A Real Off-Roader
by David Finlay (19 Feb 03)

I can't help being fond of the Discovery, for the slightly unusual reason that I achieved a small measure of motorsport success in one.

The event was an RTV trial (RTV standing for Road Taxed Vehicle), and to my utter astonishment I won my class, partly because when I reversed off the start line of the first test by mistake the marshal laughed so hard that he forgot to penalise me for it.

Not wanting to make undue claims of trialling expertise, I should immediately point out that the chap who won the event overall in the same car sat beside me on every test calling out instructions, but this is within the rules of the RTV trials game when a novice driver is at the wheel. In any case, some not noticeably road taxed off-road specials had been allowed to compete against our completely standard car, and my instructor suspected that some parts of the course had been made deliberately Discovery-hostile to prevent him winning. In the circumstances, we were well chuffed with our combined result.

This was about ten years ago, and I've stoutly defended the Discovery's off-road abilities ever since. There is no need to defend its sales performance, since it has been one of the top-selling 4x4s in the UK virtually from the moment it was launched, but you would have to be a real Land Rover fan to claim that it has always been an ideal road car. Build quality was once a very big issue, hence the old joke that the shut lines on a Discovery are, along with the Great Wall of China, the only man-made objects visible from outer space.

A revamp in 1998 left the Discovery looking almost exactly the same as before but incorporated a great many invisible changes which improved the model no end. But it is still an old-school off-roader, very obviously a mud-plugger refined for road use rather than a road car with added off-road ability.

The Give-Aways 

This is obvious right away from details like the large amount of movement needed to operate the pedals, the fairly heavy steering (at least in comparison with more servoed units on other cars) and the only moderately suppressed rattle of the turbo diesel engine.

That engine - the celebrated Td5 - does work very well, though, providing fairly good on-road performance for such a heavy vehicle. I was quite impressed with the range, as my first fuel stop came after 469 miles, but the fact that it then took £70 to refill the tank demonstrated that fuel economy is no more a Discovery strong point now than it ever was.

Having said that, I think I'd always go for the diesel. The V8 Discovery is thirstier still and not much quieter, and although it seems to be much quicker on paper the obvious handling limitations (not as severe as you might imagine, thanks to some suspension trickery, but still significant even in 4x4 terms) mean that the diesel covers ground about as effectively in the real world.

The Discovery is quite comfortable to sit in, and it's a surprisingly relaxed cruiser. All the same, despite its undoubted popularity, the running costs and noise levels mean I probably wouldn't consider buying one unless I had a good reason to use its spectacular off-roading prowess.

Price: £29,995
Capacity: 2495cc
Power: 135bhp
0-60mph: 15.8 seconds
Maximum speed: 98mph
Economy: 31.4mpg extra urban, 27.4mpg combined
CO2 emissions: 284g/km
Insurance: Group 13
Land Rover figures.

Second opinion:
 I always feel rather uneasy about the phenomenally short wheelbase of the Discovery compared, not just with its overall length, but also with its roof height. This is not a car to be thrown around at high speeds, but the latest versions do seem more composed on tarmac. I was surprised at just how competent a mile-eater the test car felt in the unlikely milieu of a pair of four-hour motorway cruises, one day after the other. For the first mile or two after a morning start, the combination of diesel engine and automatic transmission on our car seemed pretty lethargic, but then I realised you have to bury your foot in the floor boards to get the Discovery to stop pratting about. Excellent foul-weather transport, which is one of the principal reasons for buying a 4x4 even if you don't need the Discovery's formidable off-road performance, or its towing ability. Very practical interior, nicely fitted-out with stowage spaces and so on, and I like the way the carefully designed steering wheel rim offers a really good grip. About the fuel bill: the Discovery does, after all, have a 20.5 gallon tank. Ross Finlay.

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