Land Rover Discovery 2015 News

The top end of town has snubbed next week's Paris motor show but the biggest auto event on the European calendar will have plenty of new sheet metal.

The Disco Sport adds to the Land Rover family tree, taking over from the Freelander.A leisurely new Land Rover is about to take over from the compact Freelander, which has been swept aside by the off-road company's wave of new models.The Discovery Sport comes as a result of upsizing and a plan to stream the various models in the British off-road family into a new range of names.The Disco Sport is another style winner from the team that created the latest Range Rover and Evoque. The designers also are finalising work on the overdue replacement for the Defender, though there's more to the project than that.Land Rover believes the Discovery Sport will move it well beyond the Freelander's rivals in the class of the Toyota RAV4 and Hyundai ix35 - it's also a challenger to the BMW X3 and Audi Q5,."It's a very different vehicle," says Land Rover Australia brand manager Tim Krieger."It sits in the same segment that the Freelander played in (but) it's a very different proposition."That's in terms of the design of the vehicle, the styling, the size and the configuration with five-plus-two seating."The Discovery Sport takes on the European competitors more directly." Nothing is being revealed about the pricing but Krieger hints it could be surprisingly close to the Freelander, which is $44,990 drive-away."It will be very competitive against X3 and Q5 (in features and options). Pricing will come close to the launch, which is May 1 next year in Australia."Land Rover says the car is the first member of a new Discovery family. Given its size and layout, the future is certain to bring a smaller model as well as a replacement for today's full-sized Discovery."There is room in the Land Rover brand," Krieger says.The Discovery Sport has a more upscale interior and is 90mm longer than the Freelander, with a longer wheelbase and a new platform fitted with a multi-link rear axle.Land Rover's selectable Terrain Response technology is part of the four-wheel drive package and a new dynamic setting gives firmer ride, tighter body control with reduced roll, and a more responsive steering and performance.The Disco Sport can wade to 600mm, approach, departure and breakover angles are 25, 31 and 21 degrees respectively and it has a couple of millimetres extra ride height over the Freelander.On the safety front, Land Rover has fitted a pedestrian airbag and automatic emergency braking. Engine choices are 2.2-litre turbodiesels and a turbocharged 2.0-litre petrol with six or nine-speed automatic transmissions.And the name of the new Discovery "family"?"We have three pillars to the Land Rover brand," Krieger says. "Luxury is all about Range Rover, Leisure is the Discovery models, then Utility will be the Defender models. All of those have Land Rover DNA ... but represent different things."

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Land Rover’s Discovery has received a raft of updates that bring the go-just-about-anywhere SUV into line with the latest additions from the British automaker. The Discovery is a rugged, luxurious large SUV that offers more practicality and space than any other option within the Land Rover lineup, and it now benefits from fresh styling, a new engine and more tech features.The changes to the styling are hard to notice but they consist of a new front grille, a new front bumper, new headlights with Land Rover’s modern LED daytime running lights, two new alloy wheel designs, and a revised version of the Land Rover badge.Under the hood, Land Rover has replaced the thirsty, naturally aspirated 5.0-litre V8 with its latest supercharged 3.0-litre V6 engine. The engine delivers 250kW of power and 450Nm of torque -- which is slightly down on the 276kW/510Nm of the V8 -- via an eight-speed ZF automatic transmission.The 0-100km/h time is said to be around 8.1 seconds, which is not bad for a vehicle that weighs around 2.5 tonnes. We’ll have to wait until the Discovery’s next generation to see it adopt the lightweight aluminium construction that the new Range Rover and Range Rover Sport models benefit from.The rest of the Discovery range carries a pair of 3.0-litre V6 turbodiesels: the 155kW/600Nm TDV6 and the 183kW/600Nm SDV6 -- both mated with an eight-speed ZF automatic transmission and promising 8.8L/100km fuel economy.Inside, designers have added more premium touches to align the Discovery with other Range Rover vehicles. These include more soft-touch materials, an available Meridian premium sound system, Wade Sensing technology, Blind Spot Monitoring, Closing Vehicle Sensing, Reverse Traffic Detection and T-junction Cameras.Look out for the debut of the updated Discovery at the 2013 Frankfurt Auto Show next week, and expect it in showrooms towards the end of the year as a 2014 model.www.motorauthority.com