Voyage of discovery

Land Rover’s Discovery Sport, a more spacious and stylish replacement for the Freelander, now gets the brand’s latest 2.0 TD4 Ingenium diesel engines. Jonathan Crouch reports.

Land Rover reckons that this Discovery Sport is the most versatile premium compact SUV currently on sale - and it’s a credible claim. This is, after all, the only prestigiously-badged car in this segment that can seat seven. It’s also smart, practical, safe - and rugged enough to go a lot further than its rivals off the beaten track. Plus a state-of-the-art range of ‘Ingenium’ 2.0 TD4 diesel engines offer class-leading power and efficiency. It all means that there’s nothing else quite like this car. The engines are Land Rover’s advanced 2.0-litre four cylinder Ingenium TD4 units, shared with the Range Rover Evoque and designed to deliver improved efficiency, along with class-leading torque and power. The most affordable TD4 unit in the range comes with 150PS but there’s also a 180PS version. Either way, you get permanent 4WD and with the 180PS model, the option of 9-speed auto transmission. As for the aesthetics, well even if you’d never seen a picture of the Discovery Sport, you could probably generate a reasonably accurate mental sketch of it were you to imagine crossing a Range Rover with a five-door Evoque. As for practicalities, well Land Rover describes the seating arrangement as ‘5+2’ rather than a full seven-seater: that’s because the rearmost seats are designed largely for kids and occasional use. And overall? Well once again, Land Rover has looked at a market that many thought was packed to bursting point and spotted a significant gap, into which it’s parked the Discovery Sport. What other car of this kind can seat seven, set off in the Serengeti and slot right in as easily in Sloane Square as it will in the tightest multi-storey carpark space? No other premium compact SUV can do all this.