Discovery Sport P300e and alternatives

[SunSpot83]

Hi All,

Looking at a new family car - have had various SUV's in the past ranging from a 2016 Hyundai Tucson (SWMBO's choice) to a GLC63s (my choice) but settled on a Hyundai i30n last year as a run around as I got a decent deal and needed to reduce costs during Covid.

Although I love the car, the hard ride has started to take a toll and a previous bad back that had been dormant for the last few years has again flared up and my agony is pushing me back into a comfortable car. The wife is also lamenting ,y choice of a smaller car as she prefers a mid size SUV for 'reasons' and thus I am now tasked with finding an alternative.

I have been looking at both PHEVs and EVs but the requirement for the relatively frequent long journey (her parents are 80 miles away and don't have a driveway where we can charge, leaving us with needing a lot of range for that round trip all year round and winter range drops make her nervous), along with frequent short journeys (I do freelance work that requires daily 20 mile round trips) means for the medium term, we are inching towards a PHEV.

It will most likely be leased as I prefer that to other modes of purchase, although I may or may not put it through my business as for hybrids a lot of the tax incentives are saved for those using company car allowances, and for business owners most of the benefit gets evened out by the BIK rates (most of the time anyway - either way, it won't necessarily impact the decision of the choice of car).

Cars considered so far:

Disco Sport P300e - front runner, change my mind?
X5 45e - seems perhaps a bit too big really, and really quite costly
RRS P400e - would love one of these, but again,m quite big and quite costly - and next to the X5 seem a bit poor in PHEV terms
F-Pace - potentially a good buy but seem expensive next to the facelifted DS
XC40 T5 Recharge - like these, but have heard not great things about interior wear and poor drivetrain

I have also looked at the XC90 but they are again too large, and I do not like Audis.

I would love to hear from the forum if anyone has any first hand experience with any of these cars and how they have gotten on with them, whether they have proved reliable, and mostly if they are worth the extra cost over a convential drivetrain (for us that would sadly most likely mean a diseasal which I am loath to get, but the wife is indifferent).

TIA,

SunSpot83

[ZX10R NIN]

If you're doing mainly motorway work then a conventional drivetrain makes more sense.

For me it would be either an SQ5, test drive one the drivetrain is a peach.

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/new...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202102159...

Or go for a MHEV with a diesel engine as it sounds like the right mix for your type of journeys & with that being said I'd go for one with a 3.0d engine.


F Pace Diesel MHEV 300

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/new...

XC60 Inscription Pro 2.0d MHEV

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202104211...

R Design Pro

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202106033...

1.6d MHEV Sportage

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202106043...

3.0d MHEV X3 M Sport Pro

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/new...

[J1990]

SunSpot83 said:

Hi All,

Cars considered so far:

Disco Sport P300e - front runner, change my mind?
X5 45e - seems perhaps a bit too big really, and really quite costly
RRS P400e - would love one of these, but again,m quite big and quite costly - and next to the X5 seem a bit poor in PHEV terms
F-Pace - potentially a good buy but seem expensive next to the facelifted DS
XC40 T5 Recharge - like these, but have heard not great things about interior wear and poor drivetrain

Disco - Subjective of course but I just can't like this car, it's got an ok amount of space inside but it just feels very budget, considering the pricetag on the car. They're also very, very common and I just found it dull to drive.

X5 45e - This was by far my favourite car of choice, fantastic electric range and the engine still does an ok job on fuel economy on long journeys. A few electric faults from BrettMRC's owners thread on here but I think he just had a bit of a lemon as other PH owners seem to praise the car. Unfortunately the 9month wait list on it ruled it out for us.

RRS P400e - Tax dodge for the company car holders, I do love a RR though.

F Pace - The Mrs' heart was set on one, we went and test drove the facelifted version and despite being a lovely thing to look at and the pivipro being a massive step forward for JLR infotaintment, it just felt cramped in the front. We're not particularly tall and we just couldn't get the 'right' position for it to be a nice car to be in.

XC40 - Far too much money for how much car you're getting IMO. We had a look at one when we test drove the XC90 T8 and it was everything I hated about small SUVs

What did we end up with? We couldn't find a car that we'd happily sign up for 4 years on, nor did we want to wait for any of the electric cars currently on pre-order. We took our Ioniq in for a service and the dealer gave us a Tucson 230PS Hybrid as our courtesy car, it's a huge step up from the old model and we ended up getting an Ultimate spec car for a good deal over two years. The plan is to then grab something longer term once the backorders have cleared and the current wave of new electric cars are readily available.