Diesel SUV offers savings at pump
Luxury and extreme fuel efficiency come together in 2017 Range Rover Sport HSE Td6
First thing, before we start lauding Land Rover’s new(ish) diesel-powered Range Rover Sport, let’s admit that the concept of a near-$90,000 luxury vehicle — a gargantuan SUV no less — boasting superior fuel economy seems a trifle hypocritical. Nonetheless, that’s the attraction of the Land Rover’s Td6-powered Range Rover Sport, the melding of semi-brutish luxury sport ute with Jaguar Land Rover’s latest iteration of its 3.0-litre V6 turbodiesel.
And it certainly delivers the promised improvement in fuel economy. Boy, does it deliver! Over the course of a hard week of intercity travel and inner city commutes, I averaged 9.1 L/100 km. Now that may not initially seem impressive if you’re comparing the Td6’s real-world fuel economy with Transport Canada’s semi-phantastical laboratory-derived fuel-economy ratings for other vehicles. But, in the real world, for a sport brute weighing 2,136 kilograms, that borders on the incredible.
Indeed, the Range Rover — admittedly the fully optioned and heavier Autobiography model — I drove the week after this test averaged about 15 L/100 km. Factor out the reduced avoirdupois and the Td6 is still responsible for about a 50 per cent reduction in consumption over the gas-fed supercharged V8. In fact, the worst fuel economy I registered — driving the Td6 in the city — was better than I achieved in the supercharged, gas-fed Autobiography on the highway.
There are all manner of mid-size sedans and SUVs — especially those with 2.0-L turbocharged fours — that can’t achieve that kind of real-world fuel economy, regardless of how optimistically Transport Canada rates them. No matter the seemingly incongruity of a fuel economy-conscious luxury sport brute, it was an impressive display of frugality.
Nor is there a big performance penalty to be paid for this thriftiness. Land Rover’s 3.0-L turbodiesel may only boast 254 horsepower, but there’s 440 pound-feet of low-end torque available at just 1,750 rpm.
The one caveat to all this goodness is that when you do load up on the throttle, a little vibration courses through the Range Rover’s drivetrain, almost as if the transmission is having a little trouble coping with so much torque at such a low rpm. It’s only noticeable when you really tromp on it and, truth be told, it’s the Td6’s only bad “diesel” habit, the normal idle clatter and other thrashing noises commonly associated with compression ignition engines being well contained. Nonetheless, compared with the silky smoothness that is JLR’s 5.0-L gas V8, the Td6 is a little rough and tumble.
The Sport handles with a lightness that belies its outward bulkiness, mainly because, like much of Jaguar Land Rover’s lineup, its superstructure is constructed of lightweight aluminum.
The ride, despite off-road suspension and wheels the size of manhole covers, is more than passable, this time a result of the stiffness of the lightweight superstructure. And, of course, this Range Rover, despite the Sport badge that denotes better on-road handling, is one of the only luxury utes — most others also wearing either Range Rover or Land Rover badging — that can even contemplate serious off-road traipses.
As for the Sport’s interior, it might not quite be the hedonism offered by the Range Rover Autobiography but it is still a nice place to wile away the hours.
The leather is exquisite, the seats accommodating, and the ride, as I said, adequately compliant. My major complaint inside would be the InControl Touch Pro infotainment system. The navigation system can be a little truculent when trying to do something simple, like input a street address.
All that said, we’re back to the same contradiction we started with. Do you want a big, luxury sport utility that costs nigh on one hundred large that just happens to sip fuel like it’s a compact sedan? If so, the Range Rover Sport Td6 melds those seemingly disparate desires as well as any.