Photo: Land Rover
Even though the 2015 Discovery Sport wears the Land Rover badge, you can think of it as a more practical version of the Range Rover Evoque sans the lavish aura and including two more seats. Yes, we took the successor of the Freelander for a spin in the Austrian mountains and wrote a review about it.
The main advantage over the more stylish Evoque that the Discovery Sport has are the extra seats. Therefore they should be usable, right? Well, not really. The Brit is a bit more compact than the BMW X3 for example and that has some tradeoffs, of course.
To be blunt, the third row of seating isn’t recommended for adults, not even if you’re on the shorter side of things. At most, they could be used for small children but most of the time you’ll end up using the car with them folded into the floor.
The second row of seats is acceptable with plenty of room if you don’t have any occupants in the back. Headroom is nice and knee room more than acceptable, especially since the bench slides rearward and the seat backs recline.
When it comes to standard kit you get plenty of stuff even on the base models. Your car will surely have at least part leather seats, cruise control, climate control, heated seats, parking sensors, DAB radio and an 8” color touchscreen that left us a little confused. The thing simply was laggy and there’s no going around it.
Safety is not an issue at all as the Discovery Sport aced all the tests the Euro NCAP authority threw at it and it also feels cool on the road, not to mention all the safety systems installed all over such as airbags and automatic braking.
The car’s forte is definitely its off-roading capacity. It will go up and over nearly any obstacle using a Haldex coupling as well as some more advanced, electronically controlled diffs if you’re willing to spend extra. But we have to be honest here for a moment and ask ourselves: how many times are we really going off road? Unless you live in the back of some forgotten woods, you’ll probably be better off saving your money.
At the moment, the engine you can get depends on where you live. While Europeans are stuck with older 2.2-liter 4-cylinder diesels, the Americans get a 2-liter 4-cylinder turbocharged unit part of the Ingenium family that makes 240 HP and 250 lb-ft of torque. The only problem with it is that its NVH levels are off the charts.
Bottom line, if you go with the diesel engine and the 9-speed automatic gearbox, this car is more than enough for all your needs. Unless you plan to go off-road though, its rivals might be better suited for city cruising. It’s all explained in our 2015 Land Rover Discovery Sport review.
To be blunt, the third row of seating isn’t recommended for adults, not even if you’re on the shorter side of things. At most, they could be used for small children but most of the time you’ll end up using the car with them folded into the floor.
The second row of seats is acceptable with plenty of room if you don’t have any occupants in the back. Headroom is nice and knee room more than acceptable, especially since the bench slides rearward and the seat backs recline.
When it comes to standard kit you get plenty of stuff even on the base models. Your car will surely have at least part leather seats, cruise control, climate control, heated seats, parking sensors, DAB radio and an 8” color touchscreen that left us a little confused. The thing simply was laggy and there’s no going around it.
Safety is not an issue at all as the Discovery Sport aced all the tests the Euro NCAP authority threw at it and it also feels cool on the road, not to mention all the safety systems installed all over such as airbags and automatic braking.
The car’s forte is definitely its off-roading capacity. It will go up and over nearly any obstacle using a Haldex coupling as well as some more advanced, electronically controlled diffs if you’re willing to spend extra. But we have to be honest here for a moment and ask ourselves: how many times are we really going off road? Unless you live in the back of some forgotten woods, you’ll probably be better off saving your money.
At the moment, the engine you can get depends on where you live. While Europeans are stuck with older 2.2-liter 4-cylinder diesels, the Americans get a 2-liter 4-cylinder turbocharged unit part of the Ingenium family that makes 240 HP and 250 lb-ft of torque. The only problem with it is that its NVH levels are off the charts.
Bottom line, if you go with the diesel engine and the 9-speed automatic gearbox, this car is more than enough for all your needs. Unless you plan to go off-road though, its rivals might be better suited for city cruising. It’s all explained in our 2015 Land Rover Discovery Sport review.
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