Road Test: Land Rover Discovery Sport sidelines the Range Rover

You could have been forgiven for thinking that Land Rover has pretty much stopped making cars bearing its own name and simply decided to become Range Rover. Such a move, while heretical to some, would have been in some ways sensible – the Range Rover name commands a higher price tag, offers more profit margin and is automotive catnip to key markets such as the United States, China and the Middle East.

Thankfully, though, someone in Solihull remembered that Land Rover is about something other than posh-spec Range Rovers and got on with creating a product plan that would recall the brand’s utilitarian roots a little more.

With the venerable Defender finally bowing out of European production and sales at the end of this year, Land Rover has decided, as it did with the Range Rover, to take a standalone model and build a whole family of new products around it. So, where once there was just the Discovery (big, bluff, seven seats, better than a more expensive Range Rover in some respects) now it has a smaller, more urbanite brother – the Discovery Sport.

While the Discovery Sport is, effectively, a replacement for the old Freelander, the mathematically-minded will have noticed there is a significant price gap between the cheapest Freelander and the cheapest Discovery Sport.

That gap is partially down to the fact that Land Rover, like so many brands, is moving upmarket, but it’s also a deliberate ploy to leave space in the range for something smaller and more affordable – Discovery Junior perhaps?

Slight conundrum

That’s for the future, but the Discovery Sport today presents a slight conundrum. It’s based on the same structure as the wildly successful Range Rover Evoque (although the wheelbase is 80mm longer) and uses the same engines, gearboxes, basically the same suspension and much of the cabin components as the one designed by Victoria Beckham.

But it’s cheaper, clocking in at €37,100 for a basic S-spec five-seater, undercutting the cheapest Evoque by about €4,000 yet offering a more spacious cabin and a bigger boot (up to 689 litres). Better still, even though it’s smaller than rivals such as the Audi Q5 and BMW X3, it dramatically outdoes them for interior space and is far cheaper to buy with standard four-wheel drive. If there is a fly in the value ointment though, it’s in the seating. Land Rover touts the Discovery Sport as a 5+2-seater, with a folding row of seats that fits into the boot, and into which can squeeze smaller kids or taller people for very short journeys. In the UK, all Discovery Sports come with these extra seats. In Ireland, they’re an optional extra and quite a pricey one – you’d have to shell out €1,775 to fit them to our SD4 SE-spec test car, which seems a lot.

Mind you, the choice is essentially between spending money on the extra seats or saving the cash and getting a full-size spare wheel instead. If you live at the far end of one of our worst-kept roads, that may be a good trade-off.

Extra seats or not, you’ll be getting a car that is unusually good to drive. All SUVs have become sharper at the wheel than they once were, but the Discovery Sport is set up to be almost aggressive. The electric power steering feels very quick just off-centre, and there’s lots of feel through the rim – it’s surprisingly sporty, and it doesn’t lean over much in corners for something this tall.

It is in fact quite rewarding to drive, as well as being refined and comfy on the motorway. The dynamic downside is a ride that struggles to deal with short-wave imperfections and washboard surfaces, jiggling and jostling as it does so. It also sticks surprisingly close to its claimed fuel economy. Land Rover claims 6.3 litres per 100km on average; we got mid-sevens.

Definite step up

There’s also a slight sense of disappointment about the interior – it has terrific seats, bags of space and the new InControl touchscreen infotainment system is delightful to use, but there’s a slight lack of proper “premium” feel. The cabin of a Q5 or X3 looks and feels like a very definite step up.

You’d have to step down from either of those and call a tow-truck if you tried to follow a Discovery Sport off road though. This is still a proper Land Rover and while there will be a front-wheel drive version (using the new Ingenium 2.0 litre diesel and emitting just 119g/km of CO2), this 190bhp SD4 has four-wheel drive, Terrain Response Control, Hill Decent Control and more to keep it moving when the ground underneath has turned to bog, rock or sand. It’s mightily effective, even if few owners will ever put it to full use. There are lots of other new electronic toys, all slightly startling to those of us raised on stone-age tech Defenders: active parking assist, active high-beam lights, rear traffic crossing warnings, a reversing camera and traffic sign recognition are all available. Bush mechanics need not apply; stick to your Series 3s, boys. What the Discovery Sport does very well, though, is it grows on you. When I collected it first, it felt a tiny bit underwhelming – lots of familiar Evoque bits, a slightly plain cabin, not having the seven-seat option – but over time it has really wormed its way into my affections.

It’s comfy, capable, practical, agile and even fun. It may actually be the best all-round product Land Rover has ever created, mixing and matching the rugged usability of the old school with the comfort and refinement of a Range Rover. Yes, it’s easy to spec it up to too-expensive levels, but the core vehicle is hugely impressive. You are probably best to wait for the new engine to get the best balance of performance and cost savings but ultimately the message is clear: move over, Range Rover.

Lowdown: Land Rover Discovery Sport SD4 SE
Price: €51,845 as tested (range starts at €37,100)
Power: 190bhp
Torque: 420Nm
0-100kmh: 8.9sec
Top speed: 188kmh
Claimed economy: 6.3l/100km. (44.8mpg)
CO2 emissions: 166g/km
Motor tax: €570