First Drive: Land Rover Discovery embraces the digital age

The sound and feel of an unprotected alloy wheel grinding into the ground is, sadly, an unmistakable one. The sensations through the chassis would have told us if the awful noise hadn’t: a shard of sharp flint, disguised by the mud of a damp, misty Scottish hillside, had done for the left front tyre of our Discovery and now the wheel itself was dragging on the ground.

Thankfully a nearby off-road instructor, clad against the elements in layers of waterproofs, bounded over to us and assessed the damage.

“Well, we can’t change it here, the ground’s too soft,” he cheerfully told us. “Just roll it down to the next stopping point and we’ll change it there. It’s only a couple of hundred metres away.”

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The new Land Rover Discovery: the cabin looks a little too plain unless you’re prepared to raid the options list

Gingerly pressing on, trying to shut our ears to the dreadful soundtrack, that few hundred metres, it soon turned out, was more like a full kilometre or more, all of it on twisting, winding mountain track, peppered with rocks and stones and marked out by melted-chocolate mud ruts.

In spite of being temporarily reduced from a 4x4 to a 3x3, the new Land Rover Discovery nonetheless plugged onwards. On terrain that would have had many four-wheel drive rivals stranded, the hobbled, lame Disco persevered.

Perhaps it should not be like this. The new Discovery, which Land Rover calls its “Digital” Discovery, is supposed to represent a leap forwards in sophistication and efficiency.

It is supposed to be more of an urbanite than the old one. It combines a lighter, mostly aluminium structure (it has shed a whopping 480kg compared to the old one) and more efficient engines (a 2.0-litre turbo diesel four-cylinder, with CO2 emissions as low as 159g/km, even with standard four-wheel drive) in an effort to convince families and eco-warriors that it’s more of a caring and sharing Land Rover.

It's a dilemma acknowledged by Land Rover's chief executive Ralf Speth. The former Linde Group and BMW engineer (who bears a striking resemblance to Limerick TD Willie O'Dea, minus the glasses) told The Irish Times: "It's always a choice: to offer this kind of extreme capability because it costs a lot of money, and it adds a lot of weight and we are always asking the question, 'Does the customer really need it?'

“But you know, while most of the time they don’t, the one time when they do need it, they really need it and they expect it of Land Rover.”

Telling points

Staring at the shredded rubber and dented alloy of our prototype Discovery V in a glen miles from anywhere, we were certainly thankful of the Disco’s in-built over-engineering.

Now, clearly Land Rover was never going to let journalists loose with its precious new car on a course that it did not know the car was capable of. We can’t tell you yet what the new Discovery is like to drive on the road, but there are some telling points here.

First, they certainly weren’t expecting us to be running on one rim halfway up a remote mountainside, and second this event, arranged for the highlands of Scotland in December, was supposed to have been a frost-and-snow affair. Instead, surprisingly mild weather had brought heavy rain and turned the glens to bogs, making the going trickier and more slippery.

Even so, the Discovery shrugged the conditions off in the insouciant manner to which we have become accustomed. We were able to sample the 3.0-litre supercharged V6 petrol model (which is hardly going to be a popular choice in Ireland, but it’s smooth and powerful if you’re interested) and the updated 3.0-litre TDV6 diesel which is carried over more or less unchanged from the old Disco.

Thanks to the lower weight, this engine sees its CO2 emissions fall from above 200g/km to 189g/km, but most of Land Rover Ireland’s expected 500 full-year sales will be the 2.0-litre diesel in 180hp or 240hp forms.

Refined car

Whichever engine you choose, you are getting a staggeringly refined car. Somehow, the faint grumble of the V6 diesel just sounds more “proper” from behind the wheel than the whispery refinement of the V6 petrol, but either way the Discovery’s cabin is impressively silent.

The adjustable air suspension felt surprisingly firm in places on the rutted tracks of the Blair Atholl Estate, but it will take a proper run on tarmac to come to a proper conclusion on that score.

The steering, accessed through a big Range Rover-esque wheel, feels great; it is slightly lighter on the petrol than the diesel model, and a touch slow across the locks, but precise, accurate and, so far as we could tell, with some useful feel through the rim.

The cabin is basically lifted from the Range Rover, and that’s both good and bad. It is good in that quality levels seem very high, the seats are staggeringly comfortable and there’s space in all three rows for full-sized adults, plus five Isofix points for child car seats.

The new tailgate is now a one-piece composite affair, not the charming old split-gate, but Land Rover has kept the boot seat in the form of a fold-out shelf, which can hold up to 300kg and is perfect for picnicking.

Clever touches

There’s no question that the Discovery is far more sophisticated than the previous model, which was initially designed to be avowedly utilitarian and which had luxury bolted on and stuffed in as time went by.

There is a huge 10-inch touchscreen in the centre of the dash, which looks great but is still occasionally fiddly to use. There are clever touches all over: the cupholders slide away to reveal a storage space big enough for iPads, while there’s a “secret” stowage compartment hidden behind the heating controls.

There’s also tech pressed into the service of off-roading and leisure pursuits. There’s a wade sensor to tell you when you’re getting near the car’s maximum 900mm water depth, which is actually limited by the fact that at that point, the rear-wheels start to float. There’s also an active trailer assist that works the steering for you when backing up with a towed load.

The only disappointment, so far, is the fact that as with the Range Rover, the cabin looks a little too plain unless you’re prepared to raid the options list.

Still, the drop in CO2 brings with it a significant drop in price. The new Discovery will kick off at around €58,000 leaving clear air once again between it and the ritzier Range Rover. If Land Rover can convince those doubtful of the brand’s reliability prospects – and they claim to be on top of that issue – then it could prove more popular than Land Rover expects.

Certainly when you’re half-way up Scotland, contemplating the damage of your collapsed tyre and considering which of your colleagues will make the tastier meal, there’s probably no car you’d rather have.

Initial lowdown: Land Rover Discovery 3.0 TDV6 HSE

Price: TBA as tested; starts from about €58,000

Power: 258hp

Torque: 600Nm

0-100km/h: 8.1 seconds

Top speed: 209km/h

Combined economy: 39.2mpg (7.2l/100km)

CO2 emissions: 189g/km

Motor tax: €750 per annum