New Land Rover - Discovery On Track

We put new Disco through its first significant test off-road in rural Scotland.

- James Disdale

LAND Rover is on a roll. Its Discovery Sport is selling like hot cakes, and the Range Rover flagship has taken on – and beaten – the Bentley Bentayga, so the pressure is on for the all-new Discovery to continue the success story.

There’s certainly no denying the imposing Discovery has some big boots to fill. Over the past three decades, the first four generations of this rugged and practical SUV have racked up an amazing 1.2 million sales.

To find out if the new model deserves to wear the Discovery badge, Auto Express grabbed the keys to a pre-production model and headed out on to the testing terrain of the Blair Atholl estate in Perthshire. For this test we’re limited to trying the car’s abilities in the rough, but it’ll give us a good insight into the car’s comfort and refinement.

Before you even set foot in the Discovery, it’s clear the newcomer has been pushed further upmarket. The car is much sleeker than its boxy predecessor, with lots of design cues taken from the smaller Discovery Sport. There are also plenty of familiar design flourishes, such as the distinctive stepped roof and offset rear number plate layout.