Land Rover Range Rover Sport

Our record puts the Range Rover Sport's UK sales period at since 2005. That range is the useful starting point, because everything about the cost of running one turns on where a particular example sits inside it. It came in one body style here, SUV, with 3 fuel types: diesel, petrol and plug-in hybrid.

The Range Rover Sport was on sale on both sides of the road tax change of 1 April 2017, and that is the single most useful thing to know before you buy one. An example first registered up to 31 March 2017 is taxed on its CO2 figure under the lettered bands, so engine, gearbox and even wheel size can move two cars of the same year into different bands. One registered from 1 April 2017 pays the flat standard rate instead and its CO2 stops mattering. Two otherwise identical cars a year apart can cost noticeably different amounts to keep taxed, and only the V5C tells you which one you are looking at. There is also a quirk worth knowing on the oldest examples: a car registered before 23 March 2006 cannot be charged above band K however high its emissions, so a thirsty old one can be cheaper to tax than a newer car a class below it.

For running costs the fuel matters more than the badge. On the diesels the emissions section is where a neglected car loses its certificate: the particulate filter is inspected and the smoke reading is measured against a limit, and a filter that has never had a long run to clear itself will not pass on a good intention. A plug-in hybrid still takes the full emissions test on its engine, so ask when that engine last did a long run rather than a series of short electric trips. Four wheel drive versions carry more driveline than the two wheel drive ones. Driveshaft boots, propshaft joints and the extra bushes are all inspected, and they are the items that turn a cheap purchase into an expensive first year.

None of that is a substitute for the record of the actual car. The invoices name what was replaced, when and at what mileage, and the same job appearing twice in three years says more about a Range Rover Sport than any statistic about the model ever could. A mileage that goes backwards across a paperwork trail is worth walking away from whatever the badge is.

Land Rover has been built at Solihull since the first Series I in 1948 and is now part of Jaguar Land Rover under Tata. Britain is its home market and its largest used market, with the Discovery Sport and Range Rover Evoque providing most of the volume. Air suspension, timing chains on the early 2.0 petrol engines and electrical faults are the recurring cost items, and they are expensive enough that a cheap purchase price can be misleading. That is context on the marque rather than on this car, and there is more of it, along with every other model line, on the Land Rover page.