Here in Australia we can only get an SDV8 in HSE or HSE Dynamic spec. It does mean we get that 4.4L V8 engine without having to accept all the extras that come with the Autobiography.
Also the SDV8 HSE comes standard with Dynamic Response and Torque Vectoring while HSE Dynamic seems to only add cosmetic features from what I can see.

I picked up an existing build slot which according to Vista should be built by tomorrow .

One of options already included on the car are the Surround Cameras and the Advanced Tow Assist. I haven't seen anyone who has the Advanced Tow Assist discuss it on this forum.
Anyone care to comment on how useful it is? Is it just a toy or does it work well?

We have a large trailer sailer and this spec car sounds perfect for towing and launching at the boat ramp.

Other options I have are the 825W Meridian Sound, Climate Seats, Sliding Pano Roof, Drive Pack and Tow Hitch. Our HSE builds also include the HUD and Full Size Spare as standard.

Welcome to the forum Ozsport.

I cant comment on the advanced tow assist as I didn't have it fitted to mine, and I dont think was available for my MY16. I do have the surround cameras and although I dont use them often, they are quite handy for parking against high kerbs in the dark etc.

You will love the SDV8, plenty of grunt (pulls like a train especially when short shifting through the gears in dynamic and sport mode using the torque), good noise for a diesel and quite frugal if you watch your right foot.

Other comments on your spec are:-

825W Meridian Sound - essential
Climate Seats - pretty useful but with you living in Canberra you will only need the heat function...
Sliding Pano Roof - lets plenty of light in, a good option on my view
Drive Pack - good safety feature although mine came with the equivalent of Drive Pack pro
Tow Hitch - clearly a necessity for you.
HUD - very useful although not as good as the version in my wife's Merc.
Full Size Spare as standard - hopefully you never see it.


Most of the differences between HSE/HSE Dynamic are internal/external cosmetic changes and wheels, although the Dynamic does have a higher top speed (never going to use it!!) and the HSE can come with analogue dials or the TFT Virtual Instrument Panel....not sure what your spec is. Also the Dynamic does have a couple more options available.

When I ordered mine the Dynamic came with a few more options as standard, but the spec sheet seems to have balanced out since then.

What color scheme did you opt for?

Hopefully you will not have too long to wait......delivery on mine took 5 months from order!!! 2016 Range Rover Sport SDV8 HSE Dynamic (Indus Silver/Santorini Black Pano Roof, Ebony/Cirrus leather, custom grey Style 508 alloys)

Thanks for the welcome DrFox.

I have been following your experiences on here since you got your SDV8. Like you I'm not sure how much longer these big diesel engines will be around so I didn't want to miss out.

Did you ever sell your original 22" style 504 wheels? I'm not convinced about the 21" wheels that come with mine (style 507).

Yes it gets cold here in Canberra, wish I had ordered the heated steering wheel as well, but it does get hot as well. I grew up in Adelaide so I do know what hot weather is like

The HSE does come with the TFT Virtual Instrument Panel here as standard.

I have gone for Corris Grey with Ebony interior, the wheels have the red Brembos but as I mentioned above I think the 22" look better.

Hopefully not too long to wait now.

Here's a Corris Gret HSE Dynamic with 22" wheels, it has ebony and lunar interior. No red calipers though

Click image to enlarge

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Ozsport wrote:

Thanks for the welcome DrFox.

I have been following your experiences on here since you got your SDV8. Like you I'm not sure how much longer these big diesel engines will be around so I didn't want to miss out.

Did you ever sell your original 22" style 504 wheels? I'm not convinced about the 21" wheels that come with mine (style 507).

Yes it gets cold here in Canberra, wish I had ordered the heated steering wheel as well, but it does get hot as well. I grew up in Adelaide so I do know what hot weather is like

The HSE does come with the TFT Virtual Instrument Panel here as standard.

I have gone for Corris Grey with Ebony interior, the wheels have the red Brembos but as I mentioned above I think the 22" look better.

Hopefully not too long to wait now.

Hi Ozsport,

I did sell my 504 wheels last year. I agree that the 22's look better but all down to personal taste and what the car will be doing (i.e. off roading etc).

You might want to have a chat with your dealer to see if they can swap the wheels for 22's (if they happen to have any coming off another car) as it is too late to change build now. I tried but my dealer would only try and sell me a new set at $7k plus, so I bought some take off's with tyres from the UK and had them re-sprayed to my color choice. If you do this make sure you factor in import duty costs.

You could always try eBay/Gumtree in Oz too but they dont have an abundance for sale. See example of genuine 504's for sale:
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/22-inch-GENUINE...Swe-FU2JI-

Watch out for cheap aftermarket copies, seen too many horror stories and I wouldn't put a set on anew RRS.

The other option is stick with your 21's and make a choice after delivery. You might like them.

Nice color scheme you have ordered. I looked at the Corris but couldn't get past the Indus silver in the end. I would recommend having a ceramic paint protection added but not by the dealer (too expensive and inferior products). Look for a good local detailer who can apply Opticoat Pro plus or an equivalent. Its a good investment.

I hope the wait isnt too stressful!!

If I can be of any more help just let me know. 2016 Range Rover Sport SDV8 HSE Dynamic (Indus Silver/Santorini Black Pano Roof, Ebony/Cirrus leather, custom grey Style 508 alloys)

I have the advanced tow assist, but haven't tested it yet. It wasn't that more expensive to have it (400$) when I ordered my MY17 so I ticked the box. I actually enjoy reversing trailers but thought it would be a fun thing to try out.

I do regret not ordering then "InControl Connect Pro Pack", as my SE missed out on wifi and some connect features I would appreciate now.

I do't really like the 21 507's either which did play on my mind when I ordered the SE, I like the 20" wheels and they suit my use for the vehicle which is a bit of off road work. I like the 22's but couldn't see the point in spending more on fancy wheels that were less suited to my requirements.

Surround cameras are great due to the clarity and versatility for parking scenarios.

I know what it feels like to wait for delivery, I passed some of the time following the ship on marine traffic website. 2017 MY17 SDV6 SE

@Tim in Scotland - Thanks for pics of your car, mine will look very similar. Why are you planning on putting the 21" wheels on your car?

@DrFox1969 - Thanks for the advice on the wheels, I will talk to the dealer but I suspect I will wait and see how I go with the supplied wheels.

@Matsoutback - I agree for extra AU$400 the Advanced Tow Assist was worth taking a gamble on.

The problem with having so much time before your car arrives is that you end up agonising over which options you should have gone for.

I originally set out to buy an SDV6 but wanted the Dynamic Response option so I ended up looking at some run out MY16.5 SDV8's which the dealers were getting factory incentives to unload and were well priced. Was just about to pull the trigger on a demo MY16.5 in Melbourne but gave the local dealer a chance to win my custom. He found this SDV8 in the order list that was just about to reach the build fix date, the downside was I didn't have a chance to change any of the build options (my wife however considers this to be a good thing though )

My original intention was to use the 21's as a set of winter tyres (the wheels are unused take-offs from an RRS SVR and the tyres are M&S rated unlike my 22's that are Summer rated) but Pirelli also sells a 21" AT here that I might fit for offroad use as there are no 22" offroad tyres available. Yes I'm one of the rare ones that takes an RRS offroad and one of even fewer to take an L494 offroad! In dry conditions the 22's along with the e-Diff work well but I would imagine that their treads would very quickly clog in soft terrain and then no amount of clever electronics will help get you out....... and as I have the LR front and rear stainless bash plates I now cannot use my screw in recovery eye (the plates are stuck and clipped on and have to be removed to access the recovery eye........... brilliant piece of design by LR and just goes to prove that they are loosing the plot with regard off road use of their cars and are concentrating on sparkly beauty bits to add on. I now limit the Sport to Forest Fire Roads and gentler quarry and dry roads and use my ever bashable and dependable Defender 90 300Tdi on BFG MTRs for the more serious stuff 2020 Pangea Green 1st Edition D240 New Defender 110 is here and loving it
2018 Melting Silver Mini Countryman PHEV - soon to be replaced
2015MY Corris Grey SDv6 HSE Dynamic, the best car I have ever owned, totally reliable only a cou0le of rattles in 3 years, now no longer in my care
Also in my garage is a 1996 TDi300 Defender 90 County HT made into a fake CSW

Good to hear you take yours off-road Tim. Such a waste of such a capable vehicle if you don't exercise it now and then.

I'm sure it will take a while before I summon up the courage to take mine off-road, I will probably start with just the fire trails. Low Range and 4WD is also great for a dragging a boat up a slippery launch ramp.

I have previously owned a Landcruiser and done a few 4WD trips and courses so I am keen to check out the Range Rover.

I assume Land Rover will offer me an off-road driving day once I get the car.

I know about the boat launching and recovery - I live near to Loch Lomond and while my small boat days are passed the countryside rangers often phone to ask if I could go to the slipway as some idiot with a high powered FWD car with too big a boat cannot get the rig back up the ramp..............I usually take the defender as it has a tow hitch and winch but a few times I have appeared in an RRS and getweird looks from boat owners to the effect "you'll never recover the trailer on those tyres...." but my secret isn't to use my car at all but to give them a very long strop and shackles so they can haul the rig from further up the slipway - don't half get some doubters when you suggest that they try that method but so far it has worked 100% of the time as they can pull the trailer with the car on the flat and dry away from the slippery part of the ramp. 2020 Pangea Green 1st Edition D240 New Defender 110 is here and loving it
2018 Melting Silver Mini Countryman PHEV - soon to be replaced
2015MY Corris Grey SDv6 HSE Dynamic, the best car I have ever owned, totally reliable only a cou0le of rattles in 3 years, now no longer in my care
Also in my garage is a 1996 TDi300 Defender 90 County HT made into a fake CSW

Ozsport wrote:

Good to hear you take yours off-road Tim. Such a waste of such a capable vehicle if you don't exercise it now and then.

I'm sure it will take a while before I summon up the courage to take mine off-road, I will probably start with just the fire trails. Low Range and 4WD is also great for a dragging a boat up a slippery launch ramp.

I have previously owned a Landcruiser and done a few 4WD trips and courses so I am keen to check out the Range Rover.

I assume Land Rover will offer me an off-road driving day once I get the car.

LR Australia will offer you an offroad day. The difference in Oz compared to the UK is that you will need to use your own car. I have been on off road days with LR and Mercedes in the UK and they always supply demo vehicles to drive in, which means you can push a bit harder rather that using your own new RRS!! As you can tell, mine stays on the road!!  2016 Range Rover Sport SDV8 HSE Dynamic (Indus Silver/Santorini Black Pano Roof, Ebony/Cirrus leather, custom grey Style 508 alloys)

And here in the UK if you are looking at a pre-owned Fuji White HSE with all the optional electronic toys on it and with low miles on the odo then you need to also look for signs of it having had large logos also stuck on the body panels as that is the spec used by all the UK LRE's ............... the cars are exceptionally well looked after and you will be hard pressed to find evidence of the tough life that they had led as offroad demonstrators as any damages are made good before they are put out into the Approved Used network. 2020 Pangea Green 1st Edition D240 New Defender 110 is here and loving it
2018 Melting Silver Mini Countryman PHEV - soon to be replaced
2015MY Corris Grey SDv6 HSE Dynamic, the best car I have ever owned, totally reliable only a cou0le of rattles in 3 years, now no longer in my care
Also in my garage is a 1996 TDi300 Defender 90 County HT made into a fake CSW

I've found out that my car was built on the 24th May and is now with UK Distribution. No ship has been assigned yet but the delivery date to me has come forward a month. The dealer thinks that may come forward even more depending on the ship it gets on to. So that's 3 months from order to delivery.

I've got the VIN number as well now so I've had a chance to look at the build on TOPix. I was hoping I would get the Fuel Burning Heater that seems to be standard on the UK SDV8's - We have a couple of -4 degrees C mornings predicted for the next few days - but it appears I get a Fresh Air Heater, which I assume is just a normal car heater??

You may still have the FBH as an emissions reduction device for cool weather (below 5c) and it isn't hard to convert it to Park Heat I believe, well it is on L320 RRS, not sure about L494 RRS that has loads more complex things in the touch screen! 2020 Pangea Green 1st Edition D240 New Defender 110 is here and loving it
2018 Melting Silver Mini Countryman PHEV - soon to be replaced
2015MY Corris Grey SDv6 HSE Dynamic, the best car I have ever owned, totally reliable only a cou0le of rattles in 3 years, now no longer in my care
Also in my garage is a 1996 TDi300 Defender 90 County HT made into a fake CSW

Thanks Tim, I will have to call out to some of the other Australian SDV8 owners to see if they got the FBH

DrFox1969, IRBails.... care to comment?