A luxury ride all the way, it compares to the American made Lincoln Navigator and Cadillac Escalade in luxury, and the legendary Jeep in off road capability. Foreign competition includes the Acura MDX, BMW X6, Infiniti FX, Mercedes-Benz M-Class and Lexus GX 470.

The 2009 Sport has not changed much in looks from the previous year.

The Sport has a choice of two engines, based on trim. The HSE comes with a 4.4 liter, 300 horsepower gasoline powered V8 with 315 pound feet of torque. The Supercharged comes with a 4.2 liter 390 horsepower gasoline powered V8 with 410 pound feet of torque. Either is matched with a six-speed automatic transmission with overdrive.

The Sport is purely a four-wheel drive vehicle with a two-speed differential. It has Land Rover’s Terrain Response System, which automatically sets the four-wheel drive performance to whatever types of terrain it crosses.

At 12 miles per gallon city and 18 miles per gallon highway, fuel efficiency is pretty poor for its class. Acceleration is also not very good. On the other hand, towing and hauling are above average, with almost 8,000 pounds maximum towing capacity and 1,300 pounds maximum payload. Cargo bed length is also good, at almost six feet, and warranty length is somewhat better than average.

The Range Rover Sport also ranks below class average in ride quality, noise, interior design quality and rear seat room. It got better than average ratings in handling and front seat roominess. Apparently there is a trade off between rear seat room and cargo room.

The only two trims are HSE and Supercharged. Aside from the differences in the motors, the Supercharged has better brakes, bigger tires and some nice added bells and whistles standard. For a price, you can get pretty much the same features on the HSE that you can get on the Supercharged.

NHTSA crash test ratings are not available for either 2008 or 2009 for the Ranger Rover Sport. Typically such vehicles do well except, perhaps, getting poor or mediocre rollover ratings. The Sport has Child Safety Locks, Anti-theft system, antilock brakes, load leveling system, electronic braking control, traction control, vehicle stability control system and airbags all around. Even the electronic parking aid is standard.

Base price for the 2009 Land Rover Range Rover Sport is $58,375. That’s for the HSE, of course. Base on the Supercharged is a whopping $71,825. Overall, the Range Rover Sport seems to fall a little short as a highway vehicle in its successful bid to remain off road ready. But if you primarily want an off road vehicle, it might be just the ticket.

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