Should you buy a used Range Rover Sport (L320)

In many ways the Range Rover Sport is the perfect combination, the peak of traditional Land Rover values. It’s strong, with a solid chassis for resilience off-road and excellent towing capacity yet advanced enough to handle well and have been put together with better resistance to rust and overall higher quality throughout.

It’s less tall and imposing than a Discovery 3, but still very spacious (as it should be for the amount of space it takes up), and it’s well equipped. As a used buy it’s a lot of car for the money and compared to the obvious rivals of a Porsche Cayenne, Mercedes ML or BMW X5 it is easier and cheaper to maintain, rusts less, and is better off road respectively.

There’s a downside, of course, and that is that the cheaper, most sensible diesel V6 has a design flaw that means even a reasonably well maintained one could fail at any time with little warning. The TDV8 is not as fragile, and the petrol models are very reliable given their sophistication. They are, however, spectacularly thirsty, and this is particularly relevant if you want to drive a Range Rover Sport in a city because the petrol one is likely to be the only one that escapes emissions-based charging.

The image is also a bit questionable, and a lot of them have been modified, messed with and run on a budget – believe it or not, 22-inch multifit alloys and acrylic 4D plates were not standard equipment. That’s not the car’s fault though – if you’re prepared for the running and maintenance costs, want the softness of air-cushioned suspension on road and flexibility to rival a Defender off road, and find a cared for example a Range Rover Sport is a very, very good car.

What we like about the Range Rover Sport

It is, genuinely, better made than a Mercedes M/ML-Class, and less prone to rust. Amazingly. It’s cheaper to fix than a Porsche Cayenne and the V8 petrol is more reliable. It delivers on the handling promises, and it feels commanding and reassuring to drive.

What we don’t like about the Range Rover Sport

It’s heavy, thirsty, and the lure of prestige car for hatchback money means there are plenty of badly modified or neglected examples. The V6 diesel should make the most sense but it’s the least reliable.