Help Rover get back in clover

The four new Range Rover Sport models vary in price from $89,990 to $149,990. Photo / Supplied

It's been a helluva year for Land Rover. Luxury buyers fled the market early and niche brands suffered most.

Land Rover sales fell 47 per cent here - in part thanks to factory closure and new model delays.

But now they've arrived - please, lend a hand to Discovery 4, and the Range Rover Sport and Vogue.

What's new? You'd think the more affordable Discovery would be the bigger seller, but it's Range Rover - which last year sold nearly double the numbers of its less luxurious stablemate.

This year sees four Range Rover Sport models ranging from $89,990 to $149,990 in price. They're powered by a new 3.0-litre diesel six, a 3.6-litre diesel eight, and a 5.0-litre V8 petrol in normally aspirated and supercharged format. They're complemented by two Vogues, the $184,990 3.6 TDV8 and the $219,990 supercharged V8.

None of these engines are short of grunt. That 3.0-litre TDV6 delivers 600Nm - 36 per cent more torque with 29 per cent more power, while cutting fuel use.

The naturally aspirated V8 delivers more urge too, but it's the supercharged 5.0-litre eight that's shared with the XFR and XKR Jaguars which makes your eyes water.

Again the story's more power for less fuel, with 625Nm and 373kW - a 29 per cent boost on its 4.2-litre supercharged predecessor.

That car gets upgraded transmission and brakes to cope, with sequential manual shift.

Meanwhile a subtle facelift features new bumpers , grille, headlights and alloys, and a twin or triple-stripe theme carried through front and rear LEDs and the side-vent's stripes. The interior boasts better ergonomics and keyless start, with a five-inch screen for Satnav - or 12 inches in the Vogue, which uses new screen tech that lets the driver view the Satnav while their passenger watches TV.

There's a lot more, of course, from a redesigned adaptive damping system to a new rock crawl programme.

The company line The executive chairman of Motorcorp Distributors, Russell Reynolds, says buyers postponed purchase during the recession though most still had the money: "If you're laying off staff you don't go out and buy a new car, even if you can afford it."

He admits Land Rover stock ran too low. Like many companies, Motorcorp cut its interest liability by emptying its warehouse and paring new orders to the bone, running out of 2009 models before 2010 cars emerged from the factory. He predicts January sales to be 116 per cent above Land Rover NZ's January average, with Range Rover Sport as top seller.

What we say We'd have a Sport too, with the supercharged engine. Yes, it's got Disco underpinnings, but they make for a more involving drive, where the Vogue might as well be an arcade game for all the feel the wheel delivers.

That more involving drive is allied to an avalanche of torque, which makes driving this car sensibly as easy as avoiding icecream drips on a sunny day.

On the road All the clever electronic trickery is impressively effective at masking how big these cars are, and you can hustle them along more confidently than their dimensions suggest. But doing so is only rewarding in the Sport, with its more assured handling. No, it's not and never will be a sports car, but then it'll go where no sports car ever could, and do it in cosseting comfort.

Why you'll buy one To carry dogs, guns and gumboots in style; you're driving an icon; you get what you pay for.

Why you won't It's overkill, and why pay for what you won't use?