New Land Rover Discovery Sport Driven

FIRST DRIVE First taste of the revised and updated compact premium SUV, both on and off-road.

- Richard Ingram

This is no ordinary mid-life facelift. Instead of sticking to the usual visual enhancements, Land Rover has gone back to the drawing board and given its five-year-old Discovery Sport a new platform, new engines and new fuel-saving tech.

Underneath it shares many parts with the latest Range Rover Evoque, including that model’s mild-hybrid running gear. The Premium Transverse Architecture (PTA) was designed from the outset with electrification in mind, in fact, and a plug-in version of the Sport is due in the not-too-distant future.

For now, though, buyers get a choice of four-cylinder petrol or diesel engines – all bar the most basic D150 with mild-hybrid assistance. We tried the two top units: the D240 diesel and P250 petrol, both of which get a nine-speed auto gearbox.

Of course, Land Rover’s designers didn’t pass up the opportunity to tweak the Disco Sport’s styling, issuing a comprehensive yet evolutionary refresh to set it apart from its predecessor. The result is an Evoqueinspired front end and a cleaner rear. There are new colours and wheel designs, too.

In normal driving you’d never know this new Discovery Sport had been electrified. The hybrid assistance is mild and only really noticeable when the car comes to a halt – whereby the engine shuts down sooner than before, at speeds of less than 11mph. There’s no tangible benefit to acceleration, although top-spec diesels demonstrate suitable shove for a car of this type.