An interesting vehicle. It's the cheaper little brother (gee, I've got one
of those!) of the Range Rover. The Discovery is a mere $29,000. Of course,
that's the base price--you know, without the wheels and other extraneous
add-ons. The one we drove, with leather interior, CD player and all that
stuff was more like $35,000. (This is about what a Montero costs.)
I loved driving it. It sits VERY high and it's pretty comfortable. It has the usual British ergonomics--like the window controls are in the center console: the most forward controls are for the-- you guessed it--the rear windows. The ignition key takes a contortionist to operate it. But nothing serious.
What makes it interesting are things like the fore and aft sunroofs! And all the little nooks and crannies for storing stuff. (Don't forget, this is the vehicle that rhino hunters use.) The body is al-u-min-i-um.
Here's their positioning strategy: The Discovery is designed to be a REAL off-road vehicle. In fact, every Rover dealer must have an off-road "track" so you can learn how not to tip over. This is fine, but don't they know that nobody who buys off-road vehicles ever drives off-road? One of the manifestations of what a bad idea this is appears in the suspension. For example, it has springs with an exceptionally long travel (i.e., they're very long, so they have a long way to go to compress; like if you should drive over a rhino carcass). I drove my wife and kids to school the other day and by the time we got there the three of them were ready to puke. If you drive it's fine, but don't passenge (new word, just invented by me) in this thing.
Another possible drawback to some is that it's not very big. All the space is taken up by the front seat. You'll swallow your knees sitting in the back and there's not much room in the way-back, either.
But I like it. And my pal Richie who just got out of the slammer--he likes it too.
View cars.com model report on this vehicle.
