a slight downslope and any form of acceleration is going to require a visit to third or fourth gear.Once the revs are up in the active range the Sport gets along with a reasonable degree of urgency. However, gravity has a pretty fair hold on the Sport's 2.5 tonnes and exacts its toll in fuel economy.Land Rover claims figures of 16l/100km combined but during the launch drive the best return was almost 18l/100km on a high-speed motorway run and as high as 23l/100km on twisting mountain roads.The interior of the Sport echoes the recently launched Discovery III, both in its style – tasteful wood and leather – and high equipment levels. Space is at a little more of a premium, the roof is lower and rear seat leg room more restricted.Designers have been mindful that the vast majority of the cars life will be spent jousting in city traffic with much smaller vehicles. The low-mounted bumpers and low-collision load path are designed to minimise damage to smaller vehicles in an accident by making the initial contact at a level where their passive safety systems are most effective.

A crowd had gathered to watch the "crazy" Poms in their expensive Range Rover take on the climb.The scene for this little drama, a remote mountain ridge in the foothills of the Pyrennes in northern Spain.It had been dubbed "The Rock".Introducing proceedings, Land Rover's off- road instructor Ronnie Dale, a showman in every sense of the word.Dangling two thirds of the way down the steep 45 degree incline was thick rope.It was there, Dale explained, in a broad Scottish accent, just in case things went wrong.It was theatre all right, a carefully choreographed drama to illustrate the prowess of the car – but we weren't complaining.To prove a point, Dale invited one of the Aussie journos to oversee proceedings., like a magician inviting the audience to check the authenticity of his equipment.The bloke was one of the hardcore four-wheel drive fraternity, a man not easily impressed.This was going to be fun and it was the sophisticated 4WD clawed its way up the slope, with barely any wheel spin, then turned around and inched its way back down again.The instructor provided an animated commentary, at times sounding suspiciously like the "But wait, there's more" bloke from TV.Of course there was never any doubt the car would make it. Imagine the embarrassment otherwise?But it served to prove a point and that is the flashy new Range Rover Sport is just as good off road as it is on – better in fact by a country mile than competitors BMW's X5, VW's Touareg and the Porsche Cayenne.The Sport is heading our way in September, with a price tag starting at around 90 grand. It's not cheap, not by any stretch of the imagination but it's a real blast.The luxury five-seat wagon with its stylish side air vents, aero enhancements and dual exhausts is the fastest vehicle that Land Rover has ever produced and is certain to make a dynamic addition to the lineup.Too bad it drinks like a fish, has a smallish boot and less leg room than the donor Land Rover Discovery on which it is based.But that's not likely to bother those well heeled enough to buy one and, anyway, if fuel's a concern – there's always the diesel.Price-wise Sport will fit neatly between Discovery and the full blown Range Rover, with an emphasis on performance and hand- ling.There will be three models, a 2.7-litre turbo diesel, a 4.4-litre V8 and a 4.2-litre super- charged V8.We got to drive the two V8s on our European sojourn. The supercharged 8 is the same engine that can be found in Jaguar's grandiose S Type R and marks a return to an in-house power plant.The 287kW/550Nm engine has been reworked but, even pushing nearly three tonnes, still manages to propel the the car forward at a rate of knots, blasting from 0 to 100km/h in 7.6 seconds, on its way to a top speed of 225km/h – with race-bed Brembo brakes for stoppers.A six-speed sequential auto takes care of gear changes, allowing the driver to shift manually if desired, with a host of electronic aids to keep the car in check.The Sport is 14cm shorter in the wheelbase than a Disco, with a plunging roof line, blacked out roof pillars and one-piece tailgate with glass that opens separately for easy access.It sits on wheels ranging in size from 17 to 20in with wide, low profile rubber.Rangey's famous air suspension is used to raise and lower the car, with ground clearance between 172mm and 227mm.Although it carries a full-size spare under the back (essential off-road), it has a relatively small 88-litre fuel tank, so you won't get far in the bush.Fuel consumption for the supercharged V8 is 15.9L/100km, but can easily blow out to more than 20.0L/100km if driven hard.Both cars that we drove offer high levels of performance, particularly the supercharged model which has impressive straight line acceleration.Dynamic stability response (standard on supercharged) keeps the car flat in corners.As befitting a luxury car the equipment list is extensive, with six airbags standard.