• Diesel surprisingly economical in real-world driving
• All will be expensive to service
• Impressive battery range from PHEVs

What are the running costs?

Owning a Range Rover Sport is going to be an expensive endeavour no matter what you do. First, there’s buying it in the first place. Running it won’t be cheap either. Though the diesels can likely return close to 40mpg, if our experience with a D350 in the full-sized Range Rover corroborates, expect to see figures under 30mpg for the petrol straight-six and around 20mpg for the V8.

As for the plug-in hybrids, they have the potential to lower running costs if you can benefit from cheap off-peak domestic rates or a cheeky free charge at work, for instance. The official figures are impressive – with CO2 emissions from just 18g/km and WLTP fuel consumption of 338mpg. That’s just due to irregularities in testing, though – we saw around 30mpg when driving with a discharged battery, and 40-plus when running as a hybrid with charge in its power pack.

And don’t forget that it costs to charge up the battery, too – the vast 38.2kWh unit in both hybrid models is actually larger than quite a few fully electric cars, and at current electricity rates should cost around £12 to charge at home on a standard domestic tariff. With about 50 miles of range, that doesn’t actually make them very cheap.

View detailed MPG and CO2 figures on the Range Rover Sport specs pages

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Servicing and warranty

This is a high-end SUV and you will need to budget for top-end prices when it comes to servicing and other running costs, too. Land Rover offers fixed-price servicing plans help owners map out their future costs, which should reduce potential surprises. It includes scheduled maintenance for five years or 50,000 miles, while there’s the option of going for a 75,000-mile plan.

All Range Rovers are sold with a three-year/60,000-mile warranty, which is probably as long as most finance agreements, but lags behind most of the opposition these days. Despite this, the Range Rover will remain highly desirable for many years to come on the used car market, which will keep resale values.

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Reliability

• Land Rover’s reputation for reliability isn’t great
• Previous model had problems but owners love them
• Reports suggest the new model has gremlins, too

Reliability and perceived quality is still Land Rover’s weakest link. In recent times, this image for a lack of dependability has been well deserved, with engine and electrical issues topping the list of failings.

We’ve had no trim or electrical issues with our test cars, although some of the shutlines around the tailgate leave a lot to be desired, which isn’t desirable in a car of this price.

But there are some signs that the company is getting its act together, although anecdotally we’re still hearing that quality out of the factory isn’t where it should be, leaving dealers plenty of rectification work. However, the quality of the interior materials is excellent, and easily up there with its German rivals. We’ll monitor the reliability situation and keep you updated should any problems crop up.