2017 Land Rover Discovery TD6 Is 1.2 Seconds Slower to 100 KM/h Than Claimed

Supposedly, this 7-seater is a crossover, not a full-on off-roader. It's also based on a brand new platform. So it should be a lot lighter than the 2,223 kg curb weight of this 3.0 TDV6 model with 4WD and an automatic. We bet the base version of the all-new BMW X5 and Mercedes GLE will make it look a little bit... Rubensian.

Sure, diesel engines are usually heavier because of the iron blocks. But they already made the compromise of going from a body-on frame Discovery to a unibody one. That did help a little bit with the acceleration, as the top diesel model went from taking 9.3 seconds with the last generation to 8.1 seconds now.

Surely, that's fast enough for a regular family SUV that will never race between the lights? Well, we'd argue that prices have gone up so much that this now competes with the top premium contenders. What's more, those are only the official manufacturer numbers.

A Polish auto magazine strapped a V-box to the dash of the 258 horsepower, 600 Nm Land Rover model. And what they found surprised us: it took 9.4 seconds for it to reach 100 km/h. By contrast, the Skoda Superb with a 2.0 TDI mill achieved much better real-world numbers than officially claimed. It too is available as a 7-seater and could be viewed as a viable alternative to the Brit.

One of these Discovery models starts at €58,800 in Germany. Nobody will ever say that you have a Range Rover average fuel consumption of 7.5 liters per 100 km/h doesn't exactly sweeten the bitter taste of being slow.