Used 2018 Land Rover Discovery Sport Consumer Reviews
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Discovery Sport 2016
I never envisioned myself in a Discovery Sport, until I drove one. Originally I went to Land Rover to test drive the Evoque. I spotted a white and black Discovery Sport and basically, it was over for the Evoque. I had previously read about all the "issues" with the Discovery and found not one complaint to be true. I had no trouble with acceleration or rough starts. All questions and concerns were answered and reviewed with the salesperson. One test drive, in the rain, was over 2 hours long. I wanted to drive the vehicle in bad weather. Incredible response to the road in the pouring rain. I could not be happier with my Discovery Sport.
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Good, could be better
We bought this 2016 Disco Sport in 2020 with 44,000 MLS. We enjoyed our LR2 so much, we're giving Land Rover another try. The car looks great, very comfortable and roomy. It has a lot of features, handles pretty good and is fairly quiet. Although it's better in almost every way than the LR2, it's no better than our 10 year old Audi Q5. The Audi is quick, quiet and has better interior quality. I expected more from a newer car. If we had bought the Disco new and paid 50 grand for it, we'd be very disappointed. Of course, we would have taken a much longer test drive, also. But, at half the cost, it fits our purposes well . It has more leg and truck room than a newer Q5, otherwise we would have bought another Audi. The Disco has a smooth and quiet 4 cylinder engine, but don't love the turbo lag and the city mileage is awful. The ZF 9 speed transmission is pretty good, no complaints there. So, the Disco is good, but with a few tweaks, it could be great Update, Aug, 2021. We've had our 2016 Disco Sport for 13 months now with no trouble. We've put around 20,000 miles on it. Two oil changes and it needs tires. My only complaint is with the transmission. It's the ZF 9 speed that Acura, Jeep and a few others use. At first, I thought it was turbo lag. There is a little, but it's really the transmission. It starts in second gear and quickly gets into high gear. The trick is to leave it in sport ( S ) mode. You can leave it in S mode without using the paddle shifters and it's a whole different.car. I can still recommend the car. It looks great and very comfortable. August 2022 update. The disco sport now has 82500 miles with no trouble. Just oil changes. I put Falken A/T tires on it. Much more off road than the standard street tires. Still don't like the ZF 9 speed transmission. Again, keep it in "S" mode and it does much better. Would still recommend the Discovery Sport. Update Jan, 2023. 87,000 miles. Car had a rattle at startup. Diagnosed as a bad timing chain tensioner. After waiting a month for the dealership to see it and 3 more weeks waiting for corporate and the dealership to offer a discount, it got fixed. The dealer stepped up after I complained about the time it took and the fact it needed a tensioner in the first place. Otherwise, still happy with it. Runs and looks like new. FYI, the car has a Ford 2.0 liter Ecoboost and Ford is having some trouble with it Update, Sept.2023 Car now has 97,000 miles and Is leaking a small amount of antifreeze. My local mechanic says it's the heater core. Of course half or more of the dash has to come out. It's not super expensive but he's waiting on parts. If you have the money for repairs, it's a pretty nice car and I can still recommend it. If you can't afford the repairs I would buy something else. We still take it on trips and it still looks brand new March 2024. Now has 100,000 miles and runs great. Small antifreeze leak was a gasket on the tube going into the heater core. It was only a few hundred dollars. Can still recommend it. Downside is the value has gone way down. We're currently looking at a newer Audi q5 to replace an older q5 we sold. As much as I like the Disco Sport, the Audis are just better cars.
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After 4.5 years we still love our 2016 Discovery
Update 2021: I bought my wife a Jag iPace EV for her 60th. It's an amazing car! But she wouldn't let me drive it. So I sold my Discovery for $27,500 (private) and bought my own iPace. One thing that was interesting is the Discovery buyer wanted to buy a warranty plan but no company would offer them on LR. He did finally find one for $3700 for 3 years, so I had to adjust my sale price $500. But since I now own 2 Jags, and plan to keep them a long time, this is of concern. I'd never want to go out of warrantee on an EV. Update 2020: Edmunds wanted me to update my review. Not sure how this works with my old review, but I'll still loving this car. No complaints or issues since my last review. I have seen the new version of the Discovery and I can't say I like the view of the boot. Just not as sexy as before. These 2016s seem to be holding value pretty well. In 2016 I paid $41K off the lot w/tax, it's worth $29.6K today (Private sale). Update 2018: After 2.5 years, 6K miles had my battery go up, but that's normal for Florida. Even tho I only I have 6K miles at 2.5 yrs I had the 30K mile check-up: $750. Original: We took delivery of a 2016 Discovery Sport this week and have to say we couldn’t be happier with this purchase. While waiting 3 months for delivery I was reading the reviews and frankly had been quite worried by the bad press. We also test drove the full-size Sport before buying the Discovery and found the almost twice as expensive Sport to have clunky breaking, albeit a luxurious interior. I had a Mercedes GL450, which we found too hard to get in and out of and quite a sterile interior, and compared to the Discovery it was not nearly as comfortable and the transmission was more cumbersome/computerized than the Discovery…by far. So I don’t get the bad reviews. The Discovery Sport in sports mode is super smooth in acceleration and I have not experienced any of the down-shifting issues mentioned in the many reviews. Granted I live in a small town and I didn’t buy the car based on its 0-60 rating. When I first test drove the Discovery I was taken a bit back by the sparse interior by Land Rover standards, but all the dealer had was black. One also has to consider this is a low-cost Land Rover product. I ordered an SE with a Glacier Brushed Aluminum interior and it was very nice and the steering wheel is much more comfortable than the $75K GL450 with the premium 2 upgrade package I had. On the SE the two-tone roof option was only $350 which really sets it off from the competition for look and feel. We looked at every car in this price range and would recommend it to anyone in this market. Fingers crossed on maintenance, but my CPO GL450 had to have a leaking shock absorber replaced with only 28,000 miles and it was not covered by the Benz CPO and cost $900, so I don’t think Mercedes offers any better in quality.
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Love my Disco Sport
It hasn’t been perfect. I have a few electronic gremlins that have popped up—the rear mirror dip feature and the SIM card have each needed service—but otherwise, it’s is a fabulous car. Beautiful but not flashy, it is really an ideal vehicle.
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Discovery Sport 2016 a winner for the driver!
Before buying the 2016 Discovery Sport HSE, I had gone months of research and pricing with many dealers. I am new to the brand as I have been a BMW customer for 15 years. Strayed away from mass German brand and found the smaller production British car to be what I was looking for. I test drove: Audi Q5, Porsche Macan S, BMW X3 & X4, Jeep Grand Cherokee Summit, and Mercedes GLE300. After the test drives, I knew the car that connected me to the road: Land Rover Discovery Sport. Be aware that JLR dealers outside your "market area" may not sell to you so you have to ask before negotiating. I did all my negotiating between 2 dealers via phone, email and text. Did not have to step inside the dealer's lot - I had already test drove the 2015 model earlier.. As for the dealer, you have to find the one that matches you - they are all different - just like people. Some dealers are snobby, snooty, rude, and others are very helpful, professional and patient. If you are financing or leasing, it pays to find out what are the best bank rates before you negotiate Some dealers are forthcoming and will tell you the finance rate or lease residual/money factors. I dealt with 2 dealers that were very transparent in their sales approach. The car has a bit stiffer suspension than the other cars I test drove, but the connection to the road is more important and the suspension is not jarring - it has manners.... The most important feature standard on this car that makes the drive so good: Torque Vectoring by braking. Torque vectoring makes high speed turns, power acceleration into turns, and off road handling a must have for confidence if you are the driver type. I love the car - it makes me smile again - like I remember when I had my first 4WD BMW. The Discovery Sport is definitely for someone or a family that wants to travel almost anywhere safely and comfortably. UPDATE: 2016 - New software loaded for the Powertrain and Infotainment has changed the car entirely. Engine is now very quick to engage with no more laggy acceleration. The navigation is reliable 100% of the time. Fuel tank reading is now accurate. I LOVE THIS CAR ! UPDATE: 2017 - Updates for the seat rattles, In Touch controls, Navigation, Auto Start Stop, and service reminder all done at no cost was EXCELLENT. Good to see JLR changing their way of listening to customers and addressing issues with factory campaigns. Service dept was very receptive to customer concerns. Good followup after the service work by JLR in England via written survey returned by post. Since I have less than a year left on my lease, I am considering another JLR product to replace the Discovery Sport. Whilst at the dealer for service, I had a chance to speak to my sales advisor and he pointed towards the Range Rover Velar or the full sized Discovery that replaced the LR4. Both look very appealing and a great way to step a customer from the Discovery Sport. So far very happy with the Discovery Sport and would highly recommend to anyone looking for a driver's car (not a mushy soft car like everyone else).....
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