Land Rover Discovery Sport Review (2014-present)
Land Rover Discovery Sport cars for sale
4.0
Expert review
Pros
Extremely capable off road
Versatile and practical seven-seat cabin
Well judged ride and handling balance
Cons
Poor reliability record
Five-seat models are worth less than seven-seaters
The car's weight takes the edge off its performance
The CarGurus verdict
The Discovery Sport's not-so-brilliant reputation for reliability might prove to be a sticking point, and we wouldn’t blame you if it were. But if you’re prepared to take the risk – or to spend a bit extra on an extended warranty – the benefits are manifold. For one thing, the Discovery Sport is one of the most versatile SUVs of its size. Fold the seats down, flip them up, slide them about: whatever you ask of it, it seems the Disco Sport has an answer.
And while it isn’t the fastest SUV in the world, you soon find its unhurried nature rubbing off on you. Long journeys pass quickly when you’re ensconced in the comfortable seats and upmarket-feeling interior (provided you buy a later example); while slick, stable handling and a comfortable ride means it feels calm and collected on a back road or around town. In short, the Discovery Sport is one of the most well-rounded SUVs out there, provided you can live with its questionable reputation for reliability.
What is the Land Rover Discovery Sport?
Seven seats. That might not sound like much of a USP: after all, car makers have been building cars with seven seats for years now, and vans with more than that for far longer.
But the option of seven seats marked the Land Rover Discovery Sport out as something a little different from its rivals when it replaced the ageing Freelander in 2014. It was something the Discovery Sport’s premium rivals simply couldn’t match; if you wanted a BMW or an Audi SUV with seven seats, you had to upgrade to a much larger one.
And while you could head to a more mainstream manufacturer for such a thing – Nissan would sell you an X-Trail, Mitsubishi an Outlander, and so on – none of these less upmarket options could quite offer the same cachet or class.
These days, the Discovery Sport has grown ever more popular; it’s even spawned a direct rival in the form of the Mercedes-Benz GLB. But fresh from a recent facelift, the Disco Sport, as it’s known to its friends, is better than ever, and spoiling for a fight.
How practical is it?
Older examples of the Discovery Sport - of which there are plenty on the used car market - had an interior that felt sturdy but a little basic, but that changed during a facelift in late 2020. Climb inside a later car, and you’ll find an entirely new and very sleek interior with more expensive-feeling materials and finishes, complete with a crisp, clear touchscreen infotainment system and, in fancier models, a glossy, touch-sensitive pad where the air conditioning controls would normally sit. This is not entirely useful, mind you, for such things tend to be distracting on the move. Thankfully, the two physical rotary controllers that Land Rover has installed make it a little easier to operate by feel than Audi’s all-touch system.
The Discovery Sport’s driving position is particularly satisfying, with armrests positioned right where you want them and a commanding view out. The middle row of seats is spacious, and there’s almost no hump down the spine of the car, so even your middle-seat passenger will get plenty of leg room, and while the rearmost seats are tight, children will still be able to sit in them relatively comfortably.
The rear bench slides back and forth so you can choose to enhance the boot space at the expense of rear leg room, and all three seats fold independently. As you’d hope, the boot is a good size, too, especially with all the seats folded down.
That third row of seats will be fitted to the vast majority of Disco Sport you come across: There was a time when they came as standard on almost every model, but although you now have to specify them as an optional extra on all versions, the majority of buyers do. If buying new, we'd recommend you do, too, because without them, your car's resale value will be harmed.
What's it like to drive?
Off-road, the Discovery Sport is as capable as you'd expect a Land Rover to be, but the majority of buyers will drive their cars on the road, and happily, it excels here, too. Just as you might expect, given it shares its underpinnings with the excellent Range Rover Evoque. It's clearly set up for comfort, which is no bad thing; it smoothes out all but the worst bumps in the road, yet manages to avoid the sort of queasy waftiness it’d suffer from if the suspension was simply too soft.
It’s surprisingly good in corners, too; yes, the big, tall body leans over a bit, but there’s lots of grip and progressive, intuitive steering, both of which give you immense confidence. This is a heavy car, however, and as a result the engine needs quite a bit of stoking to get it moving quickly, no matter which one you choose.
Technology, equipment & infotainment
The Discovery Sport range is a bit complicated on first appearance. There are three main models: S, SE and HSE. Don’t think the S is a stripped-out entry-level version, though; it gets heated electric seats, LED headlights, climate control and satnav all as standard.
SE adds a virtual cockpit, a power tailgate and smarter LED lights, while HSE gets adaptive cruise control, keyless entry and a camera-based rear-view mirror on top. However, once you’ve decided which version you want, you can then choose whether to have the car as standard, or upgraded to R-Dynamic spec, which gets you a sportier bodykit and bigger wheels.
Land Rover Discovery Sport running costs
It’s that D150 version, in front-wheel-drive form, that’s the most economical version of all. You can expect to see 40-45mpg on average, which isn’t all that great compared with rivals. That figure drops off further, to 35mpg or so, if you specify the all-wheel-drive model; in fact, fuel economy figures for the all-wheel-drive D150 and the D180, which comes with all-wheel-drive as standard, are all but identical, so you might as well upgrade to the more potent version if you can. The D240 is less efficient than either, but again, not by much. Later diesel choices included the D165 and D200, and again, neither of these was particularly frugal compared with rivals.
The P200, P250 and P290 petrol models also get very similar fuel economy to each other, but they're all pretty thirsty, though; you’ll struggle to see more than 30mpg on average.
Land Rover’s servicing costs aren’t cheap, but they are somewhere on a par with those of BMW; in other words, more expensive than Audi’s, but not quite as costly as Mercedes-Benz’s. Land Rover does offer fixed-price servicing plans, however, which allow you to spread the cost.
All of the Discovery Sport’s later engines are now driven by a metal timing chain, rather than a rubber timing belt, and this means they should last the lifetime of the car, in contrast to timing belts, which need changing every few years.
Land Rover Discovery Sport reliability
Suffice it to say that the Land Rover Discovery Sport does not have a particularly glowing reputation for reliability. In fact, completely the opposite is true. In the 2019 What Car? Reliability Survey, the Discovery Sport came 21st out of the 23 large SUVs featured, with a fairly dismal score of 81.9 per cent. That meant it finished below the Volvo XC60, which came fourth; the Audi Q5, which came 14th; and the BMW X3; which came 17th; not to mention a host of other seven-seat SUVs without premium badges.
This result is backed up by the result of the JD Power Vehicle Dependability Study of the same year; Land Rover as a marque came 20th out of the 24 manufacturers that took part, with an ignoble tally of 142 problems per 100 cars. That said, there was a small improvement over the year before, when Land Rover came 21st with a score of 169.
With all that in mind, it might be worth forking out for an extended warranty. The Discovery Sport comes with a three-year, unlimited-mileage guarantee as standard, which is about par for the course, but given its reputation, you might consider paying to extend that. Warranties of as much as ten years or 100,000 miles, whichever crops up first, are available from Land Rover, and come with unlimited claims.
- Time for us to unpack and explain the nomenclature around the naming of the Discovery Sport’s engine options. Very early petrol cars will have the moniker Si4, while the diesels with have the moniker TD4 (manual gearbox and four-wheel drive), SD4 (automatic gearbox, a bit more power and four-wheel drive), or eD4 (manual gearbox and front-wheel drive). Later on, when the Ingenium engines came along, they were annotated by a letter denoting the fuel type – P for petrol and D for diesel – and a number denoting the approximate horsepower (examples being P250 and D165) These engines were iterated regularly over the car’s lifetime, during which time several came and went, but the naming convention remained the same. The exception is the P300e, where the ‘e’ denotes that it’s a plug-in hybrid.
- The Discovery Sport P300e. It combines a 1.5-litre three-cylinder petrol turbo engine with a rear-mounted electric motor and a 15kWh battery. The result is an electric-only range of around 30 miles in the real world, and a combined maximum power output of 305bhp, enough to rocket the hybrid version to 62mph in 6.6 seconds. There’s one big downside, though: to make space for the battery beneath the boot floor, where the third row of seats would normally fold down into, the P300e is only available with five seats.
- The Discovery Sport doesn’t use mechanical means such as locking differentials and low-ratio gears to achieve its impressive off-roading ability. Instead, most versions come with Land Rover’s Terrain Response system, which uses a variety of clever electronic gizmos - operating on the car’s brakes, throttle, four-wheel-drive system and traction control – to keep you moving on a variety of different surfaces. It’s properly effective, too.
- If you want the best all-rounder: We reckon the best blend of value, performance, equipment and comfort comes in the D180 SE. Spec it as a seven-seater, too; even if you don’t need that extra row of seats, you’ll find your car worth more when the time comes to sell it on, as the seven-seat versions are more desirable on the used market.
- If you’d rather have a petrol version: The P250 SE is a smart bet. Yes, it’s more expensive to buy than the weedier P200, but its fuel consumption and CO2 emissions are barely any different, so you get quite a bit more power without using much extra fuel.
- If you're after a company car: The smartest bet is the P300e. Yes, its P11D value is high, but the minuscule CO2 emissions figures mean it’ll cost you considerably less in company car tax than any other option. However, it’s worth noting that, as with all plug-in hybrids, you might shoot yourself in the foot if you can’t actually charge it up regularly, because you’ll find your fuel consumption is much higher than a comparable diesel model – and if you pay for your own fuel, that might mitigate the tax savings you’re making.
- If you’re buying on a budget: The front-wheel-drive D150 S is the one to have. You’ll have to put up with rather sluggish performance, but the S version is well enough equipped that you’ll still feel like you’ve got a touch of luxury for your cash.
