LONDON: The ‘Land Rover Discovery’ is the first step towards a new Discovery-badge family cars.
It shares a lot of its undergarments with the Range Rover Evoque, but it’s longer, with a remarkably clever new rear suspension arrangement that allows fans to fit seven people into an SUV measuring less than 4.6 metres long about the same as the three-door BMW i8 electric sports car.
If it didn’t helpfully say ‘Discovery’ on the bonnet, fans would have a hard time telling it apart from the Evoque from the front. Move to the side and see the higher roof line, the bigger windows (thank the Lord) and the completely different rear end. It doesn’t look cheap, and the Discovery name adds some off-road prestige. In fact, the more fans look at it the more sweetly it seems to balance the rugged Discovery looks with the modern, street-savvy boldness of the baby Range Rover. The colour palette is, for the most part, about as exciting as an overdone sprout, but there’s a smashing orange shade too.
There are seven seats. Seven! It’s not as cramped as fans suppose in the back, either, thanks to expensive new rear suspension technology that removes the top links and leaves much more space in the cabin. The middle row slides forward to create more legroom at the back, while leaving enough habitats for adults in the front five seats.
The seven-seat car comes with a space-saver spare wheel, but the five-seat option Land Rover launching at the same time will hold a full-size spare beneath the boot. Two-feet-deep water is reduced to a mere inconvenience, the Terrain Response system helps manage everything from tarmac to mud, gravel, grass, snow, ruts and sand, and the new touch-screen works with gloves although only the kind designed for touch-screens.
Driving it over Icelandic snow and ice perhaps isn’t the best representation of UK driving, but by Jove the Discovery Sport can handle it. Despite its advancing years, the slightly agricultural 2.2-litre diesel engine still does a good job when paired with the nine-speed automatic gearbox. The ZF unit works seamlessly and flatters the rest of the car.
Comfortable seats are important in this part of the market but the Sport ticks that box. Its driving dynamics seem handsomely neutral, although a UK test will deliver a more definitive opinion on that. The four-wheel drive system works impeccably though. At one point the car had to pull itself out of a snow drift and did.
Value is relative. If fans want a lifestyle-biased compact family SUV which can tow, can seat seven and can handle even the toughest off-roading that any normal person is likely to throw at it, this really is in a class of one. It’s more expensive than an Evoque, mind fans, and some will find that badge hard to resist.
Families now have a fresh option. This is a tall car that can seat seven in comfort, with the latest technology for everyone and up to seven USB ports for charging devices. But it’s not a leviathan SUV, it won’t rub people up the wrong way (as much) and it offers more practicality and capability than anything else on the market for the same money. It’s a mighty all-rounder.