In Iceland, a kid can be Neptúnus or Torbjörg or Geirþrúður, but you’ll never meet a Moon Unit or a Zuma Nesta Rock born in the island nation. New parents here must choose from a list of 3500 government-approved names or plead their case to the country's Personal Names Committee, a three-person panel tasked with preserving the country’s heritage and protecting its children from a lifetime of mockery.
As overbearing as that sounds, it’s too bad the committee doesn’t consult with automakers. The panel could have stopped Land Rover from abandoning years of history when, in 2005, it dropped the Discovery moniker and began adopting alphanumeric names for some of its models in the North American market. The Discovery became the LR3 (and eventually the LR4) and the compact Freelander was renamed LR2. But Land Rover is now righting its wrong on its own terms, as its newest crossover would almost certainly earn the approval of the Icelandic Naming Committee. The LR2 replacement—even as that model will be sold for at least one more year—is now called the Discovery Sport and is every bit worthy of the name. The entry-level Land Rover, now competent and handsome, no longer makes a mockery of the brand.
Toned, Tanned, and Ready to Sell
The Land Rover LR2 was an awkward and unloved thing. Fewer than 3700 American buyers took one home in 2014, accounting for just seven percent of Land Rover sales. Starting at $37,995, the new Discovery Sport undercuts the all-wheel-drive BMW X3 and the Audi Q5 each by more than $2000, but we’re guessing the Land Rover will win sales based on looks alone. There isn’t a bad angle or errant crease on the Discovery Sport. Its sheetmetal is pulled taut over an athletic frame, creating a design so free of clutter that there isn’t even a reference to the rear bumper lurking under the skin.
The Discovery Sport stretches 3.7 inches longer than the LR2 and offers a third row of seats. It’s also about 9 inches longer than its kissing cousin, the Range Rover Evoque. And the fact that the Disco Sport doesn’t have a roofline as overtly aggressive as the Evoque’s means that headroom and outward visibility are significantly better.
The cabin is finished in typical Land Rover kit with excellent materials and a mediocre infotainment system. That’s significant, because the Discovery Sport is the first vehicle to use Jaguar Land Rover’s brand-new and desperately needed replacement for the fussy and stubborn system we’ve complained about for years. The new InControl system uses an 8.0-inch touch screen that looks sharp, with more color and crisper graphics than the current offering. However, all it takes is a few taps to the screen to realize that the underlying software is still slow to react and occasionally unresponsive altogether.
Press, Pause, Surge, Jerk
Ahead of the B-pillar, the Discovery Sport shares many of its mechanical bits with the Evoque, including a 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder and a nine-speed automatic transmission. The 240-hp engine, designed and built by Ford, is slow to build boost off the line and isn’t as responsive as Audi and BMW’s turbo four-cylinders. Yet once the turbocharger has spooled up, the Discovery Sport lunges ahead with up to 251 lb-ft of torque. We estimate the Sport, handicapped in part by a roughly 4400-pound curb weight, won’t quite match the sub-seven-second zero-to-60-mph performances of its competition. Figure on the benchmark sprint taking 7.3 ticks or so.
The engine’s slight hesitations are exacerbated by a transmission that downshifts with uncomfortable, pregnant pauses between the accelerator input and the gear change. We’ve had the same complaint in other vehicles that use the same ZF-supplied transmission, including the Jeep Cherokee. Compared with the six-speed unit it replaces, the nine-speed gearbox feels like a step backward. Full-throttle shifts from eighth gear to fourth at highway velocities feel as if they can be measured in full seconds. And while shift quality is smoother than in the Cherokee, the upshift from first to second is still accompanied by the same unpleasant jerk.
Between the engine’s lag and the transmission’s hesitations, it can be a challenge to drive the Discovery Sport smoothly. During part-throttle acceleration—to climb a hill, make a pass, or simply accelerate for a rising speed limit—the Sport takes its time responding before suddenly delivering too much oomph. The result is an unseemly surge that will make your passengers think you’re treating the gas pedal like an on-off switch. Jaguar Land Rover’s all-new Ingenium turbocharged 2.0-liter engine, set to go into production in late 2016, can’t get here soon enough.
While the powertrain is the Discovery Sport’s biggest shortcoming, the chassis it’s bolted to is this crossover’s greatest asset. It starts with a rock-solid unibody structure that’s heavy on steel, although the hood, fenders, roof, and tailgate are aluminum stampings. As we scrambled over packed ice and rutted trails in Iceland, the Discovery Sport’s body never chattered or quivered. On paved roads, the cabin is seriously quiet, especially impressive considering that our test car rolled on studded winter tires.
Ride quality both on- and off-road is excellent, with none of the contrived “sporty” harshness that afflicts the Evoque. The suspension tuning is a masterful balance of compliant damping and firm body control. A new multilink rear suspension that is shorter and more compact than the Evoque’s strut arrangement creates the extra width between the wheels that allows for the optional third row of seats. Land Rover calls the Discovery Sport a 5+2-seater, which you should interpret as space for five adults plus a pair of two-year-olds. As an occasional-use seat, though, the best part about the third row is its expert packaging. With the last row folded, the Sport’s load floor is just as low as in the five-passenger version. (The seven-seater does, however, lack the five-seat model’s underfloor storage.)
A Family Affair
Under Tata ownership, Land Rover has mastered the redesigns of the Range Rover models. The Discovery Sport suggests that the Land Rover side of the family is about to undergo a similarly successful revitalization. The LR4 soon will be called Discovery once again and a new Defender is due in a couple years. (And, yes, for the first time in nearly 20 years, that ultimate off-road tool will be sold in the U.S.) When it comes to staying true to your heritage, maybe Iceland is onto something.
Land Rover has been on a quest to fill every nook and cranny in the premium-SUV segment. A far cry from the brand’s single-purpose early years, covering all bases is simply how business is done these days in the upper reaches of the luxury-SUV stratosphere. Currently, there are no fewer than 10 different ways for a buyer to get his or her premium Range Rover SUV on, starting with the short-wheelbase V-6 and peaking with the long-wheelbase SVAutobiography; the Range Rover Supercharged SWB tested here lands right in the middle. (To be clear, we’re talking strictly full-size Range Rover models—this thinly sliced group of 10 does not include the Range Rover Sport, Velar, or Evoque models.) HIGHS Distinctive inside and out, deceptively quick, genuine off-road capability. LOWS Interior space limited considering footprint, infotainment still a little laggy. Familiar Interior, Muscled Motor It was first introduced for the 2013 model year, and today’s fou...
Even after 40 years the muscle memory kicks in. The left leg pushing the springy clutch pedal to the floor through its circular arc; the left arm out almost at waist height to find first gear, then reaching down past the left knee for the e-brake; the awkward stomach crunch as you guide the stubby lever to the floor. The 2016 Land Rover Defender 90 Heritage is a kinder, gentler version of the battered 1960 ex-Australian-Army Series II in which I learned to drive. But it’s essentially the same car. The large diameter steering wheel sits atop a non-adjustable steering column set at exactly the same angle, and there’s the same lack of self-centering from the worm-and-roller steering; you have to consciously wind off lock as you exit tight turns. There are other 40-year-old ghosts in the machine: The bouncy cadence to the fore-aft pitch as it rides the bumps in the highway, the metallic slap from the driveshafts as you get on and off the gas. Land Rover Defender 90 Heritage Edition fr...
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