Quick Review: 2017 Land Rover Discovery

[JST]

I got a new Land Rover Discovery Sport* as a service loaner this week, and thought I'd give some impressions.



This is the new, transverse-engined, 3 row SUV that shares the same platform (and powertrain) as the Evoque. As in almost everything these days, the engine is a 2 liter turbo hooked up to a gearbox with a metric shit-ton of gears (I think 9?).



The one I had was entry-level, meaning cloth seats, no sunroof, and a pretty basic presentation. Still, the cloth was nice and the interior materials were high enough quality that they registered a very small "not bad" face.



Underway, the 2 liter makes decent power once the boost comes on, and the 9 speed transmission does a...reasonable job of keeping it in the powerband. The transmission tuning on this, in terms of holding gears on deceleration and being in the right gear at the right time, was world's better than the last BMW I drove, though that was a long time ago.



The Achilles heel is that the engine is really overwhelmed when it's not on boost, and there are plenty of moments in stop and go driving (especially right on throttle tip-in) where you feel that lag. Also, the engine grumbles more than purrs, so much so that I wonder whether LR intentionally tuned it this way to sound a little more like a truck. Getting back into the Tesla was revelatory in terms of smoothness.



Handling is decent. It doesn't drive smaller than it is, but its not a large vehicle by SUV standards, so it's nimble enough. Body roll is present, of course, but not out of control.



The third row seats are basically usable only for 6 year olds, though with them folded there's decent cargo capacity.



Overall, it's a nice enough vehicle. If I had to buy a three row vehicle, I'd try and get something like this--it's not as obnoxious and annoying as many of the other, bigger options out there (cough, Explorer, cough). But I am glad I don't have to do that.

*Thanks Equ for catching this is a Discovery Sport, not a Discovery. This is a dumb naming convention and LR should be ashamed of themselves.