I have never experienced a time where I need to have a full-time four-wheel drive. I know there are people out there who need this kind of “climbs any mountain” feature but really, for the most of us there’s no need to have it.
That fact doesn’t stop me wanting it in the car I’m driving this week. The Land Rover Discovery is one of those hardcore cars that still manage to work as a motorway mile muncher.
There’s a lot of tech in the new Land Rover/Range Rover/Jaguar franchise, even the basic Discovery get’s a very complicated 4×4 system and lots of touchscreen controls.
I mentioned on Instagram that I got a couple of errors and that began a torrent of Land Rover owners showing me pictures of their cars with errors. My big problem was in the 4×4 system that restricted my speed down to 50kph, which was cleared as soon as I turned the car off and on again.
These kinds of niggles seem to be following the Land Rover group and yet I’d buy one. There’s nothing like driving through the streets of Portlaoise in a big car like this because there’s a look that comes over the faces of people that is just made of envy.
I’m not saying that I want to annoy people with wealth but if I want to show how well I’m doing for myself as well as being able to invade a small country the Land Rover Discovery will do nicely.
There is another problem, the biggest competition Land Rover have comes from within; it’s Range Rover. They are all great cars but the Range Rover Vogue can do all the off-road stuff and still be a pure luxury drive.
There’s the Velar that can do all the sporty stuff but still climb mountains while looking like the Starship Enterprise. The big problem for Land Rover is that they make great cars but there’s nothing really stands out in the range as the halo car.
All that said, I’m really not sure why people who can afford it buy anything else. The only reason you’d need another car is to be sporty because that’s something that Land Rovers don’t do, they can go fast just so long as it’s in a straight line or in a ploughed field.
The Discovery range starts at €57,815 but you’ll really want to look at paying near 70k for a decent spec. There’s a plug-in hybrid version on the way and that looks like something worth waiting for.
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