Discovery’s big squeeze

IIT isn’t often Land Rover gets it wrong. Since 1948 there have been very few failures. Even models with widely-reported problems, like the P38 Range Rover (reliability) and Discovery 3 (electrics), still sold well. But the latest incarnation of the Discovery has proved the exception. The model that saved Land Rover from going under in 1989 is now the family flop.

The original Discovery was created in the 1980s to plug the gap between the Range Rover, which was heading ever further upmarket, and the workhorse One Ten/ Ninety models. Land Rover at that time was so strapped for cash that it raided the BL parts bins, but the new model with Morris Marina door handles and Austin Maestro light clusters was a massive success because it was exactly what the public wanted.

It soon became Europe’s best-selling 4x4 and stayed at the top until 1997 when it was toppled from its perch by another newcomer success story: the Freelander. That was the way it used to be with Land Rovers: they did what they did better than their rivals and deserved the sales success they enjoyed.

The original Discovery was a subtle blend of engineering excellence (Tdi engines) and uncluttered design (Terence Conran). It was followed by the Discovery 2 in 1998 and the Disco 3 in 2005, both of which sold well and the latter model got an extra boost in sales a few years later when it was facelifted and called the Discovery 4. By then, Discovery’s share of the marked had fallen, because so many other manufacturers had jumped on the bandwagon and also launched familyorientated 4x4s, but all Discos were best-sellers… until 2017. That’s when the fifth-gen model arrived.

Jaguar Land Rover in their wisdom decided they didn’t want to call the new model Discovery 5. Apparently they didn’t want to associate it with its predecessors. They needn’t have worried, because there was no way anybody could have mistaken the new Discovery with what went before. Its illustrious ancestors stood big and proud, with acres of glass. New Discovery looked as though someone in the design department had accidentally trodden on the clay model and nobody noticed it had got squashed.

Enthusiasts like me moaned, like we often do when we’re confronted by the shock of the new. Yes, I admit it, our pessimism is often proved wrong by the buying public. The best-selling Range Rover Evoque was a case in point: there were lots of people with cash to spare who didn’t mind its association with a former Spice Girl. But the new Discovery was unpopular all round.

In its first full year on sale (2018), Discovery sales slumped by nearly 25 per cent in the UK. It was worse in Europe. In 2005 (the first full year of Discovery 3 sales) Europeans bought 23,125 units. In 2018, they bought just 13,120 Disco 5s, and even less (9766) in 2019.

In North America (USA + Canada), which remains JLR’S most important market, they sold just 10,734 Discoverys in 2018. A year later, that had fallen to 9877.

At the time of writing, figures were not available for Covid-hit 2020, but obviously sales of all JLR models slumped. In the three months to the end of September, Jaguar Land Rover sold a total of 113,569 of all models globally, which was almost 12 per cent down on the same period the previous year. At least it was a great improvement on the meagre 74,067 sold between April and June at the height of the pandemic, but one thing is certain: Discovery was the worst performer.

Land Rover has attempted to boost sales by facelifting the Discovery with changes that are mainly cosmetic, but include mild hybrid versions of their Ingenium diesel and petrol engines. That’s not going to impress much when so many other manufacturers are already offering full EV versions of their 4x4s.

Put bluntly, the facelifted Disco’s new matrix LED headlights and tail lights, redesigned air intakes, new alloy wheels and a larger (and brighter) screen for the infotainment system aren’t going to get punters queuing up at JLR dealerships, in my humble opinion.

The Disco’s most controversial design issue – the unpopular offset rear number plate – remains the same. Insider gossip has it that it was stuck off-centre because the stubborn design department wanted it there. Presumably they refused to move it for the facelift, too.

So why has Disco 5 been such a flop? First, by the launch of the new Defender, which looks better than the fifth-generation Discovery, is more capable and better at towing. Discovery now has to squeeze into the very narrow gap between new Defender and the expansive Range Rover family.

Second, it looks squeezed, too. Discovery is the ugly duckling of the family. Fatally, it doesn’t even look like a Land Rover. It’s bland and looks just like the countless other medium-sized 4x4s from a multitude of manufacturers.

Let’s hope JLR learn an important lesson and replace the current model with an all-new Discovery worthy of the name.

“Its illustrious ancestors stood big and proud, with acres of glass. New Disco looked as though someone in the design department had accidentally trodden on the clay model”