Open Today Sales: 9 AM-7 PM
Hours:
Open Today Sales: 9 AM-7 PMOpen Today Service: 7 AM-5:30 PMOpen Today Parts: 7 AM-5:30 PM
Location
A side-by-side look at price, off-road capability, cargo room, and published reliability, for BMW X5 owners considering a switch to the Range Rover Sport.
The Range Rover Sport is built first for off-road capability and real terrain versatility — more ground clearance, a deeper set of drive modes, and a dedicated Wade mode for water crossings. That's the priority for a Kansas City owner who drives beyond paved roads: gravel county roads, spring flooding along the Kansas and Missouri rivers, and trips out toward Lake of the Ozarks.
Both are mid-size luxury SUVs from a similar performance and price bracket, but they're built around different priorities. The Range Rover Sport is engineered first as an off-road-capable Land Rover, with adaptive air suspension and a six-mode Terrain Response system. The BMW X5 is tuned more toward on-road handling, with off-road ability available as an add-on package rather than the vehicle's core identity — and it does start lower and carries a stronger published dependability ranking, which are real, worth-knowing trade-offs. See our full Range Rover buying guide for more on where the Sport fits in the lineup, or browse Range Rover Sport inventory directly.
| Spec | Range Rover Sport | BMW X5 |
|---|---|---|
| Starting MSRP | ~$77,600 | ~$68,300 BMW X5 |
| Max Ground Clearance | 11.0 in (adaptive air suspension) Range Rover Sport | 9.9 in (air suspension, raised) |
| Cargo Volume (behind 2nd row) | 31.9 cu ft | 33.9 cu ft BMW X5 |
| Off-Road Drive Modes | 6 (Terrain Response 2, incl. Rock Crawl, Sand, Wade) Range Rover Sport | 4 (xOffroad Package: Snow, Sand, Gravel, Rocks) |
| J.D. Power 2025 Dependability | Not ranked in the study's published top 10 brands | Ranked #9 among top 10 brands BMW X5 |
The Range Rover Sport's adaptive air suspension raises ground clearance to 11 inches at its off-road setting, versus the X5's 9.9 inches with its own air suspension raised — a real difference on rutted trails or deep snow.
Terrain Response 2 gives the Sport six dedicated terrain settings, including a dedicated Wade mode that raises the suspension and adjusts the climate system for water crossings — a mode the X5's four-mode xOffroad Package doesn't offer.
Both differences show up in real Kansas City driving, not just on a spec sheet: the extra ground clearance and Wade mode matter on the gravel and low-water crossings common on rural roads outside the metro, and during spring flooding along the Kansas and Missouri rivers, while the deeper Terrain Response lineup helps on ice-glazed side streets during a Midwest winter.
The X5 starts roughly $9,000 lower than the Range Rover Sport before options — a real gap worth knowing going in.
BMW placed among the top 10 brands in J.D. Power's 2025 U.S. Vehicle Dependability Study; Land Rover did not. It's a fair data point to weigh.
Neither trade-off changes what the Sport is built to do. A lower sticker price and a brand-wide dependability average don't add ground clearance or a Wade mode for the low-water crossings and gravel roads that come with living around Kansas City — the capability gap in the Sport's favor is the one that shows up on the actual drives this region asks an SUV to make.
Numbers only tell part of the story — come feel the ground clearance and cabin quality for yourself at our Merriam showroom.
