Land Rover Discovery 4 SDV6 3.0 Review: Disco Remix

What we like:

Road presence

go anywhere capability

fuel sipper by big SUV standards

genuine seating for seven

comfortable ride

What we dislike:

A tad too tall for some car parks

dreaded diesel tax

doesn't feel as grand as a Range Rover

While the exterior looks very much like the previous Discovery 3, the Disco 4's cabin is all-new. With the redesigned cabin, the Disco's interior is more in line with the rest of the Jaguar Land Rover range. There are still the usual simple-to-use chunky knobs and switches that characterizes a Land Rover's driving environment but Jaguar owners will be rather familiar with the new touchscreen LCD screen that takes centre stage on the dash as having the same user interface as the ones in the XF and XJ among others.

Unlike the XJ and the recently updated Range Rover range though, the Discovery makes do with conventional dials for the instruments instead of the TFT screen favoured by its stable mates. The Disco's new driving environment does give the interior a more premium feel and look than before thanks to the use of soft touch materials and matte wood inserts that actually manage to look like they were sourced from trees that were chopped down from the Chesire forests near Solihull and high quality switchgear. Disappointingly though, the sat nav system installed on local Discos run on dealer fitted software and user interface - it can be operated by the touchscreen LCD but the menus just look too aftermarket and the ‘Nav' shortcut button on the dash don't actually bring you to the navigation screen. The unbranded clock on the dash adds a further touch of class and quality.

Behind the driver, the Disco offers two rows of seating, which is one of the reasons why the Disco is so favoured by soccer moms. Legroom in the second row isn't very accommodating like in a large luxury saloon and the second row seats can't be adjusted fore and aft to vary legroom between the centre and rearmost rows like you can in an MPV but knee room in the latter row is certainly impressive - there's enough legroom for average sized passengers seated in the third row to feel comfortable even on the longest of journeys, something that can't be said even of some bona fide MPVs, let alone a SUV. Thanks to the raised roofline at the rear, headroom is more than ample as well. In addition, the stadium seating give rear passengers a good view out front no matter where they sit. Moreover, the seats are easy to fiddle with if you need to fold them down to convert the Disco into a decently useful load carrier.

With all seats in place, cargo space is certainly limited - the boot can only accommodate average sized shopping bags at the most. Fold the two rows of seats down though and the Disco's cargo area will easily gobble up mountain bikes, furniture etc.

To reflect its premium positioning, Wearnes offers only the HSE trim for the Disco. It comes fitted with bi-Xenon headlamps, three zone climate control, cruise control, surround camera system, front and rear parking sensors, harmon/kardon high end sound system, 19-inch alloys, full length powered sunroof and so on.

While the Disco is an automatic choice for soccer moms elsewhere like in the UK, soccer moms here have so far preferred models like the Volvo XC90 and BMW X5 when looking for a large, seven seat SUV. Well, it's their loss if they never considered a Disco 4 as this plucky Brit has almost everything a typical soccer mom needs for the daily school run.

Credits: Story and photos by Raymond Lai