A large Luxury Family SUV with a much improved media system
By Tace Clifford
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BabyDrive Verdict
The Range Rover Sport is a large seven-seater luxury SUV, I'll be honest it was pretty swish and I enjoyed driving it A LOT!!! See how it went when I put it through our BabyDrive testing!
Well, let's start with installing child seats. Although this is a seven-seater there are no top tether anchorages or ISOFix points in the third row, so I couldn't install back there. #sadface
To access the third-row seats you do have to uninstall at least one child seat in the second row in order to bring the outer second-row seat forward and climb through.
Good news is, in the second-row seats, there is ample room for three child seats!
Also, I could sit really comfortably between two child seats as well and I'm 162cm.
We found legroom in the Range Rover Sport was not the best for such a large car. If you wanted to use all three rows of seats, for example, with a rear-facing child seat in the second row, a 162cm passenger can sit in front and a same-sized passenger can just about fit in the third-row seats as well.
If you are just using the first two rows of seats then a 170cm driver can sit in front of a rear-facing child seat or a 184cm driver can sit in front of a forward-facing child seat.
The model we tested was optioned up with DVD screens in the back of the headrests and wireless headphones for second-row passengers and our daughter LOVED having these to watch on long journeys.
The rear doors will not open if a bike or car is going past them, which is a great BabyDrive feature because my little one now tries to automatically open the door when we reach our destination.
The central console is a chiller box in this model too, which is really handy in the Australian climate when you are out and about with kids to put their lunch and snacks inside.
The driver's door control panel has a child lock button and an ‘access mode' button that allows you to change the height of the suspension to make entry and exit easier.
You can also raise and lower the height of the suspension from the boot which I find really helpful when loading and unloading or when jumping dogs up and down from it.
The Range Rover Sport has auto-lock and unlock doors, another great feature for families because it makes going to and from the car with kids easier. With the Range Rover Sport, it works from any of the car's doors so you don't have to go to the driver's door first to unlock all the others, which is a great BabyDrive feature!
The Range Rover Sport also has a really good seatbelt removal visual for the rear two rows of seats.
The boot of the Range Rover Sport is very generous when using only five seats and will hold fifteen shopping bags. That's comparable to the five-seat Audi Q8 which will also hold fifteen shopping bags. The seven-seat BMW X7 and Land Rover Discovery will both hold eighteen and the five-seat Lexus LX450D will hold twenty shopping bags.
A twin side-by-side stroller fits in the boot with five shopping bags beside it or a large dog would fit in the boot.
When using all seven seats, five shopping bags fit from empty and only a compact stroller would fit, but not any other size prams or strollers. For comparison, the BMW X-7 will hold seven shopping bags and the Land Rover Discovery will hold three shopping bags when using all seven seats.
Storage inside the cabin is very good; in the front, there are good size cup holders in the central console.
The central console is a chiller box esky has a grippy phone mat in the top and the lid is your armrest.
You also get two glove boxes and the door bins have a hidden compartment but will not hold a large refillable water bottle.
The second-row passengers get two cup holders and phone and remote control storage and door bins to hold their headphones or a large refillable water bottle.
They also get two map pockets and a phone shelf with USB ports and a 12V socket. There is no storage in the third-row seats.
The media system has been really improved in the Range Rover Sport; it now has Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
It is split across two screens like the Range Rover Velar with the top screen containing an easy to navigate media system…
…that you can control the rear DVD screens from.
The lower, second screen is where you control the vehicle settings…
…including air-con and climate and the seating settings, heated and cooled seats and the length of the seat base. You simply push the rotary dials to switch from aircon to seat temperature settings.
You can also twiddle with the radio settings here too!
The reversing camera image is very crisp and clear and excellent to use with 360-degree views you can select from. You can easily mute the parking sensors by pressing on the icon on the right of the screen.
The Range Rover Sport is a smooth and quiet car to drive, it feels very sturdy and solid on the road and you are cocooned from a lot of the exterior noises. Luxury boxes ticked!
Overall I found the Range Rover Sport to be a practical and luxurious BabyDrive, being much more practical than a similar sized five-seat family SUV so long as you only use the third-row seats for occasional use.
The cream leather interior would not be my choice for a family car and I was paranoid my daughter would spill something on them! For the whole week but it escaped unscathed!! PHEW!!
The Range Rover Sport scored a five-star Euro NCAP safety rating in 2016 (but not ANCAP) and comes with six airbags as standard. Both front passengers get front and side chest airbags and side head curtain airbags extend to all three rows of passengers.
BabyDrive Indepth
BabyDrive Indepth - Storage
How good is the storage in the 2020 Range Rover Sport? How big is the boot of the 2020 Range Rover Sport?
The boot of the 2020 Range Rover Sport is practical for a family car. You can raise and lower the suspension height using buttons on the right side on the boot, which I found really useful when lifting prams in and out or for allowing dogs to jump up into it.
When using only five seats and will hold fifteen shopping bags. That's comparable to the five-seat Audi Q8 which will also hold fifteen shopping bags. The seven-seat BMW X-7 and Land Rover Discovery will both hold eighteen and the five-seat Lexus LX450D will hold twenty shopping bags.
A twin side-by-side stroller fits in the boot with five shopping bags beside it.
A tandem pram fits in the boot of the Range Rover Sport with seven shopping bags.
A single pram fits in the boot of the Range Rover Sport with eight shopping bags.
A compact stroller fits in the boot of the Range Rover Sport with ten shopping bags around it.
The floor of the boot is nice and flat and carpeted, making it good for an emergency nappy change or picnic when it's raining! Or a large dog would fit in the boot when using five seats.
When using all seven seats, five shopping bags fit. That's comparable to the BMW X7 that will hold seven shopping bags and the Land Rover Discovery which will hold three shopping bags when using all seven seats.
Of all the prams only a compact stroller would fit, with three bags of shopping alongside it.
The boot space and its functionality are really important. I like to have a big boot space and little side wells or areas I can divide things into. So something I don’t want to move around while I’m driving such as Tulsi’s lunch bag or her wet swimming gear can be sectioned off in a little well where it’s not going to spill or get squashed by the rest of the things in the boot.
Hooks for securing shopping bags to are also favourites of mine, I like being able to secure the bag containing more fragile things like eggs so they don’t move around on the journey.
I measure the boot space in freezer shopping bags, prams and dogs. Not because I think all there is to a mum’s life is food shopping, prams and dogs. (Although it can feel like it sometimes!!) But because these are visually mesurable items we can all associate with. For me, the car company boot measurement of litres is not an amount I can easily visualise and 400L in one car may differ in usability to that in another due to the configuration or shape of the space.
You could only fit a very small dog in the boot when using all seven seats and there isn't much space for an emergency nappy change!
Storage in the cabin of the Range Rover Sport is very good. There are two cup holders in the central console, they are well-sized to hold a reusable or disposable coffee cup.
There is a large central console storage box which in this model is a chiller box esky. It has two USB sockets and a 12V socket.
The lid doubles as your armrest and has a grippy tray inside the top of it too, which I found the best place to store my phone.
There are two glove boxes in the front dashboard. The top one is quite small and houses the DVD player.
The lower one is large enough for an iPad, wallet and to hold the DVDs! Both are felt-lined to help stop the contents moving around or making noise while you are travelling.
The door pockets in the front are not large enough to hold a large refillable water bottle but there is some handy hidden storage behind a panel in the door which was good for my keys and phone and there are the little storage wells in the handles too.
In the second row, the passengers have a fold-down armrest in the central seatback with two cup holders in it, which are a good size for a reusable and disposable coffee cup. Behind them is lidded storage for the DVD remote or a phone.
In the back of both front seats are solid map pockets that will hold but not conceal and iPad.
There is also a little shelf for a phone in the back of the central console box and a 12V and two USB ports there too.
Disappointingly considering how good storage is for the first two rows, there is no storage for the third-row seats.
BabyDrive Indepth - Noise
How noisy is the 2020 Range Rover Sport? How good is the media system in the 2020 Range Rover Sport?
The media system in the Range Rover Sport is a MAJOR improvement on several Land Rover models I have driven previously and brings this car bang up to date. The system is split across two screens.
The top one contains media, sat-nav, cameras etc. It is easy to use swiping through the screens and simple to navigate.
This is also where you control the optional rear DVD screens from.
The optional rear DVD screens with wireless headphones wee a massive hit with our daughter and I loved them too because I could also listen to my own music and podcasts in the front…
…by using the top screen to control whichever media I was listening to in the front.
It also has Apple CarPlay and Android Auto which is a great improvement.
The reversing camera image is nice and crisp and clear, you can select your view on the top right of the screen and mute the parking sensors pressing the icon on the right-hand side too.
In the lower screen, you can control more of the vehicle settings, including turning the Auto engine cut-out on and off.
It's also where you can control the climate and aircon and you can control the seats including adjusting the length of the seat base as well as the heating and cooling temperature!
The rear doors have sensors that will not allow the doors to be opened if, for example, a bicycle is riding past. These are great for stopping kids from opening the doors into people accidentally.
Becoming a parent I soon realised there are some noises and sounds I feel are unnecessary and I could happily live without if it meant my baby stayed asleep!!
That often the distraction of my screaming, distressed baby is more dangerous when driving than not having a lane departure warning for example.
If it is the lane departure warning beeping that creates distress with my baby then which is safest?
It’s where I think we need to be able to strike a balance and choose when we can mute the warnings or swap them to a vibration in the steering wheel or flashing light perhaps?
A lot of these noises come with the increase in technology and especially linked to safety features and alerts. For me these all have their place.
Another thing I have realised is I spend my time in a lot more places where small children roam, parks, beaches, play gyms, swimming lessons, daycare centre etc. I have become more aware that when I’m reversing or manouvering in the car parks I have to tripple check for small children running around behind me or being in my blind spot when reversing. For this I LOVE reversing cameras, I just don’t like their beeping sounds!!
I have become so much more aware of safety and potential accidents or hazards since having a child and so I love the peace of mind that I get from the cameras and sensors combined with my own vision from windows and mirrors as I don’t trust cameras alone.
The indicators in the Range Rover Sport do not have a loud sound so I didn’t find they affected my daughter while she was sleeping.
Two of my favourite features are controlled on the driver's door. One is the fantastic child lock button that with a single press will lock both the doors and windows so no little hands can fiddle with them while you are driving!
The second is the other button on the driver's door for easy entry, the ability to raise and lower the suspension of the car to make it easier to get in and out of. I would have loved this after I had my cesarean with my daughter and couldn't get in or out of the car we had at the time without being in A LOT of pain!!
There is a good seatbelt removal graphic too. So you know exactly who has their seatbelts fastened!
The windows and doors in the Range Rover Sport are quite quiet to open and close.
Road and engine noise are very good in the Range Rover Sport, it is a solid, robust feeling vehicle that is smooth and keeps you cocooned from a lot of the noises of the outside world. You'd expect nothing less of a luxury vehicle costing this much!
BabyDrive Indepth - Car Seats
How many child seats fit in the 2020 Range Rover Sport?
The Range Rover Sport is a seven-seater SUV with three top tether anchorages across the second-row seatbacks. They are not within plastic guides but the outer two are clearly labelled.
There are ISOFix points in the two outer second-row seats. They are not within plastic guides and I found them quite difficult to connect to.
We could install three child seats in the second row of the Range Rover Sport. There are no top tether anchorages or ISOFix points in the third-row seats so we couldn't put any child seats back there.
I found I could sit comfortably between two child seats also.
With a rear-facing child seat installed in the middle row, we found about a 170cm driver could sit in front and a 162cm passenger behind in the third-row. That's not great considering the exterior size of this car.
With a forward-facing child seat installed you can fit a 184cm passenger in the front, which is ok.
To access the third-row seats you would have to uninstall at least one child seat from the second-row to climb through.
Legroom in the third-row is quite minimal and we found I could comfortably sit back there (I am 162cm) but not one much taller than that.
There are electric controls to bring the third-row seats up and down, rather than doing it manually.
Posting bub into their seats from outside the car is good for forward-facing and rear-facing child seats. The door opening is a big open shape allowing you space to post them in and you can adjust the suspension height of the vehicle so you are not bending down too far or reaching up too high as well.
Doing this from inside was easy too as there is a good amount of internal space.
Australia being a country of weather extremes- blazing sun and torrential rain, mean you may find it easier to put Bub into their seat from inside the car sometimes. If it’s hot you can get the air-con going, cool the car down and not stand out in the sun while you fasten them in or shelter from the rain and not get soaked yourself whilst you’re doing it. So it is important to test whether Bub can be easily installed from either direction!
With only one child seat installed in the second row of the Range Rover Sport, there is plenty of room for feeding bub in the back.
BabyDrive Indepth - Drive & Comfort
How comfortable is a 2020 Range Rover Sport?
I loved driving the Range Rover Sport, the front seats were super comfortable and I loved the heated and cooled seats!
The whole car we tested was upholstered in cream leather, which always TERRIFIES me!!!
I have a toddler with a car travel sultana habit and I know the damage those things can do to dark seat coverings let alone cream!!
The seats also have perforated central panels throughout the car for heating and cooling and this also means them collecting every little crumb my daughter drops!!
The second and third-row seats are very comfortable too and in the second row they feel very spacious.
With the large sunroof, the interior feels light and airy with good visibility out as a passenger.
The steering wheel is fully adjustable in/out and up/down.
The cruise control buttons are on the right-hand side of the steering wheel, they are simple to use.
There are four air-con vents across the front dashboard; two in the centre above the media screen and one at either end.
For the second-row passengers, there are two air vents in the back of the central console box and heated seat buttons below them You can reach these from the front.
There were no third-row air vents in the model I tested but I think you would need them in the Australian summers.
The air-con controls are situated in the lower media screen, they are nice and simple, easy to use.
With three child seats installed in the second-row of the Range Rover Sport and the third-row seats up, visibility is minimal out of the back window, so you really need to rely on the reversing camera. Out of the front and sides, visibility is good as you get a clear view out of the large windows.
That said, the Range Rover Sport does feel large to maneuver in tight school and supermarket car parks!
One thing I have noticed since being a mum is I hate it when I reach a destination or get home from being out and Tulsi has either done really well in the car or she is screaming her head off and I have done really well to keep it together for the entire journey (usually the latter!!) and it takes 10 minutes to park the car! It can be really stressful. Usually I dread when we get big SUVs or Utes as they take longer in our tight apartment block carpark, the Range Rover Sport, a large SUV was not too tricky to park due to the large windows and camera!
For rear-facing passengers in the back, the view out of the windows is also good because they are so large and open, and the seating position in high.
The interior lights in the second-row seats are situated in the ceiling above the doors and behind the handles. I could not reach them while driving.
I have found Tulsi does not like travelling in the dark in the car so if it gets dark whilst travelling then I reach back and turn the interior light on for her. So it’s really important for me that I can reach the rear ceiling light.
Also if I am traveling home and it is getting near to bed time and I DEFINITELY DON’T want her to fall asleep in the car as even a 5minute nap in the car means bed time is all over!!!! I lean back and pop the light on so it’s not dark and try to keep her awake!! Along with screaming/singing at the top of my voice!!!
It is also useful when there are lights situated above the doors where the handles are usually positioned. These are good for when putting baby into their child seats when visibility is poor, so you do not have to reach across them to a light situated in the ceiling centrally etc.
The rear handles are great for hanging a baby toy on to keep little ones entertained on journeys. They are well-positioned in the Range Rover Sport.
The interior of the Range Rover Sport is beautiful cream leather upholstery on the seats and the door panelling, it is completely impractical for most families with young children! As with every cream interior car if I had a dollar for each time I said “take your feet off the back of the chair this is mummy's work car” I would be a very wealthy woman!! Although the black plastic panels on the back of the front seats acted as perfect protectors for both my spine and the seats!!
This Range Rover Sport has a keyless entry which allows you to lock and unlock the car from any door!! WOOHOO!!! No more having to go to the driver's door to unlock the car, then go to the door you want.
The tailgate opens and closes silently so it doesn't wake any little passengers.
BabyDrive Indepth - Safety
The Range Rover Sport scored a five-star Euro NCAP safety rating in 2016 (no ANCAP rating). It got an overall score of 36.19 out of 37. However, it has not been through child occupancy protection testing.
The Range Rover Sport has six airbags as standard. Both front passengers get front and side chest airbags and side head curtain airbags extend to all three rows of passengers.
Some of these safety features are also features that drive me crazy as a mum! Like the lane departure and the parking sensor beeping sound.
I want all the safety technology AND to be able to mute the sound when my daughter's asleep!
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About Tace Clifford
Tace Clifford founded BabyDrive in 2017 after discovering a huge information gap in mainstream car reviews that left new parents and expanding families in the dark when it came to one of the biggest purchasing decisions of their lives.
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2 Comments
How do you anchor over top to install forward facing seat in the middle?
How do you anchor over top to install forward facing seat in the middle?
Not sure what you mean exactly? The top tether anchorage is quite low down, does your strap not reach?