Had an invitation from Land Rover to go to a "Dealer Principal Static Reveal" of the Range Rover Sport at Solihull, Lode Lane, so me and NKSC went along to take a look on Thursday evening.

It was held at the Handover centre, and as you'd expect was nicely done. There were 4 Sports on Show, 2 indoors, 2 outdoors, the 2 indoors were Supercharged versions, one in Black the other in the burnt orange colour Chile. There was a fancy one outside and one a boggo spec one, which was locked, presumably so you couldn't see how basic it felt compared to the full spec cars.

The black one had full black interior with a grey accent dash, panoramic roof and 7 seat option (which electrically fold into the boot floor). It did look very nice in the flesh, especially with privacy glass.

The Chile one had contrasting black roof, no panoramic feature, black headlining and two tone seats.

Impressions:

The driving position feels lovely, the seats are very nice though Nick thought there could have been better leg support, like the Audi/BMW sports seats where you can pull out the front squab portion. As you may know, in the L405 you can adjust the seat squab's length to do this.

The steering wheel is lovely in your hands and places the paddles in the right place, it's a very snug fitting cabin. When you open the door the drivers seat lowers to allow easier access (nice touch I thought) For the first time I saw things like the illuminated tread plates and the 7 seater option. That in my view, is a total waste of money. Only the smallest child could possibly squeeze into them, and the faff of actually getting in the seat was laughable, the demonstrator people there were having trouble with it, via the rear doors. If the rear seat has the headrests up, you can't fold the seat forward much, especially if like me, the drivers seats is all the way back. On that note, I had the seat back to the max, and I JUST fitted in it, and I'm about 6'1.

Overall, it's a lovely car but its not worth £95K for a SC version, there is hardly any boot space, you couldn't comfortably fit a labrador in the back sitting up, the rear seats are better than they used to be and feel more adult sized than before but the boot space feels smaller. In fact the whole car feels smaller from the inside than the original one did back in 2005 when I had it.

If you were only going to be in it on your own and/or with a passenger it would be fine, but after that, you need to PROPER Range Rover

A week today I've got a driving day invitation, on track, off road etc so will take my camera and take much more pictures and let you know how it handles.

Pics for your delight (Sorry forgot my camera so these are iPhone 4s shots and I only took the 2 - I took more photos of the L405 sitting in the car park!)

Click image to enlarge

Click image to enlarge

I am off to Gleneagles to see it tonight. Looking forward to seeing one in the flesh... And some nice nibbles  Previously..
Vogue SE TD6
Defender 90 2.4
Defender 110 TD5
Vogue 3.5 EFI

Yes the nibbles were nice at Solihull, and drinks (if you were to partake).

They had interesting ways to show the paint colours with some sort of cycling helmets, and the interior leather colours using rugby balls. Discovery 4 HSE
1998 110 TUM HS FFR Hard Top XD WOLF
1982 Series 3 Hard Top

*Gone:L462 D5 HSE LUX, L663 Defender 110 HSE, Discovery 3 HSE, 2014MY Range Rover Sport 5.0 Supercharged AB Dynamic; L405 Exec Vogue SE 4.4, 5.0 Supercharged Autobiography, Defender TDCi XS CSW, Defender TD5 HT, Vogue SE TDV8, Vogue TD6, RRSport SC 4.2V8, Classic 3.9 Vogue Auto, Land Rover Series 3 SWB

Just been to Gleneagles to see it tonight.

Really impressed with the new one. It's lovely in the flesh and the interior is stunning.

They didn't have any that were officially outside today although I found one in the carpark on the way back to our car.

I certainly don't see how the Chile Red Supercharged model they had there was worth £95k though.

Would like a drive in one though.

David. 2002 4.6 Vogue SE - Alveston Red with Lightstone Leather
2012 Range Rover 5.0 SC Autobiography in Indus Silver with Jet/Ivory Interior
2012 Range Rover 4.4 TDV8 Autobiography in Baltic Blue with Sand Interior
2013 Range Rover Sport SDV6 HSE Black Edition in Santorini Black with Ebony Interior

What did you think of some of the interior bits for a £95k car as the orange one sounds like the one i got a few hours poking and proding with over my 2 seeings of them? FFRR MY06 facelift With TDV8 Alloys Zeros/ATR's
Mantec Sump Guard, Rigid Load liner, MY10 BT upgrade.

Nice car but not worth £95K. Discovery 4 HSE
1998 110 TUM HS FFR Hard Top XD WOLF
1982 Series 3 Hard Top

*Gone:L462 D5 HSE LUX, L663 Defender 110 HSE, Discovery 3 HSE, 2014MY Range Rover Sport 5.0 Supercharged AB Dynamic; L405 Exec Vogue SE 4.4, 5.0 Supercharged Autobiography, Defender TDCi XS CSW, Defender TD5 HT, Vogue SE TDV8, Vogue TD6, RRSport SC 4.2V8, Classic 3.9 Vogue Auto, Land Rover Series 3 SWB

dhallworth wrote:

Would like a drive in one though.

David.

Driving it tomorrow David  Discovery 4 HSE
1998 110 TUM HS FFR Hard Top XD WOLF
1982 Series 3 Hard Top

*Gone:L462 D5 HSE LUX, L663 Defender 110 HSE, Discovery 3 HSE, 2014MY Range Rover Sport 5.0 Supercharged AB Dynamic; L405 Exec Vogue SE 4.4, 5.0 Supercharged Autobiography, Defender TDCi XS CSW, Defender TD5 HT, Vogue SE TDV8, Vogue TD6, RRSport SC 4.2V8, Classic 3.9 Vogue Auto, Land Rover Series 3 SWB