Okay, okay. Hands up! We’ve miscredited the car pictured here as being the new, 2010 model year Discovery. Land Rover’s not showing the facelifted Disco until next month, and we thought this was the 2010 Disco out early. But we got this one wrong… it’s a bodykitted current gen Discovery.
We at CAR Online aren’t too big to admit when we were wrong, so here’s our correction. But the gist of the original story is still bang-on. So read on for the detail of the 2010 Disco – just ignore the bodykitted current model in our pictures!
So what is new on the 2010 Discovery?
Visually, it’ll be a minor facelift. There’s not much wrong with the Discovery’s Tonka-toy styling, so the Gaydon designers will keep the updates low-key, with updated bumper, grille and light details. Although we can’t see inside the new Disco, we hear there will be a tidied-up interior too.
And the mechanical changes to the 2010 model year Land Rover Discovery?
We’ve been writing for some time about the new family of engines being rolled out across the Land Rover and Jaguar ranges. The 2.7-litre V6 turbodiesel will continue on lower-spec Discoverys, but the new upgraded 3.0-litre V6 TD will feature, too, with new-gen common-rail systems operating at higher pressures for more precise fuel metering.
Although they will be small sellers in Europe, the 4.2 V8s will be replaced by the latest 5.0-litre direct-injection V8s. All engines offer more power and economy – crucial for this sensitive sector of the market.
You can read our verdict on the new engines in our first drives of the new Jaguar XK 5.0 and Jaguar XF 3.0 Diesel S.
What about the Range Rover family?
There’s change afoot here, too. Last week we reported on how the Land Rover LRX concept is to be rebadged as the production Range Rover LRX and shown in 2010 with showroom sales slated for 2011. But the group’s range-toppers, the Range Rover and Range Rover Sport, will also receive a makeover next month with the addition of these cleaner engines and a plethora of detail design changes.