2006 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.

Even if we reach the stage where fuel is dispensed by pipette, the qualities that have made SUVs successful — size, high riding position, perceived safety — will continue to be in demand.One of the oddest niches to emerge is the performance SUV. The attributes needed to satisfy those two sets of demands in one car lie at opposite ends of the spectrum. But as BMW has shown with the X5, it is possible to make an SUV with respectable handling and with the Cayenne, Porsche has shredded the performance envelope.They have done so by using car-like engineering and construction techniques then — effectively — adding a layer of offroad ability on top. They came at the problem from the performance end. But that option holds perils for traditional offroad makers like Jeep and Land Rover. Go down that path and you risk diluting your brand or abandoning, at least in part, your hard won credentials as a genuine rock-hopper.For Land Rover, offroad ability must come first. Its performance SUV, the Range Rover Sport, has credentials here that are never in doubt. The rocky bridle track and gravel roads we drove it on tested its potential not a jot. But our confidence here is well-placed: this car shares its strong underpinnings and clever dial-a-dirt software with the Discovery, which has remarkable offroad prowess. The Sport has less ground clearance at 227mm and slightly shallower approach and departure angles. But the running gear and chassis engineering is the same.The software, which debuted in the Discovery, allows the driver to set the car up for a range of different conditions with a single rotary selector. Chose the terrain, and the car adjusts everything from ride height to throttle and steering response so that it suits the conditions, then locks the appropriate differentials. It's as good as it gets.But this comes at a price, and the Sport enters the SUV Sweepstakes severely handicapped by weight. At 2.5 tonnes unladen, it concedes about 400kg to an X5 or a Cayenne. The 4.4-litre V8 we drove develops 220kW and 425Nm and achieves a claimed acceleration to 100km/h of 8.9 seconds. Sounds OK. But mash the throttle and ... wait. Or should we say, weight. Even this engine, shared with Jaguar, struggles to get the show on the road. The engine makes a fair bit of noise, although it sounds less like it's straining and more like it's simply overwhelmed.On the move, the deep growling V8 rumble at low revs becomes something of a lazy drone, changing note but not character as the six-speed automatic gearbox goes about its business. This is the excellent ZF transmission that's ubiquitous in luxury cars and it changes with exemplary smoothness. Which is just as well, because even one-up it had to change frequently to maintain momentum on inclines. Offroad or on snakey bitumen, we took pity on the unit and used the tiptronic shifter.As expected, fuel economy will gladden the hearts of Shell executives with our 600km-plus mix of terrain returning 17.2 litres per 100km against a claimed figure of 14.9l/100km.The Sport shares much with the Discovery but differs in size. The Sport is shorter and not as tall, but a shade wider. It has the bluff front and upright sides of other Land Rovers but an angled rear that's retro in feel with hints of earlier Range Rovers. Signature brand ingredients include a clamshell bonnet, distinctive headlight cluster and somewhat tacky vents. The sides feature flared plastic sill guards and plastic door handles of unusual texture. The tailgate is heavy but opens high and the glass lifts separately — very convenient. Under the rear there's a full-size spare.The cabin shares its logical layout and most of its switchgear with the Discovery, which means appealingly functional plastics and rubber. Controls are logically arranged, although the buttons to set the height of the air suspension, dial in the terrain, activate hill descent control and engage low range are all behind the gear shifter and a bit tricky to reach. A double glovebox and centre bin provide adequate storage, supplemented by cupholders and dash trays — the door pockets are small.The simple speedo design lacks the precise increments needed to avoid triggering Aussie speed cameras. Another minor grumble is the lack of a lane-change function on the indicator in a car that costs $101,000.Up front, the seating position delivers on the SUV promise with a throne that offers excellent forward and side visibility, thanks to tall glass and a low "waistline". But rear visibility could be better and there's no camera to spot wayward toddlers.While the boxy Discovery offers excellent accommodation for seven with the last row optioned, the Sport feels underdone for five. Most knees and feet will fit comfortably in the rear, but headroom is tighter than expected and the seat backs are low. While the rear seat split-folds and the bases flip forward, that doesn't readily result in a flat floor — not when the driver's seat is set for us, anyhow. Maximum cargo capacity is 2013 litres.Ride and refinement expose the starting point for the Sport. Over broken tarmac ride quality deteriorates markedly as shudders and shakes find their way into the cabin. The suspension and tyres crash over bumps and at times kickback comes through the steering wheel. Cruising on smooth bitumen, excessive wind noise disturbs the peace while the one-note engine drone becomes tiresome.Drive smoothly through sweepers and the Sport corners fairly flatly, although it does lean eventually. It dives a little under heavy braking, although the brakes themselves seem up to the substantial task.However, try to hustle the Sport and you soon bounce off the laws of physics. Abrupt direction changes at speed are not its forte and in tighter corners there's the ever-present threat of perilous understeer. Leaning heavily, it pirouettes around on its outside wheel but keeps the driver guessing about its limits.The Range Rover Sport looks the part, but there seems little to recommend it against others from the Land Rover stable: it's less functional than a Discovery and less luxurious than a Range Rover, while offering few performance advantages.Verdict:

The TDV6 sells for $85,000 which buys pretty well everything you get in the others except for the paint peeling performance of the supercharged model.What you gain is almost half the fuel consumption and stump pulling torque al low revs.It also looks the business with superb paint, massive alloys and that iconic styling. Engine is impressive for roll-on response and smooth, quiet operation. Uses fuel at around 11.5 litres/100km average _ not bad for a two tonne beast. Eighty litre tank gives long range capability. Is the same engine powering 140kW/ 440Nm Discovery diesel and soon, Ford Territory. Also in various Peugeot models including the new 407 coupe and Jaguars. Six speed auto is just as impressive, smooth shifting, just the right gearing, never lets engine fall in a hole. It's the same unit Falcon got last year. Body looks like a full size Rangey but subtle differences include flat bonnet, steeply raked windscreen and one piece tailgate with opening glass. Test vehicle had adaptive xenon headlights that turn with the front wheels and cornering lights. Interior offers comfy seating for five though the rear pew is firm, too firm for some. Load space is large and there's a full size spare outside under the floor. Dash has a cockpit feel and look, makes driving a pleasure keeps driver fully informed, smothered in luxury too. Though developed for on road perform- ance, the TDV6 is extremely capable off road. Goes just about anywhere. No problems. Terrain Response system optimises all functions to cope with driving conditions off road. Vehicle uses an integrated body/frame construction for strength and safety. Underneath it's a derivative of Discovery chassis not Range Rover. Air suspension all round is among the best in the business. Multiple electronic controls for safety, improved performance and dynamics. Not too big but has command seating position giving regal air. Get the royal wave ready. Feels solid as a rock, and has quality build.  VERDICTWant one. Fits in the garage easily, has strong engine performance, luxury ride and equipment, looks the goods, not too heavy on fuel, goes anywhere. 

Not only does it go like a scalded cat, but it is right up there with the best of them in terms of off road ability.Range Rover Sport is the fastest vehicle that Land Rover has ever produced.Built on the same platform as the Land Rover Discovery, the Sport cuts an impressive figure around town, with stylish side air vents, aerodynamic enhancements and dual exhausts.Our test vehicle was the top of the line supercharged V8 model priced from $136,500.Kind of takes your breath away doesn't it, but so too does the performance when you get to drive it.There's also a less powerful, naturally aspirated V8 version and an economical turbo diesel available – but why settle for second best?The supercharged 4.2-litre V8 is the same engine that can be found in Jaguar's top of the range S Type R and marks a return to an in- house power plant for the company.The 287kW/550Nm engine has been reworked for duty in the Rangey, but even pushing almost three tonnes, still manages to propel the the vehicle forward at a rate of knots, blasting from 0-100km/h in 7.6 seconds, on its way to a top speed of 225km/h – with race- bred Brembo brakes for stoppers.A six-speed sequential automatic trans- mission 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 the Disco, with a plunging roof line, blacked out roof pillars and one-piece tailgate with glass that opens separately for easy access.The emphasis is firmly on performance and handling and as such the car sits low 20in wheels and 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 a claimed 15.9L/100km, but this can easily blow out to more than 20.0L/100km if driven hard – we registered 18.8L/100km during our stint behind the wheel.The supercharged model has impressive straight line acceleration, with a lovely exhaust note from the V8.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.