GIVING IT LARGE

It might have the styling of a car that belongs to a moderately successful drug dealer, but Sean O’Grady finds the luxurious Range Rover Sport a little too expansive for urban motoring

- Sean O’Grady

My first reaction on test-driving the latest Range Rover Sport was that it ought to have a big sticker on its exquisitely styled, leather-encased steering wheel stating: "UNSUITABLE FOR URBAN USE!”. Which is a shame really, because the car that Jaguar Land Rover sent me was painted black, with black trim, massive black 23in alloy wheels, and heavily tinted windows.

Even the ultra-slim headlights were sort of a smoky grey. If they’d been able to paint the number plate black, they’d no doubt have done that, too.

The unquestionably sinister look was very much that of a moderately successful urban drug dealer and XL bully owner, but one who’d very likely get stuck down a city street and have to deploy the Rangie’s multiple cameras and driver assistance aids to reverse out of trouble. Well, that sort of trouble at any rate.

It is, in other words, very much a Range Rover, and it shares engines, interiors, and it’s all-aluminium monocoque bodywork with its marginally taller Range Rover siblings – this is really a Range Rover coupe rather than an outright sportier alternative.