Discovery Sport
Discussion
Our new, to us, Discovery Sport, I’m hoping that this will be a very short thread but considering it’s a Land Rover we’ll see.
Just to set the scene, we’re serial Land Rover owners mainly because my wife used to have horses. We started with a Discovery 1 300TDi, then D2, D2 (facelift), Freelander 1 Td4, another D2 (facelift) and most recently a Freelander II. The last D2 was a very near the end of the line model in Monte Carlo blue which we kept for 19 years until the engine seized. The Freelander II we only had for 3 years, it cost us a lot of money and we were losing faith in it. It was a good car but we never really gelled with it.
So why a Discovery Sport, it’s the natural Freelander successor about the same size and fits our needs. Having seem all the horror stories about diesel engines etc we weren’t going there. So we’ve bought a hybrid model, 2022 P300e R-Dynamic SE. It fits our use case, we’ve got solar panels and a battery at home. As a hybrid we won’t need a fast charger and will charge overnight or when it’s sunny. My wife takes the dogs for a walk each day which she can do on electric and a few longer trips a week to exercise the petrol engine. Long distance trips, holidays etc, we won’t have range anxiety or worry about finding a charger in deepest Exmoor.
We bought it from Dick Lovett Melksham and the service was brilliant, we actually bought it from the same salesman who had sold us most of the previous Land Rovers when he was at T.H Whites.
First impressions, in Portofino Blue and privacy glass it looks superb without the junior drug dealer vibe. The list of features/extras is very long, but it’s the powered tailgate that always makes me smile. Leather, heated memory electric seats, CarPlay etc etc help as well. The Meridian stereo is certainly the best audio have had in a car, playing from a USB is convenient and at some point I’ll get a big, storage size, USB stick and transfer lossless files.
I haven’t driven an automatic for 25 years and never an electric car so the driving experience is very different but impressive. Using adaptive cruise control and automatic brake hold takes so much stress away. Power delivery is interesting, running electric if you give it a shove it waits until the petrol engine cuts in then goes, a bit like old fashioned turbo lag. It does have some power though, I’ve probably had a mundane car history so 300bhp is plenty even in a SUV. It’s not a car that I’ll be throwing about, I’ve got a NA MX5 for that, and my wife certainly won’t be, it’s a great relaxing cruiser.
Sorry this has gone on a lot, this is what it looks like.
Just to set the scene, we’re serial Land Rover owners mainly because my wife used to have horses. We started with a Discovery 1 300TDi, then D2, D2 (facelift), Freelander 1 Td4, another D2 (facelift) and most recently a Freelander II. The last D2 was a very near the end of the line model in Monte Carlo blue which we kept for 19 years until the engine seized. The Freelander II we only had for 3 years, it cost us a lot of money and we were losing faith in it. It was a good car but we never really gelled with it.
So why a Discovery Sport, it’s the natural Freelander successor about the same size and fits our needs. Having seem all the horror stories about diesel engines etc we weren’t going there. So we’ve bought a hybrid model, 2022 P300e R-Dynamic SE. It fits our use case, we’ve got solar panels and a battery at home. As a hybrid we won’t need a fast charger and will charge overnight or when it’s sunny. My wife takes the dogs for a walk each day which she can do on electric and a few longer trips a week to exercise the petrol engine. Long distance trips, holidays etc, we won’t have range anxiety or worry about finding a charger in deepest Exmoor.
We bought it from Dick Lovett Melksham and the service was brilliant, we actually bought it from the same salesman who had sold us most of the previous Land Rovers when he was at T.H Whites.
First impressions, in Portofino Blue and privacy glass it looks superb without the junior drug dealer vibe. The list of features/extras is very long, but it’s the powered tailgate that always makes me smile. Leather, heated memory electric seats, CarPlay etc etc help as well. The Meridian stereo is certainly the best audio have had in a car, playing from a USB is convenient and at some point I’ll get a big, storage size, USB stick and transfer lossless files.
I haven’t driven an automatic for 25 years and never an electric car so the driving experience is very different but impressive. Using adaptive cruise control and automatic brake hold takes so much stress away. Power delivery is interesting, running electric if you give it a shove it waits until the petrol engine cuts in then goes, a bit like old fashioned turbo lag. It does have some power though, I’ve probably had a mundane car history so 300bhp is plenty even in a SUV. It’s not a car that I’ll be throwing about, I’ve got a NA MX5 for that, and my wife certainly won’t be, it’s a great relaxing cruiser.
Sorry this has gone on a lot, this is what it looks like.
Decky_Q said:
Very good looking compared to the freelander 2 and with your solar set up the petrol hybrid seems an excellent match. What sort of tow bar did you go for?
No tow bar on this one, no need. Considering roof rails or bars, but potentially expensicve with the panoramic roof (which I really like)The engine is a bit small for towing in reality, and works it too hard, so hopefully the horses are now gone and you aren't towing with it?
My father has a 3 year old Evoque with the same hybrid/petrol engine setup. I hate to say it, but reliability hasn't been good. It has just had a new engine fitted under warranty. We never got to the bottom of what actually failed, but it went into the dealer running rough and they ended up keeping it 6 weeks. Full service history and low mileage.
They are complex bits of kit, so keep extending the warranty as long as possible!
My father has a 3 year old Evoque with the same hybrid/petrol engine setup. I hate to say it, but reliability hasn't been good. It has just had a new engine fitted under warranty. We never got to the bottom of what actually failed, but it went into the dealer running rough and they ended up keeping it 6 weeks. Full service history and low mileage.
They are complex bits of kit, so keep extending the warranty as long as possible!
Horses long gone, hopefully never to return.
It's Land Rover approved so has 12 months warranty but will definitely look into extended. Or put something aside every month, will do that anyway for tyres.
Tax was a bit of a shock as well i thought it would be cheap because hybrid, nope £672 (will go down when it's 5 years old). I would be interesting top know hiow much it was new, must have been >£40K so depreciation is pretty savage.
Hopefully they've sorted the worst of the issues now! We had one of the aforementioned ingenium diesels from new (2017 car), and got rid the day before the manufacturer warranty ran out...
Apart from the obvious bits, keep an eye on rear pad/disc wear. Rear discs were shagged long before the front pads were a concern.
Price when new: £51K + options, of which there were plenty!
https://www.landrover.co.uk/content/dam/lrdx/pdfs/...
Apart from the obvious bits, keep an eye on rear pad/disc wear. Rear discs were shagged long before the front pads were a concern.
Price when new: £51K + options, of which there were plenty!
https://www.landrover.co.uk/content/dam/lrdx/pdfs/...
silentbrown said:
Price when new: £51K + options, of which there were plenty!
https://www.landrover.co.uk/content/dam/lrdx/pdfs/...
Thanks for this, it must have been >£55K new with the options on it.https://www.landrover.co.uk/content/dam/lrdx/pdfs/...
I had Thule roof bars with the rubber pads for my pano roof. They have clamps that hold the door jamb. When I took it off after a summers use there were visible fine scratches in the paint under the clamps which peed me off somewhat on a 2 year old car.
Does the disco have any bolt points for a standard rack or is it all glass?
Does the disco have any bolt points for a standard rack or is it all glass?
Congrats on the purchase. This would be a natural successor to our 2016 Disco Sport which we've had for 3 1/2 years now, so will follow with interest. Ours has been a solid family workhorse, and it has also been great in floods and off the beaten track, and in deep snow, with Michelin CC2 tyres, so a very capable machine for a non-full fat LR/RR 4x4. Good luck with yours 
No it hasn’t broken down (yet).
Some initial impressions, from the perspective that ‘my’ car is a petrol 1 series so quite a big difference although I was a frequent driver of the Freelander and the older Discovery’s.
I’m getting more used to it, it still feels a bit big and cumberso which is a bit strange as it’s basically the same size as the Freelander. Adjusting the seat, much lower, has helped and thank god for memory seats. Driving an automatic hasn’t taken a lot of adjustment, the lack of creep and the combination of electric power makes low speed maneuvers interesting and for some reason I left foot brake when starting off. I haven't tried to parallel park it yet.
It’s a lovely car to drive though quiet and smooth, the petrol engine does sound a bit raucous when it cuts in but that’s in comparison with the near silent electric motor. I love the subdued whine (like a tube train) when setting off in electric. Power delivery has a delayed effect as the petrol engine cuts in but it does feel quite fast especially for a heavy SUV. Still find it strange to be on the monitor way at 70ish and seeing the rev counter at zero.
The audio, Meridian, is outstanding. I’m currently playing mp3 files from a USB stick. Going to try an old iPod Nano that I’ve got. I use an iPod classic in the 1 series which basically has all my CDs on, in mp3 format.
My wife is paranoid (not the Black Sabbath song) about it being stolen so we have faraday pouches and a steering wheel lock. The dog has been consigned to a cage in the probably futile attempt to keep the boot area clean.
High security
Doing what it was bought for dog and toddler transport.
My only quibble at the moment is I can’t get the Adaptive Cruise Control to work, I did have it working once and it was great combined with the Hold function, but can’t replicate it. Tried the online handbook and youTube/google. Oh and transferring our private plates on and finding the remains of about 3 different sets of old sticky pads.
There is an interesting Harry’s Garage video I saw this week where he reviews a Range Rover Sport Hybrid, he things Hybrid is the way forward. Interestingly he says over a year it spent 60% of the time running on electric. So a high mileage Hybrid would only have a low/medium milage engine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTPvw7i7EPA
Overall very happy, and more importantly so is my wife.
Some initial impressions, from the perspective that ‘my’ car is a petrol 1 series so quite a big difference although I was a frequent driver of the Freelander and the older Discovery’s.
I’m getting more used to it, it still feels a bit big and cumberso which is a bit strange as it’s basically the same size as the Freelander. Adjusting the seat, much lower, has helped and thank god for memory seats. Driving an automatic hasn’t taken a lot of adjustment, the lack of creep and the combination of electric power makes low speed maneuvers interesting and for some reason I left foot brake when starting off. I haven't tried to parallel park it yet.
It’s a lovely car to drive though quiet and smooth, the petrol engine does sound a bit raucous when it cuts in but that’s in comparison with the near silent electric motor. I love the subdued whine (like a tube train) when setting off in electric. Power delivery has a delayed effect as the petrol engine cuts in but it does feel quite fast especially for a heavy SUV. Still find it strange to be on the monitor way at 70ish and seeing the rev counter at zero.
The audio, Meridian, is outstanding. I’m currently playing mp3 files from a USB stick. Going to try an old iPod Nano that I’ve got. I use an iPod classic in the 1 series which basically has all my CDs on, in mp3 format.
My wife is paranoid (not the Black Sabbath song) about it being stolen so we have faraday pouches and a steering wheel lock. The dog has been consigned to a cage in the probably futile attempt to keep the boot area clean.
High security
Doing what it was bought for dog and toddler transport.
My only quibble at the moment is I can’t get the Adaptive Cruise Control to work, I did have it working once and it was great combined with the Hold function, but can’t replicate it. Tried the online handbook and youTube/google. Oh and transferring our private plates on and finding the remains of about 3 different sets of old sticky pads.
There is an interesting Harry’s Garage video I saw this week where he reviews a Range Rover Sport Hybrid, he things Hybrid is the way forward. Interestingly he says over a year it spent 60% of the time running on electric. So a high mileage Hybrid would only have a low/medium milage engine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTPvw7i7EPA
Overall very happy, and more importantly so is my wife.
I have a 21 RRS P400e with adaptive cruise, not sure if your steering wheel is the same but on the right side is Set + at the top, - at the bottom, long up/down arrow on the left, short up/down arrow on the right. Pushing and holding the right, short up and down arrow, disables adaptive cruise
I've got the P200 version of your car (complete with the awesome Meridian sound system), I got a fairly low cost boot liner from UK custom covers that has survived loose muddy dogs in the boot for the past 6 years. The few times I've had to take it out the carpet is fine underneath apart from where the velcro attaches where it has gone a bit loose.
https://ukcustomcovers.com/products/fits-land-rove...
If that doesn't take you to the Sport cover it's under Discovery then the Sport is a model in the drop down.
edit - not best picture but here's how much it covers
https://ukcustomcovers.com/products/fits-land-rove...
If that doesn't take you to the Sport cover it's under Discovery then the Sport is a model in the drop down.
edit - not best picture but here's how much it covers
Edited by MesoForm on Wednesday 6th May 19:49
Thanks both.
I re-read the online manual and I think I've worked out how to use the ACC.
We had a similar boot cover in the Freelander which did a good job, the tailgate still got very mucky though. We'll stick with a cage, the dog will just have to get used to it, and maybe add a boot liner as well. I've got a dog guard to add as well, where did yours come from? ours fits to the headrests which isn't ideal.
I re-read the online manual and I think I've worked out how to use the ACC.
We had a similar boot cover in the Freelander which did a good job, the tailgate still got very mucky though. We'll stick with a cage, the dog will just have to get used to it, and maybe add a boot liner as well. I've got a dog guard to add as well, where did yours come from? ours fits to the headrests which isn't ideal.
Edited by jumare on Wednesday 6th May 21:23
Not sure where it came from but it’s this one from Travall
https://travall.co.uk/products/land-rover-discover...
I’m sure it’s cheaper elsewhere.
Solid hooks sit in where the boot cover would go, long hooks fix to the luggage hooks, stubby things rest against the “c pillar “
https://travall.co.uk/products/land-rover-discover...
I’m sure it’s cheaper elsewhere.
Solid hooks sit in where the boot cover would go, long hooks fix to the luggage hooks, stubby things rest against the “c pillar “
Shall watch with interest.
The OH has a freelander 2 and wants a Disco sport to replace it in a few years.
Likely going for the petrol or hybrid as she doesn’t do long trips but the FL2 is the SD4 so a much more reliable option than the 2.0 diesel.
We have the custom covers boot liners and the travall dog/load guard in the FL2 and the D4.
Decent bits of kit.
The OH has a freelander 2 and wants a Disco sport to replace it in a few years.
Likely going for the petrol or hybrid as she doesn’t do long trips but the FL2 is the SD4 so a much more reliable option than the 2.0 diesel.
We have the custom covers boot liners and the travall dog/load guard in the FL2 and the D4.
Decent bits of kit.
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