Land Rover Discovery Review 2023

Let’s be honest, if you’re after a seven-seat luxury SUV to ferry your family around in, you’re not exactly starved of choice. Yes, many are better to drive on the road than the Land Rover Discovery, with a smoother ride and neater handling, so if you’re looking for the ultimate in dynamic polish, you’re probably better off considering something like the Audi Q7.

However, if it’s practicality you’re after, the Land Rover Discovery does the job as well as anything in the class. It’ll seat seven adults in comfort, which is a claim few rivals can genuinely make, so it’s a great choice.

If you plan to take your car off-road, however, it’s the only choice. Many big SUVs have four-wheel drive and hill descent control to justify their off-roader looks, but the Discovery goes much further with all sorts of clever off-roading wizardry, and as a result, it’ll get much further into the wilderness than its rivals. Granted, not many folk actually do take their big SUV off-road, but if you’re one of the few that does, this thing is what you need.

The Audi Q7 and Volvo XC90 are arguably its most direct rivals, while both the BMW X5 and Mercedes GLE are offered in seven-seat format as well as five. The Lexus RX-L shouldn’t be forgotten, especially by those looking for ultimate reliability, while if you’re more focused on the practicality element rather than the luxury element, then cars like the SEAT Tarraco, Skoda Kodiaq, Hyundai Santa Fe and Kia Sorento could be more affordable alternatives.

The Land Rover Discovery feels like a reasonably posh environment, albeit with a rugged edge. All of the main touchpoints look and feel high-grade, so they’re as much a treat for your fingertips as they are for your eyes. It is true that some of the other surfaces and switches dotted around the place aren’t quite so swish or as slick as they are in an Audi Q7 or BMW X5, so the cabin doesn’t feel quite so posh. However, that does kind of suit the Discovery’s more rough-and-ready image, and importantly, everything feels substantial, solid and built to last.

Various different trims come with different colour combinations for the interior, and optional bits and bobs to tart up the interior - like wooden trims, for example - are also available. 

All Land Rover Discovery versions get the 11.40-inch Pivi Pro touchscreen system to operate various functions, and it's a big improvement on the earlier system. On the entry-level S car, it brings together DAB radio, Bluetooth, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, connected navigation and a 180W sound system with eight speakers - although it's worth noting that the same S spec on an R-Dynamic car also adds wireless charging 

Land Rover Discovery SE models upgrade the stereo to a 12 speaker Meridian Sound System with 400W, while the Land Rover Discovery HSE kicks this up again to a 700W, 14 speaker, twin-channel subwoofer Meridian system that will blow your socks off.

Operating the touchscreen is pleasingly simple, with menus that make sense and good responses. It still suffers with the fact that you have to look at it to operate it however, but that excepted it is one of the better systems in the segment.

The Land Rover Discovery's dimensions are 4956mm long and 2000mm wide, as well as 1888mm tall, putting it at the larger end of the SUV scale. The good new is that this makes the Discovery is about as practical and as versatile as cars get. If you’re asking this car to do something it can’t do, you should probably be asking yourself whether it’s reasonable to expect any car to be able do whatever that thing is. It really is that good.

As you’d expect, space up front is generous, but where this part of the cabin really impresses is on storage. The Land Rover Discovery has two gloveboxes, massive door pockets, a deep bin and two cupholders in the central partition and an ingenious concealed compartment hidden behind the air-con controls that’s big enough to hide your wallet and your phone from prying eyes.

Move to the middle row of seats, and you’ll find that headroom is just as generous. Legroom isn’t as plentiful here as it is in some rivals, but there’s plenty for tall adults to be getting comfortable. The wide cabin makes life comfortable when seating three, as do the three wide seats and the flat floor (with no transmission tunnel to rob you of valuable foot space). These chairs also slide and recline, but do so in a 60/40 configuration, rather than the more versatile 40/20/40 arrangement employed by some rivals.

If you’re one of those consigned to the third row, then you’d pick the Land Rover Discovery over any of its rivals because it’s the roomiest car of its class back here. Even six-foot-somethings will be sorted for head and legroom.

All of the five rear chairs fold down flat into the floor to give you a massive, perfectly flush load area. This happens manually on the lower-end cars, but on the poshest ones, you can do it electrically, either with buttons in the boot, via the touchscreen system, or even with an app on your phone.

The loadspace this gives you is, frankly, bonkers, and in five-seat mode, the boot is huge enough to make an Ikea trip look easy with 1,137 litres of space. In seven-seat mode there's still a handy 258 litres, while if you fold all the seats it will swallow 2,391 litres - that's a lot of wine.

It might seem counterintuitive but for most people the basic Land Rover Discovery D250 diesel is the best engine option. It's close enough in terms of performance and response to the bigger diesel option, costs less to buy in the first place and is likely the most economical.

The D300 option might seem more desirable as it’s smoother and quieter, and its power delivery is a shade more eager, but not by enough to justify the extra you’ll pay for it. 

If you can't stand the ideal of a diesel then the Land Rover Discovery P360 is the one for you, but it doesn't feel as fast as the acceleration figures would suggest and it will be expensive to fuel too.

All versions get the automatic gearbox, and despite being a bit slow to respond, it switches through the ratios reasonably smoothly.

The entry-level diesel keeps itself to itself most of the time, and only gets loud if you work it properly hard, which you hardly ever will. It doesn’t send too many vibrations into the cabin, either, so it'll be civilised enough to satisfy most drivers. The Land Rover Discovery V6 is a shade smoother, quieter and more relaxed, but it’s still a bit grumblier than the equivalent units found in rivals from Audi and Mercedes. And, as we’ve not tried the petrol yet, we’ve no idea how it compares.

Road noise is very well contained, so you won’t hear much roar from the tyres, and apart from the odd patter, the suspension goes about its work reasonably quietly, too. However, with the upright bodywork giving all the aerodynamic slipperiness of an office block, there’s a fair amount more wind noise than you’ll hear in rivals.

The amount of safety kit you get depends largely on which trim grade you go for. All versions including the entry-level Land Rover Discovery S get automatic emergency city braking and a lane keeping assistant, along with six airbags and enough ISOFIX points to secure an impressive five child seats. 

A full-size spare wheel is also included across the board. Upgrade to the Land Rover Discovery SE, and LED headlamps with high beam assist join the party, along with front and rear cross traffic alerts. HSE and HSE Luxury cars, meanwhile, get high-speed emergency braking, a blind spot assistant and traffic sign recognition that can amend your speed automatically.

The Land Rover Discovery has been crash-tested by the experts at Euro NCAP, and it achieved the full five-star rating, even if its scores in individual areas weren’t as high as in some rivals.

The Land Rover Discovery achieved a respectable 9.22 out of 10 for reliability in the HonestJohn.couk Satisfaction Index, which is better than most of its stablemates.

However, the brand as a whole came 15th out of 30 for satisfaction, which is the definition of middling.

Anyone who buys a car as expensive as a Land Rover Discovery is likely to have a few quid, and if you can afford to buy it, you can probably afford to insure it. Insurance groupings for the Discovery kick off in the mid-thirties, but whether your car sits in group 35 or group 40, it’s unlikely to make much difference to your buying decision. Regardless, premiums will be considerable. That’s a given.

The lack of a plug-in hybrid version really hurts the Land Rover Discovery here. The basic D250 version in S spec will cost you a mighty £1,420 in the first year, and £520 in the subsequent years, as will the D300 version. The P360 is even worse at £2,015 followed by £520 in the following years.

Company car tax, meanwhile, will be paid on 37% of the car’s value, so bills will be steep to say the least.

On top of the infotainment and safety kit we’ve already talked about, the entry-level Land Rover Discovery S model comes with a decent amount of standard equipment. LED headlights, powered tailgate, heated windscreen, leather upholstery and electric seats are among the highlights.

The Land Rover Discovery SE adds premium LED headlights, 18-way electric seats, the fancier Meridian audio system and the Driver Assist pack which adds useful extras like Blind Spot Assist and Rear Collision Monitor.

Land Rover Discovery HSE models add smart Matrix LED headlights, fancier cabin lighting, an electrically adjustable steering column, 20-way heated and cooled electric seats, smarter Windsor leather, a heated steering wheel and the top-drawer Meridian audio package.