► Land Rover Discovery first drive
► We test the new Ingenium diesel
► Lacklustre interior despite £45k tag
The one rattling, rowdy, profligate and patently obvious blot on the Disco Sport’s copybook when we first drove it earlier this year was its uncouth diesel engine. JLR’s new Ingenium diesels, as seen in Jaguar’s new XE and XF, couldn’t quite meet the Disco launch deadline so the baby Landie was forced to make do with tractor-tech.
The new 2.0 Ingenium is hugely better. Giving away 200cc and 10bhp to the old motor, but countering with 7lb ft more torque and a 23g/km CO2 reduction, the 178bhp Sport now looks much stronger when it comes to the on-paper numbers that can make or break these cars. CO2 falls to 139g/km while economy heads the other way, to 53.3mpg, a 5mpg uplift.
But the e-Capability version goes further. Detuned to 148bhp, shorn of the handy 5+2 seats and available exclusively with a six-speed manual, it dips to 129g/km and boosts economy to 57.7mpg, but takes an excruciating 11.7sec to reach 62mph. Is there another £40k car on sale quite so opposed to changing your rate of forward propulsion? We’re pretty sure our collective conscience could suffer a few dead seals and a bigger tax bill to avoid that kind of lethargy. Even the 180 version takes 9.9sec in manual guise. Unless you’re CO2 obsessed, we’d go for a 180 with the nine-speed auto, a £1750 option, but a whole second quicker from the lights and with no eco penalty. Its bigger spread of ratios is guaranteed to better suit the Ingenium’s 2-3500rpm sweet-spot, too.
But what of refinement, the old engine’s big failing? Much improved. There’s some clatter at start-up, but once moving, unless you hammer it pointlessly past 4000rpm, it sounds hushed. Or maybe it was just drowned out by the disappointing wind and road noise.
Engine aside, the Disco Sport is unchanged. Packaging is brilliant and handling quite taut. But the interior, which has been highly praised elsewhere, is lacklustre. It looks and feels cheap, despite a £45k tag. Land Rover produces some incredible cars, but even in revitalised form, the Disco Sport is merely very good.
Land Rover Discovery Sport TD4 e-Capability: the specs
Price: £35,395
Engine: 1999cc 16v 4cyl TD, 148bhp@4000rpm, 280lb ft@1750rpm
Transmission: Six-speed manual, four-wheel drive
Performance: 11.7sec 0-62mph, 112mph, 57.7mpg, 129g/km
Weight: 1775kg
On sale: Now
Rating: ***