People don’t really buy mid-sized CUV’s to go off-roading, but they can go through some pretty rough terrain if they want with the new Land Rover Discovery Sport. The Discovery Sport is an all-new vehicle from the British manufacturer, replacing the Land Rover LR2.
The Discovery is going to be a new line of vehicles for Land Rover, like what the Range Rover line is. The Discovery Sport is the first vehicle in this line and will be soon joined by the Land Rover Discovery (without the Sport), which should look something like the Discovery Vision Concept we wrote about a while ago.
The new Discovery Sport has a starting price of $41,790 for the base SE trim, the HSE starts at $46,790, and the top of the line HSE Luxury starts at $50,290. With all the boxes ticked, prices can go up to the high 50k mark, these prices are in Canadian dollars for the Canadian market.
The Discovery Sport is only offered with a 2.0 liter turbocharged 4-cylinder engine, producing 240 horsepower and 240 pound-feet of torque. Power is sent to all-four wheels via a 9-speed automatic transmission. The Discovery Sport does the 0 – 100 km/h run in 8.2 seconds (0 – 60 mph in 7.8 seconds), with a top speed of 200 km/h (124 mph).
The 4-cylinder engine is adequate for driving around town and it’s not too bad on the highway, it’s by no means a fast car. It’s quite big and heavy, but does it’s job of transporting you in comfort. The engine is pretty peppy in city driving, on the highway, especially for passing, it does need a little encouragement.
According to Land Rover, the Discovery Sport should consume 11.9 L/100 km in the city, 9.0 L/100 km on the highway, and 10.6 on the combined cycle. In our week-long review, we managed 10.5 L/100 km in mostly city driving (70/30 city/highway), according to the on-board computer.
The Land Rover Discovery Sport is competing against vehicles like the Audi Q5, BMW X3, Lexus RX, Mercedes GLC to name a few. The mid-size CUV segment is pretty crowded, but the Discovery Sport has a secret weapon, it can actually go off-road. Not that many of these vehicles will ever go off the beaten path, but it’s still nice to know it can perform quite well in some tricky off-road conditions. The Discovery Sport is also bigger than its competition; it’s based on the Evoque’s chassis, which has been stretched to make extra room, allowing it to have optional third row seats.
The Discovery Sport is after all a Land Rover, so it is expected to perform better off-road than most of its competition. It comes with the “Terrain Response” system, although not as advanced as the offerings on Range Rover vehicles, it’s still copes with sand, mud, snow, and rocks (with specific settings for those and an automatic setting). The Discovery Sport is capable of driving through 24” deep water, which is pretty cool for a CUV, and it comes with Hill Descent Control (HDC).
The interior on the Discovery Sport has a very clean look, taking design cues from the rest of Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles. The center stack houses a small amount of buttons, with the circular rising knob for the gear lever. The interior is roomy, comfortable, and quiet; it’s a nice place to be in, obviously it’s not going to be as luxurious as a Range Rover, which costs twice as much. And comparing it to the LR2, it’s miles ahead.
There is lots of room for the second row passengers; the third-row seats are called +2 (5+2) and that’s exactly what they are. They won’t be used on a daily basis and are more for those emergency situations or for small children, because there isn’t much leg room back there.
One of the biggest complaints I’ve had about JLR vehicles has to do with the slowness of the touchscreen. However, JLR is finally updating this system on their vehicles and the Discovery Sport comes with the new system (which might still have a newer version), this new system is much more responsive and very easy to operate. I have been waiting for this for a long time, I’m still not a big fan of the look of the main menu but the individual pages are crisp and the graphics look fresh.
The 2016 Land Rover Discovery Sport has all the latest technology features we’ve come to expect from luxury vehicles, below is a list of what’s offered.
- Push-Button Start with Proximity Key
- Power Adjusted Heated Powerfold Mirrors
- Front and Rear Parking Aids with Rear View Camera
- Heated Leather Steering Wheel
- 10 Way Leather Driver and Passenger Seats with Heat and Memory
- Intelligent Stop/Start Technology
- Terrain Response
- Hill Descent Control
- Hill Start Assist
- Rain Sensing Windshield Wipers
- Powered Tailgate
- Illuminated Aluminum Tread Plates
- Navigation System
- Fixed Panoramic Roof With Powerblinds
- Xenon Headlights With LED Signature
- Customer Configurable Interior Mood Lighting
- 11-Speaker, 250W Land Rover Audio System
After spending a week reviewing the 2016 Land Rover Discovery Sport, I had a few minor complaints. The first one was the radio turning on by itself every time I started the car, I’m sure there is a setting to disable this feature but I couldn’t find it, it really annoyed me for some reason. The second was the jerky start/stop system, it appears this system works smoothly on some of the JLR vehicles, while others not so much. The third and final complaint is when you go into reverse and the back up camera shows the rear view, the working “Check Your Surrounding” on the screen really gets in the way of seeing what’s behind you, it goes away after a second or two, but it still annoyed me every time.
Other than those minor complaints, I think the 2016 Land Rover Discovery Sport is a pretty good package for those looking to enter the Land Rover brand. This mid-size SUV is very capable and has lots of room, if you ever decide to take it off road, it will leave other vehicles in its class stuck in the mud.
For more information on the latest addition to the Land Rover family, check out landrover.ca.
