It’s called a Discovery — evoking images of Land Rover’s most bruising off-roader that we know here in North America as LR4 — but it’s really a replacement for the current LR2 that we used to know as the Freelander. Confused? Me too. Well, a little.
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But there’s absolutely nothing confusing about the new Discovery Sport’s main attributes, which, depending on who you are listening to, are either its good looks (my opinion) or its new-found seating for seven (Land Rover’s hopes).
2015 Land Rover Discovery Sport.
David Booth, Driving
To be fair, even Land Rover isn’t saying the Sport is a true seven-passenger claiming rather that it offers 5 + 2 seating in much the same way that, say, a Porsche 911 claims to have 2 + 2 seating. Nonetheless, adults of the limber variety can squeeze into the “jump” seats, a fact that Land Rover is particularly proud of considering that the new Discovery is but 243 millimetres longer than the outgoing LR2 and, more importantly to the company’s marketing mavens, 40 mm shorter than Audi’s Q5 and 65 mm more compact than an X3.
Essential to the Sport’s efficient packaging is that the Discovery’s rear suspension has been completely redesigned. The LR2’s MacPherson strut suspension — effective in its damping abilities but bulky enough to intrude into the cabin area — has been dumped in favour of a low-profile multi-link design that not only allows that third row of seats but more cargo space than either the aforementioned BMW or Audi. Indeed, space efficiency was so crucial to the success of the 5 + 2 version that it features a unique spare tire fitment and a completely different exhaust system in its quest for a lower cabin floor.
The 2015 Land Rover Discovery Sport’s Wade Sensing feature.
Handout, Land Rover
Like the recently-announced Jaguar XE, the Discovery will eventually come with a full complement of Jaguar Land Rover’s new Ingenium engines, all based on a 500 cc-per-cylinder modular arrangement. When it’s first released however, the 2015 version of the Disco Sport will be powered by Land Rover’s current Ford EcoBoost based turbocharged 240 horsepower 2.0-litre four mated to the current nine-speed transmission. The promise of Ingenium is bright, however, with the one diesel engine — the 2.0 litre eD4 inline four — for which specifications are available promising an incredible 4.5 L/100 km combined fuel economy in the European NDEC cycle.
Again like the XE, the Discovery showcases the company’s new InControl telematics. Though, this being a Land Rover, the Sport offers a few additional applications including point-to-point navigation for off-road adventuring and a 360-degree view of the immediate surrounding supplied by the new Discovery’s multiple exterior cameras. There is a also a system that promises to not only parallel park the Sport but also extricate you from especially tight parallel parking situations. And, for those people who really shouldn’t be driving at all, the Discovery Sport will even offer to park itself in perpendicular parking spots. Unfortunately, methinks these driver-as-idiot “apps” are what the future of autonomous driving looks like.
2015 Land Rover Discovery Sport.
Handout, Land Rover
Thanks to such things as advanced rebound stops, MagneRide suspension, acoustically-damped windscreen and the reduced powertrain noise of those Ingenium engines, Land Rover claims the Discovery Sport has the quietest cabin in its segment, with 2dbA less intrusion than even Audi’s already silent Q5. And naturally the Discovery Sport will also challenge all its rivals off-road, equipped with the company’s trademark Terrain Response controller, all-wheel-drive and approach/departure angles, not to mention wading depth superior to BMW, Audi and the Mercedes-Benz GLK.
Everything we’d expect from a Land Rover, then, only with a few more clever bits inside.
