Small turbo-diesel engine and SUVs should go together like peanut butter and jelly. Unfortunately, we don’t get many of these in the United States. The Jeep Grand Cherokee EcoDiesel has been around for some time, but now there is another more premium SUV option with a diesel. Enter the 2016 Range Rover Sport Td6 turbo-diesel.
This Range Rover Sport is powered by a 3.0L V6 turbo-diesel that puts out 254 horsepower and 443 lb-ft of torque. It’s backed up by an 8-speed automatic transmission and has an EPA fuel economy estimates of 22 MPG city, 29 MPG highway, and 25 MPG combined. Naturally, the Range Rover is also equipped with a sophisticated 4WD system with a terrain management system.
This engine is more powerful than the 3.0L EcoDiesel V6 in the Grand Cherokee and the 2.8L I4 turbo-diesel in the Chevy Colorado and GMC Canyon midsize pickup trucks. It has impressive MPG ratings. It is a very comfortable, quiet, and luxurious. The flip side of the coin is the price. This Range Rover Sport starts at $71,450, but when you add all the options: Driver Assistance package, Meridian Premium Audio system, adaptive cruise control, two-speed transfer case, and more; the final as-test price is $84,260.
This test was done a couple of months ago. It was in the middle of our 100-mile loop highway efficiency testing for 2016. So can this Range Rover beat the frugal 2016 GMC Canyon Duramax at efficiency when towing the same 5,600 lbs trailer? Yes! It did! The Range Rover Sport returned a very impressive 12.8 MPG (versus 12.3 MPG in the Canyon Diesel). The Range Rover Sport is the reigning king of towing efficiency.
