This immensely practical vehicle elevates function above fashion, and that’s what I like about it. It feels like a less luxurious Range Rover for half the price. Somehow, though, that becomes a virtue, forcing you to slow down and enjoy the refined ride, smooth transmission and imperious driving position. Its calm steering and pliant suspension lead to unseemly body-roll if rushed, and the engine gets gruff when worked hard.
It leaves that – somewhat futile – job to other SUVs. The ability to tow a 3,500kg braked trailer should serve all your caravan/horsebox/speedboat needs (delete according to lifestyle), too.īesides, this Land Rover has no pretensions to being sporty. On paper, that looks underwhelming, but a burly 369lb ft of torque from 1,500rpm means you’re rarely short of oomph. I sampled the former, which drives through an eight-speed automatic gearbox, serving up 60mph in a steady-as-she-goes 8.3 seconds. The Landmark comes with Land Rover’s 240hp four-cylinder SD4 or 306hp six-cylinder SD6 diesel engines. Choose the £482 Pet Pack and Rover the retriever (he has to be called Rover, right?) even gets his own partitioned, rubber-lined boot.
#Land rover discovery landmark edition full#
Inside, you’ll find seven full-sized seats that slide, flip and fold, plus a full suite of audiovisual options to occupy the kids. Factor in 283mm of ground clearance and 900mm of wading depth and, with the right tyres, it’s almost unstoppable. The Discovery is a motorised Swiss army knife, with all-wheel drive and five modes for tackling tough terrain, backed up by low-range gearing and electronic air suspension. This Landmark edition was launched to mark 30 years of Discovery in 2019. Just delivered: Land Rover Discovery SD4. Even the lop-sided tailgate, so controversial at launch in 2017, no longer seems too contrived. Nonetheless, despite this Landmark edition’s black mesh grille, front foglights, tinted glass and 20-inch alloys, it still looks pleasingly no-nonsense. It’s a tad sleeker than its set-square predecessor and, thanks to an aluminium chassis and body panels, a whopping 480kg lighter. Which brings us to the fifth-generation Discovery. Factor in the new Defender, which uses a new chassis and wins hands-down for cool-factor, and the odds look stacked. Land Rover now builds no less than seven SUVs, and its smaller Discovery Sport outsells the ‘proper’ Discovery by more than two-to-one.
Since then, the turf has become much muddier. Those early Discoverys (Discoveries?) occupied a fertile field between agricultural and aspirational, and between the Defender and Range Rover. The factory soon added a third shift to keep up with demand. It was the right car at the right time, beating the BMW X5 to market by a decade and presaging the rise of the SUV. But it also boasted a Terence Conran interior with seven seats, rugged good looks and unrivalled off-road ability. The first Discovery was built to a budget, with Morris Marina door handles and taillights from an Austin Maestro van. Are we witnessing the last days of Disco? Yet it could prove dire news for the Discovery – Land Rover’s slowest seller – by competing for the same customers. OK, so Land Rover wheeled out a ‘Landmark’ special edition, driven here, but all eyes were on Solihull’s new star: the 2020 Defender.įair enough, you might say: the Defender is an iron-clad institution and, after 67 years on sale, a new one is big news. Last year, the Discovery celebrated its 30th birthday – and almost nobody noticed.
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