LONG-TERM TEST
76 OCTOBER 2019 FOUR WHEELER fourwheeler.com
Final report: Roving off into the sunset
2018 Land Rover Discovery HSE Luxury
W
E CAN’T RECALL A TIME
when we had more of
a love/hate relation-
ship with a long-term
test vehicle. Let’s address the
elephant in the room. This par-
ticular ’18 Land Rover Discovery
was not without problems. In
fact, it spent several weeks of our
evaluation time at the dealership
for various issues.
But when it was working, it was
working well. The Land Rover
Discovery combined luxury ame-
nities like comfortable front seats
with built-in heat/air/massage, a
very well-tuned sound system, and
a panoramic roof, which brings
the outdoor feeling inside, with
zippy engine acceleration and su-
perb off-road handling that was in
direct contradiction to the on-road
handling, which could at times
feel wallowy and cumbersome.But put it on a dirt road, and it just
stuck like glue, providing a level
confidence that’s hard to match
in the world of seven-passenger
SUVs these days. Bombing down
desert washes or twisty mountain
dirt roads, there was almost never
any harsh bottoming or topping
out of the suspension. It seems
like an anachronistic compliment,
but the Discovery’s air suspension
behaves more like a good ol’ steel
spring than a super-modern airbag
system, which is almost always
harsh and jarring.
The Discovery was equally at
home on open highways, where
its sleek aerodynamics, low-
profile Goodyear tires, and super-
smooth engine just loved to eat
up the miles. Even on stretches
of I-15 in Utah where the posted
speed limit is 80 mph, it’s easy to
look down while cruising and dis-While the supercharged V-6’s 340 hp and 332 lb-ft of power was more than
adequate and its average 16.7 mpg as tested this installment is very good, we
never jelled with the low-speed driving characteristics of the gas-powered Si6.
It’s purely an issue of calibration, but the throttle tip-in on this vehicle has been
maddening. You depress the throttle to pull away from a stop and the vehicle
barely goes until you’re into the pedal deeply, and then—BAM—the Discov-
ery lurches forward like you’re a 15-year-old driving for the first time on your
learner’s permit.