Official Review: 2017 Land Rover Discovery Sport

Land Rover's attempt at an entry level crossover

My personal car is a Land Rover LR3, it recently went into the stealership for some work and I was lucky enough to get a new discovery Sport as a loaner car. Now I'll be honest I was a little jaded to start because I was hoping this review would end up being about the Range Rover Evoque instead, but hey, beggars can't be choosers. Anyway my first impressions of the Disco Sport were not great. Upon getting in and trying to get settled in, something just felt off. Now I'm a huge driving position guy, meaning if I can't get in a comfortable position to drive, I automatically deduct 30 out of 10 points. Now, besides the seating position there's an awkward feeling of; is this a car or is it an suv, because its neither, but I don't really feel like this is small enough to be a crossover either. It's just weird. the touch points feel like they are cheap materials but dressed up to seem nice or luxury. I understand this is basically a base model Land Rover but I still expect to feel some luxury and I don't really feel that way in this. I mean it's nice, but it's not luxurious. I will say, however, where this vehicle lacks in appearance (it's just ugly, let's face it) and weird comfort levels, it makes up in performance and the abundant use of tech.


This particular vehicle is a Discovery Sport HSE and is equipped with many options like powered tailgate, lane departure warning, heated/cooled seats, heated steering wheel, backup camera, fixed panoramic roof, touch screen info-tainment system, heated windshield, Land Rover's terrain response system and more. What's nice is not just having all of this tech. but the way it's integrated into the configuration of the car. Almost everything can be controlled from the steering wheel or the info-tainment system. Land rover is notorious for it's clunky and not so user friendly info-tainment system and I must say this is light-years better than what I have in my LR3. The stereo is adequate. The HSE doesn't have the upgraded Meridian Sound system available in the HSE luxury, but it's not too bad. The backup camera is a necessary option, the rear window is small and the visibility out the back is minimal. I personally don't like backup cameras as a good driver can just as easily use the mirrors but I must say for the disco sport you need the camera, visibility out the back is that bad. I love the panoramic roof, It lets in loads of light and really makes the interior feel bigger and also adds a nice convo. piece for people unfamiliar with your car. Be careful though, I spoke to a gentlemen at the dealership who broke the panoramic glass roof on his Evoque and it cost upwards of $3k to replace, if not using insurance. One really neat feature I found was a speed limiter. Similar to cruise control where you can set it and forget it, you can set whatever you want your max speed to be and then it limits you to that speed or slower. This is great for long highway trips and can keep you out of trouble.


The Discovery Sport comes standard with a 4 cylinder turbocharged engine making 240 hp and 250 lb-ft, mated to an automatic 9-speed transmission with "sport" mode and steering wheel mounted padel shifters if you want to manually select gears. Its advertised to get 20 mpg city and 28 mpg highway, I was getting about 23-25mpg combined. The turbo 4 really gives the Discovery Sport some real pep and I was pleasantly surprised with the way this crossover drove. I mean it actually felt rather sporty. You hear sport attached to a cars name and think it's just a marketing ploy, but this thing actually drives great. There's no issue getting up to speed or changing lanes on the highway and you can really toss this thing around a corner fairly easily. I was fortunate enough to drive this thing in some less than desirable snow/ice conditions and it did fairly well. While I felt the headlights didn't throw far enough and long distance visibility wasn't great in the dark, It handled sketchy conditions very well, just as you'd hope a Land Rover would.


So whats the final verdict on this suv/crossover/sedan thing. I think the Discovery Sport is perfect for a small family with ample space for kids and a good amount of gear or for someone looking for a crossover with a little style. I didn't have a chance to take it off road but its too nice to take on anything fairly aggressive. Price as tested was around $41,000 so it's not outrageously priced but also not cheap. If I were in the market for a crossover like vehicle I would definitely consider it. Where it lacks in looks and sometimes comfort, it more than makes up for it in driveability, and tech. Are you an owner or have you driven one of these? Share your thoughts.

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