Nick Hall Freelance motoring journalist in the UK
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Disco Inferno
Long before 4x4s became the fashionable accoutrement to modern living and a favourite on the paradoxically cramped London scene, Land Rover produced rugged machines for farmers, hermits and real rugged types. In those days even doors were an optional extra and the interior was a hose clean affair. Times have clearly changed.
Now the off-roaer is as much about form and style as function and Land Rover recognised this trend early on, producing the volume-selling Freelancer to cater for the truly urban market. The Discovery is still built with off-roading in mind, but its rugged appeal, heritage and Polo club image will ensure they run to school as often as they run up the side of the mountain.
In either case, the Disco will get the job done. This car can seat seven in absolute comfort, plus luggage, and if you don’t need the seats they stow neatly away to form a flat floor. This is not a storage area, it’s a box room. A grand piano might not be the normal daily load, but it would probably fit.
Up front the sheer sense of occasion, of a big car with lots of space, makes itself know. The leather-clad seats are as comfy as your favourite armchair and the driving position is high, which affords good all-round visibility. Anybody that thinks they won’t know where the corners of such a big car lie will be pleasantly surprised by the Land Rover, which is far more manoeuvrable than any vehicle just shy of five metres has a right to be.
At 2190mm, including the big mirrors, the Discovery is only a little wider than a BMW 3 Series and less than 50cm longer than a 5 Series Touring to be fair and, on the open road, it’s easy to forget about the bulky 2700kg frame following behind.
The Discovery is certainly not a car to send flying round bends, but kept at a sensible speed the Land Rover’s body doesn’t pitch violently. On the straight and narrow that bulk is an advantage, too, as cross winds and minor bumps simply don’t affect it.
There’s a disconcerting bouncing feeling after a serious rut as the long-travel suspension takes time to settle down, but this is all part of the 4x4 sensation and it’s hard not to love that imperious feeling of looking down on others while surging past.
Front and rear fully independent suspension and air springs give the Discovery 3 a smooth, comfortable and precise handling in normal conditions. Yet, when the driver tells it that there’s some rough stuff coming, the car cross-links the air springs for increased ground clearance, wheel articulation and traction. It’s all clever stuff, but the best thing about it is we don’t need to have the first clue about off-road driving.
Peddling an old-school Land Rover uphill and down dale is a seriously skilled business and a sport in its own right, but the Discovery 3 has dumbed down the technology so we all get it. On the central console is Land Rover’s latest leap forward: Terrain Response.
It’s a simple dial with three basic settings: sand, rocks and mud and ruts, the car will do the rest. It’s lift, lowers, firms and softens the suspension to ensure its absolutely right. You can even lower the whole car to get it into roof-scraping car parks and under other obstacles, and there are two separate on-road settings to cope with slippery conditions.
The big yellow switch is the hill descent, which will theoretically let you slide down the side of a mountain with feet and hands in the air while the Deep Blue-style computers do the hard work. How that would work in practice as the long nose went over the edge like a rollercoaster is anyone’s guess, but on Wooburn Green’s small off-road demonstration course the Discovery felt like it would hang on to a cliff-edge with its fingertips if that was required.
Obviously, this being a luxury lifestyle choice, as well as a farmer’s favourite, it’s also loaded with voice-operated Sat Nav that can locate the nice little Italian restaurant down the road, or across the field. It will even take voice notes, but that is a feature forever tainted by Alan Partridge recording ideas for a new show behind the wheel of his Rover.
On the road the 2.7-litre TDV6 HSE model I tested certainly didn’t feel quick and took 11 seconds to hit the 60mph mark. But then the character of the car doesn’t really suit urgent progress. For those that want a big power engine there’s a near 300bhp 4.4-litre V8 that lops three seconds off the 0-60mph time and that is as quick as I would personally want this much metal to go.
The V6 diesel makes do with 188bhp, but the diesel powerplant does pump out 325lb ft of torque and that isn’t far shy of a Lamborghini Murcielago. That means the lesser-powered Discovery should still never struggle to haul itself over boulders or through a quagmire, but it does take time getting up to speed and won’t go beyond 112mph.
Styling is typical butch, rugged Land Rover fare. Some might not like the all-round plastic bumpers that are pronounced and chunky, but there’s an obvious reason for them and if you constantly scraped metal panels on boulders then you’d fully appreciate that. Plastic is a cheaper repair and that will come in handy during your tenure. Car-park dings, at the very least, should become a thing of the past.
The front three-quarter view is one of the most imposing in the automotive world and the slabby sides and proud upright nose present a cohesive image tarnished only by the back end. It’s almost as if, deciding the car wasn’t quite big enough, Land Rover has welded a box on the back of a smaller vehicle halfway through the build process.
Still, the space it afford makes it worth including for many Land Rover owners and they’ll appreciate touches like the contoured tailgate, adaptive headlights that turn with the wheel to illuminate your path in a pitch black field and the sheer comfort, allied to the manufacturer’s legendary off-road ability and long-term reliability. With prices starting from £26,995, too, it’s an awful lot of car for 3 Series money, even if your idea of off-roading is riding the potholes in the pub car park.
Discovery 3 is already a hit as there are still farmers for whom nothing else will do. Land Rover’s big game hunter is so civilised, though, that it is set to become an integral part of the urban landscape. The days of the hose down interior are well and truly over.