© JAMES TAYLOR
Editor: Land Rover Enthusiast Magazine

Background

Land Rover developed the Discovery as a competitor to the Japanese family 4x4s which had the market largely to themselves in the later Eighties. The vehicle was launched in 1989, initially in three-door form; the five-door followed in 1990 and soon became the more popular variant. Unusually, both three-door and five-door variants share the same wheelbase and overall dimensions.

The Discovery has been Britain's most popular 4x4 throughout the early Nineties, and is also a strong seller overseas. One of the keys to its success is its harmonious blend of practical family estate with the standard 4x4 strengths of ruggedness, spaciousness and towing ability. Its biggest drawback is the raised rear roof which provides headroom for passengers in the occasional rear seats, as this makes the vehicle too tall for many multi-storey car parks and domestic garages.

The Discovery is built on the chassis of the first-generation Range Rover and shares much of its mechanical specification. There are also commercial (van) versions of the Discovery based on the three-door body, and a few examples have been stretched as the basis of ambulance conversions.

Character summary

The Land Rover Discovery is essentially a family 4x4, even though the original three-door models were promoted with a 'lifestyle' move closer to that of short-wheelbase three-door models from other manufacturers. Its design majors on practicality and on driveability, one of the design aims being to make the change from a conventional 4x2 estate car easy, especially for women drivers.

The Discovery's interior has a versatile layout, with split-folding rear seats to give maximum loadspace versatility and folding inward facing rear seats (not on all models). Stowage space for oddments is good, with roof nets, door pockets and flat surfaces on dashboard and console; however, some stowage spaces are not as useful as promotional material suggests.

From the beginning, the Discovery was marketed with a wide variety of accessories and optional extras which allowed owners to personalise their vehicles. Many of these are designed to promote an image, and the Discovery rates highly in such stakes. It also has a very powerful appeal as a sensible but stylish family 4x4.

Performance summary

The Discovery has good on-road performance, with even the slowest models (five-door automatic turbodiesels) being acceptable for most purposes. The Mpi models with their four-cylinder petrol engines are not popular in the UK, and were in fact designed mainly for export markets; their engines lack the muscularity which is part of the Discovery's image, and their fuel economy is not significantly better than that of the V8 petrol models.

The most rapid performance comes from the 3.9-litre V8i versions with manual gearboxes, but the nicest to drive are automatic 3.9-litre models - and these are only marginally slower than manual models. Most popular by a very long chalk, however, ore the turbodiesel models. Their biggest drawback is engine noise (much improved in models with the 300 Tdi engine), but their excellent fuel economy more than compensates and their mid-range acceleration is good enough for most situations.

The Discovery is both spacious and comfortable. However, the front seats in pre-1994 models can feel a little hard, while the inward-facing rear seats are not suitable for those over about 5ft 8in tall. The ride quality is excellent, and handling - especially with the anti-roll bars - very reassuring. Good stability, permanent four-wheel drive and plenty of low-down torque (except in the Mpi) make the Discovery a first-rate towing vehicle.

Off-road, it is a superb performer. The long-travel coil spring suspension allows a comfortable ride over rough surfaces. It also gives huge axle articulation, which allows the vehicle to retain traction in situations which would defeat many competitive vehicles. The permanent four-wheel drive is another off-roading bonus.

Reliability, weaknesses, spares

The Discovery has generally proved extremely reliable in service. Spares are available through the large Land Rover dealer network.
There are some weaknesses to look for. Very early examples sometimes suffered from worn hinges on the rear tailgate and from rust on that panel. Noisy valve gear on the V8 engines results from neglect of oil changes (or from low oil levels when the engine uses or leaks oil), and vibration on the 200 Tdi engines can cause fuel pipe unions to loosen and leak. Problems with engine starting and tuning on injected V8 petrol models may be caused by problems with the ECU (the engine's computer 'brain'), which is expensive to replace.

Resale values

Depreciation on Discovery models is low and demand is high. Three-door models are perceived as less desirable than five-doors and will be correspondingly harder to sell on. The least desirable models are the carburetted three-door .V8s and the Mpi variants; these suffer the highest depreciation. Best buys are 3.9-litre V8i five-doors, either manual or automatic, and five-door Tdi models (the later the better, as refinement has been improved over the years).

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS