#2017 range rover discovery review driver

#2017 range rover discovery review driver

At a time when a Freelander was so wallowy its driver could get his knee down with the bikers, the X5 completely changed our expectations of how an SUV could handle.Įighteen years and three generations later, the model that launched in 2013 is the oldest car here, its wrinkliness compounded by carrying over the second-generation platform. When it launched the X5 in 1999, BMW stamped its ultimate driving machine authority all over the SUV segment. If you want the most versatile, most comfortable seven-seat SUV going – and you’re prepared to keep progress stately rather than spirited – it looks like you might need a Discovery… You may never need it to, but the Discovery can wade through 900mm of water like it’s strolling through a paddling pool, or climb a rock face that’d have you cartwheeling to your death if you stepped from the door. The extra weight doesn’t help performance or efficiency, though: 8.1sec to 62mph is tardy, while every rival betters its 39.2mpg by at least 8mpg.īut the opposition are left lagging when it comes to off-road ability: optional two-speed transfer case, the drive modes that’ll adapt to anything, even a full-size spare. While vocal at higher revs, it never sounds rattled. With an on-the-pace 254bhp and equal-best-here 443lb ft, the V6 is smooth and wafts you up to speed effortlessly if less vigorously than either the BMW or Audi. I’m yet to drive one, but it’s hard to imagine it knocking the six for six. Shame the Disco’s steering is stodgy compared to a Range Sport’s, which twirls with a defter lightness.įour-cylinder turbodiesels are available, with the 237bhp/ 369lb ft Ingenium boosting the weight saving to 480kg versus an old TdV6. The other SUVs, by varying degrees, jar considerably more. Through town, the air suspension (coils come later for lesser specs) smothers road-surface ripples like a steam-iron hissing over a crumpled shirt bound over an unpaved road and that composure continues, the wheels being battered about like a boxer’s speed bag while the body and occupants within glide serenely along.

It explains why the Discovery appears to have an escape pod from the International Space Station grafted to its hindquarters.

Then two more full-sizers can climb into the rear seats without feeling squashed, thanks partly to the trademark stepped roof. You fold those seats flat either with one-touch switches in the tailgate or just inside the rear door jambs, or via either the infotainment system (much improved these days, if sometimes laggier than the others) or smartphone app. Behind you, the Discovery’s largely flat floor provides so much room for second-row occupants they can almost wander about.