2017 Land Rover Discovery SUV

MARK TAKAHASHI: For three decades the Land Rover Discovery has been the go-to choice for adventurers around the world, for it's off-road capabilities. This time around, it's got a lot more comfort, a lot more refinement, and a lot more luxury. The question is, has it lost its edge? So with this gasoline V-6, which is actually my preferred engine, it's got plenty of punch. And it gets up to speed just fine. Now the diesel, even though it has a lot of torque, it doesn't have that much punch. There's a little bit of a delay off the line. And while the diesel is good for towing and for off road crawling, for the on road stuff, which is where most people are going to be driving this, maybe not the best choice. So with this three leader supercharge V-6, has 340 horsepower, 332 pound feet of torque. It's planning to move this SUV, which is pretty heavy, tipping the scales just over 4,700 pounds. The tow rating is pretty generous at 8,200 pounds. Now it's, meh, you're not getting close to pickup truck territory. But if you're towing a trailer, that is plenty. Handling-wise, yes, it's a tall SUV. Lots of ground clearance, so it almost feels like, you know, you're at the top of a whip or so. You know, you're getting a lot of jostling. That said, it's not as bad as you'd expect considering how good this is off road. It's smoothing over a lot of the undulations and a lot of the imperfections in the road. In that sense, it's actually really comfortable. One area where I'm a little comfort challenged though is actually the seats. They're well-shaped, they have plenty of support, and the lateral support is actually really, really good. It holds you in place to a reasonable degree. The thing I have the issue with is the padding. It's a little thin, especially in the seat cushions. After about three hours or so of driving around, my butt starts getting a little sore. Unfortunately there's no seat option for this. This is just something you're just going to have to deal with. Even still, it's not so bad. Visibility is excellent in the Discovery. It's very upright. These front roof pillars, these A pillars, they're a little thick, but they're actually placed pretty well outside of your periphery. And the left curve, you don't really have to bob back and forth to see through it. You have a really big window in the back. I have a very clear view of what's going on behind us. The mirrors are well sized. Not too big. Overall I have really good situational awareness. I know if a car is coming up, and not being surprised by anything. One thing I'm not a fan of, though. The optional heating elements built into the windshield. To me, I get that they serve a purpose in really cold climates, but this is Southern California. I would have done without it, because at the moment it feels like I'm looking through a really light gauze. Land Rover's current infotainment system is a huge improvement over its predecessor, but unfortunately that's a very low bar. This is prettier. It's a wide screen format. It's sectioned into four distinct areas for media, phone, navigation, as well as climate control. The problem is it's not very responsive, and it's prone to some glitches here and there. Sometimes it will actually just shut down and stop working, and that means if I want to get back to using my iPhone or-- I pretty much have to pull over, turn the car off, restart it, and hopefully it resets the infotainment. And not the best system out there. Not the most intuitive system out there. But still it gets the job done when it does work. The base price for the Discovery starts right around $51,000. This however, is the first edition top trim for the first year, essentially fully loaded. As tested this is right around $77,000 dollars, which might seem a little expensive. But when you consider it slots in right below the Range Rover, it actually starts making sense. This is the entry level but slightly more brawny version of that. As far as the brakes are concerned, it drives pretty much like any SUV. So we're slowing down right here and getting off the freeway. I'll get on them moderately hard. The pedal is moderately firm. It's what you'd expect from any SUV. But when you're on them hard, you really feel that weight shift forward, and simply there's no way to mask all of that mass shifting around. But it's very controllable, and there's really no extra effort you have to put into it considering the size and weight of this car. Up top we have really nice premium materials. But that's pretty much from elbow height up. Everything below is much more hardy and durable. So that you don't feel so bad getting into such a nice interior with muddy boots. So we get all of the refinement, but all the utility at the same time. As far as interior storage goes, it's excellent. Two big cup holders here. A little slot for maybe cards or even a cell phone. Another rubberized mat underneath there. We have the center bin here, which is also rubberised, and really well-placed with the USB ports. And since this is a fully loaded version, underneath this is a refrigerated bin. Even behind the dash, even like some GM cars, you have this hidden compartment here for whatever you want out of sight. And for glove boxes, we have two. A split level top and bottom glove box. The door pockets are big. They can hold a few water bottles. Well as other personal effects. From the second row of seats there is plenty of room for adults. I have a lot of headroom. I have a lot of shoulder room as well. The only drawback though is the seat cushion. It's a little short, it's a little low. So my thighs aren't really being supported that well. These are nit picks though. For the most part, you're going to have taller passengers up front anyway. You have a ton of storage options. You have two map pockets behind here. You have another bin in the center here. Above that you have some climate controls and door pockets as well. Two USB ports. So this is really well set up for road trips with the family. You can even get an optional rear entertainment center that has screens in the head rests. From the third row. Well, it's actually not bad. I have plenty of headroom. I don't feel too constricted. And that's considering that the second row is actually slid all the way back and reclined. I can push it just a little bit forward like this, and now I have an adequate amount of knee space. Like the second row, the seat cushion's a little low, and I'm lacking some thigh support. But again, you're going to be putting smaller kids back here, most likely. That also means they're going to have an easier time getting to the third row. It's a bit of a climb, and it's a narrow passageway as well. And another plus is, you have another set of USB ports right here, and on the other side. With the Discovery's cargo area, it's a bit of a mixed bag. As you can see, there's not a lot of space behind the third row. That's not all that unusual for three row SUVs like this, but even this cargo area is smaller than normal. You have this, which folds down as the tailgate. Holds up the 660 pounds. Not only is it a nice place to sit if you're just kind of hanging out, but if you're loading something big and bulky, that's one thing that you get just rest it on, and then slide the rest in. You have power folding seats for the second and third row. It takes a little bit of time, but the cool thing is you can do it remotely through an app, or even through the infotainment screen up front. Further assisting you with loading stuff, you can lower the load right here with this button, and it drops a few inches. In addition to controlling the seats, you can do the typical things you can with modern car apps. Remote start, start up the climate control, lock the doors, find out where the car is, and even some of the vehicle location and telematics are built into it. One cool feature that I really like about the Discovery is a sport activity wristband. It debuted with the Jaguar F Pace, and it allows you to enjoy surfing or scuba diving, water activities, without destroying your key fob. All you do is you leave that key fob in the center console, and you put on a special wristband. To lock it put it up against the D in the Discovery badge, and it locks. Enjoy your surf, come back, unlock it again at the same point. Really smart, and honestly, feel like everyone else should be doing that, too. The one thing I really love about the Land Rover is its versatility and its range. On the road its perfectly agreeable. Off the road is where I really get impressed. One thing that's cool about the Land Rovers is, this button here. Think of it as a low speed cruise control that will allow you to rock crawl. And all the throttle and breaking stuff is handled by the computer. All you have to do is steer. My feet are off the pedals. I'm letting the car do what it's gonna to do at the speed that I set it at, and I can slow it down as much as I want, and it just handles it. And once you hit the brake, well it cancels that cruise control much like any other cruise control. And now we'll go back down using hill descent control which is even easier. And one thing I really like about hill descent control is and you can hear each individual wheel crunching with ABS to ensure that you know it's slowing down, but it's not hitting all of them at the same time. So it's very, very controllable. Another good thing is, obviously all these camera systems. So 360 degree cameras, so I can spot the rocks. A forward looking camera. Back looking cameras. You're just covered everywhere. There is some expert off roaders that, you know, maybe think this is too posh or a pretty boy off roader. This is actually nice inside. I like spending time in this car. After driving the Discovery all day, I came away really impressed. I love it for its refinement and comfort and luxury, as well as its incredible off road capabilities. Honestly, I want one for myself now. If you want more information on Discovery as well as its competition, see more videos like this. Like us on Facebook, and follow us on Instagram.