Land Rover Range Rover Sport review

The Sport’s first big headline is that you can no longer order a seven-seater – that’s now the preserve of the larger Range Rover (as well as the Land Rover Discovery range, while the gargantuan Defender 130 seats eight). Otherwise this represents a measured evolution over its predecessor, with the new full-fat Rangey’s digital dials and really quite beautiful curved 13.1in touchscreen transplanted straight in.

In fact the whole layout is, and it all works rather nicely indeed. While the screen probably hoovers up just a few too many functions that would feel better attached to actual buttons – such is the way in 2022 – there’s a more concerted nod to intuition than some rivals. The climate controls still give the driver and front passenger a rotary dial each; twiddle it left and right for temperature or prod it once and to activate and adjust the cooled or heated seats. Lovely.

JLR infotainment systems are much smarter than they used to be, too, though a few little sat nav brain freezes made us suspect utilising the Apple CarPlay or Android Auto and using your nav app of choice remains a better bet, especially when it comes to predicting traffic rather than reacting to it once as it’s already homing into view.

Comfort is naturally sky high on the Sport’s agenda. The seats will soak up hours of driving with ease (helped by optional massage functions) and there’s a swathe of materials available, many of them alternatives to traditional leather for a more environmentally friendly feel. The ‘Ultrafabric’ of our test car looked and felt especially cool.

It’s a contemporary place to be – Range Rover products have always been very good at feeling fresh and on the button, but not at the expense of a wee bit of tradition. Despite the obvious onslaught of digitisation in here, it shouldn’t feel alien to Land Rover’s older, more loyal buyers. Naturally it’s all wildly customisable too, if not quite on the same scale as if you send its larger sibling through JLR’s Special Vehicles team with a blank cheque slapped on the passenger seat.