Long before the landscape was crawling with Escalades, Cayennes and all manner of alphabetized and numbered blinged-out boats from Mercedes, Audi and others, the Range Rover was the original luxury SUV. Even now, with vehicles in the category about as popular as mortgage-backed securities and McMansions, the legendary British marque is still equal parts regal and raffish, a combination that especially appeals to affluent soccer moms and weekend warriors. And, lest we forget, serious off-roaders.
But you're more likely to find a Ford Ranger than a Range Rover mud-bogging with a bunch of good ol' boys. The 2009 Range Rover Sport HSE we recently tested (sticker price $62,725) is a vehicle more suited for showing up at an apres-bike-ride Sunday brunch or at the tennis club for a set of mixed doubles. And while some of the vehicle's coolest gadgets are geared to its 4x4 underpinnings, it has plenty of tech to keep the Type As that typically drive this vehicle connected, entertained, and suitably pampered.
Audio: The 2009 Range Rover Sport HSE we tested came standard with a 14-speaker, 550-watt Harman/Kardon sound system with Logic7 surround processing and a 6-disc in-dash changer. The H/K setup excelled in soundstaging/imaging, tonal balance and dynamic range, but fell short in the typical OEM weak points of clarity and tonal accuracy, particularly with low bass and midbass. The low end had a tubby sound that couldn't be tamed even using the separate subwoofer control, and the midbass often distorted when playing our test tracks. And while navigation and other info is displayed and controlled via the color touch-screen at the top of the dash, the audio system uses a much smaller, monochromatic display in the center stack with the attendant buttons and knobs arrayed around it. It's not the most intuitive or convenient interface. When listening to Sirius satellite radio, for example, it requires one push of the right-hand knob just to view artist info, and another push to find out the song that's playing. And if the artist or song title is too long to be displayed, you also have to twist the knob to get the rest of the info. Integrating the audio functions into the larger touch screen is something we'd welcome on the next generation.
iPod Integration: It's surprising that a vehicle costing this much would only offer a lowly auxiliary input for plugging in an iPod, and it's on the back of the center console. But back-seat passengers may appreciate this backwards portable plug-in scheme, since at the top of each door panel is a headphone jack and audio controls for volume, source selection, access to radio presets/next CD and radio-tune/track-skip forward or back. Using these, a pair of back-seat passengers can plug in headphones and switch between the aux-in source and any other audio source in the vehicle via the MODE button. Plus, they give full control over any source except the one being played over the speakers, in which case only the headphone-volume buttons can be used. For parents with kids old enough to want their own music choices it's a priceless feature and the resultant silence is golden.
Bluetooth: The Bluetooth hands-free system paired with our phones easily enough and automatically downloaded the address books. But as with the audio system, we wish the Bluetooth display resided in the large screen at the top of the dash rather than the small one further down. But at least the steering-wheel buttons allow access to the phone's address book and making calls without removing a hand from the wheel, although you still have to look down at the display to scope out your contacts. Dialing by voice is always preferred so that the driver doesn't have to do take a hand off the wheel or an eye away from the road, but the Rover's Bluetooth system doesn't allow you to make calls by voice from the phone's address book, like the best systems; instead you have to add them individually into the system's address book in order to dial by name. Of course, you can always dial by speaking a number.
Voice Activation: But the Range Rover Sport HSE's voice control system was spotty. It had a low success rate and often got at least one number wrong -- returning 7098 when we asked for 7028, in one instance. And when requesting track 4 on a CD, we got track 8 three times and track 14 twice before finally giving up and using the steering-wheel buttons to skip through tracks. The owner's manual says to speak in a natural voice, and we wondered if that means in the British accent the system uses to give instructions. It did respond well, however, when asked for the nearest gas stations or hotels, and even automatically overlaid these POIs on the navigation map screen.
Navigation and Tech Extras: The navigation system worked fine and has useful features not found on other systems, such as the ability to find the nearest police station, hospital or Rover dealer in the SOS Emergency menu. And it also offers off-road features such as topo maps, trace points and compass settings. Along with navigation info, the touch-screen display can be used to call up loads of info regarding the Range Rover's 4x4 capabilities, including suspension, wheel-displacement, steering-angle and gearbox status. There's even an optional VentureCam system that can be plugged into the touch screen so that a companion remote camera can be used to scope out a dicey off-road descent or check wheel articulation. And switching between the various traction modes using the Terrain Response knob in the center console and activating the Hill Descent Control and adjusting the air-suspension system from the adjacent switches couldn't be easier. In addition to the off-roading gizmos, this lux SUV comes with power everything, and our test vehicle had the $3,000 Luxury Interior Package to further pamper the driver and passengers with heated front and rear seats, a cooler box in the center console to chill their Vitamin Water and a heated windshield to melt snow and ice for a faster trip up to the slopes on a powder day.
The Range Rover was king of the high-end 4x4 hill before all of the other luxury SUVs made a run for the crown. And while the 2009 Range Rover Sport HSE isn't top in tech in this vehicle segment, with its combination of solid off-road chops, cool if quirky gadgets and iconic style, it will likely continue to rule the roost for some time to come.
IL Tech Ratings (10 is best): 2009 Range Rover Sport HSE
Audio: 7
iPod Integration: 5
Bluetooth: 6
Voice Activation: 4
Navigation/Tech Extras: 8
Overall Average Score: 6
hondacura4 says:
06:26 PM, 04/29/09
Im not into SUVs but I have to admit, there is something about a Range Rover.