Lincs Pride FEB 223.qxp 05/01/2021 10:59 Page 123
MOTORS
YOUR VOYAGE of
DISCOVERY Luxurious. Capable. Practical of course. Posh, too. There’s nothing to dislike about Land Rover’s Discovery, but as the car enters its mid-30s, the poor thing is facing a bit of a mid-life crisis. Happens to the best of us, I suppose... Words: Rob Davis.
THINGS WERE SIMPLER ‘back then,’ we tend to say, with soporific nostalgia. Close your eyes and think back to 1990, before Britpop, or Blair, prior to the opening of the Channel Tunnel or mobile phones and Instafacegram.
Little wonder that Land Rover wanted to capitalise on its bright idea seven years later with the smaller but more affordable Freelander, a car that was also enormously well-thought of.
In those simpler times, if you wanted a Land Rover, it was a simple choice; for capability, choose a Defender. For luxury and capability choose a Range Rover.
But too much of a good thing isn’t always great, and today’s Jaguar Land Rover lineup is complex. The brand is split in three, for a start, with Land Rover & Range Rover as well as Jaguar all producing models that occupy the same price point in the market.
Land Rover in 1989 saw fit to introduce the Discovery, and it went on sale the following year, as a sort of half-way house between outright utilitarianism and comfort. Suffice to say it was a roaring success; a car that could provide on-road comfort, huge offroad ability, and once that would eventually enable you to take the whole family along too, thanks to the option of seven seats.
If you’ve £55k to spend on a 4x4, Land Rover’s Discovery, Discovery Sport and Defender, plus Range Rover’s Evoque and Velar, and Jaguar’s F-Pace will all fit the bill, despite sharing the same engines and interior technology. So how on earth is a consumer supposed to choose? >>
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