Land Rover Discovery Sport proves less than royal

The new Land Rover Discovery Sport is the latest member of the exclusive luxury compact SUV club, hoping to sit at the same table as the established Audi Q5, BMW X3, Mercedes-Benz GLK, and others. It should be a sure bet: small SUVs are hot, luxury brands are hot, and arguably no SUV brand has more snob-appeal than Land Rover.  

Unlike the similar-sized Range Rover Evoque, with which the Discovery Sport shares most underpinnings and about the same footprint, the Disco looks like a small Range Rover rather than a pair of wrap-around sunglasses on wheels.

Despite the upper-class pose, though, driving this car is like opening a jar of Macadamia nuts and finding Cheetos inside. Nothing wrong with Cheetos, but it's not what we thought we were buying.

The version we're testing is a mid-trim Discovery Sport HSE. The base vehicle, which includes standard all-wheel drive, starts at $37,070. But when all was said and done, our car tipped the scales at $49,805 including shipping.

That price is probably a couple thousand more than most people will pay because we bought an early "launch edition" and got saddled with a bunch of extras we wouldn't have chosen voluntarily: black-painted trim bits ($900); aluminum-coloring for the paddle shifters, aluminum-trimmed door-sills, and other cosmetics ($980); and a special color, "Yulong White," which looks like any other metallic white car paint but cost an additional $950.

In the end, our nearly $50,000 brought the usual welcoming committee of premium-car comfort and convenience items, such as heated leather seats, heated steering wheel, push-button start, powered tailgate, surround-view camera, navigation, and a large color touch-screen infotainment system. We also got a big panoramic sunroof, although it's fixed in place and doesn't open.  

Electronic crash-avoidance systems included lane-departure and forward-collision warning with autonomous braking. Oddly, though, blind-spot monitor and rear cross-traffic alert, a $1,900 option, was absent from our car.

The single engine choice is a 240-hp, 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder from Ford, channeling its power through a nine-speed automatic. The all-wheel drive, coupled with Land Rover's Terrain Response system, provides some off-road capability. It has selectable settings for sand, mud, and snow, but the Disco Sport lacks the low-range gearing that larger Rovers have.

So what's not to like? Let's start with power delivery. The nine-speed transmission is neither smooth nor responsive. It tries to calculate which gear it's supposed to be in, but too often guesses wrong. Combined with the engine's turbo lag, thrust is unpredictable. It often feels flat-footed and unresponsive on the highway, but elsewhere, it can dredge up a burst of power you didn't really want.

Then there's the fuel-saving start/stop feature that shuts off the engine at idle. Nothing wrong with saving fuel, but if the air conditioning shuts down with the engine, as it does here, we'll pass. Once it decides it's time to wake up, the engine can restart with such a bump you might think you've been rear-ended.

The steering wheel is nice to grasp, but the steering itself feels disconnected, as if the column were linked to the drive wheels with ropes. Throw in fairly pronounced body lean in corners, and you get the impression this SUV just doesn't like to be rushed.

Neither are you apt to forget the stiff ride. On any but the freshest-laid blacktop, the chassis introduces every bump and pebble by its first name. One of our drivers commented that it felt as if the tires were filled with concrete.

The cockpit affords a pretty good view out, at least to the front and sides. If the view straight back is not so great, it's a fault endemic to the small-SUV species. The steering wheel has generous adjustments for reach and rake, but it's a manual system: Most $50,000 cars give you powered adjustments for the wheel. Thankfully, the cabin stays fairly quiet most of the time.

Land Rover and its sister brand Jaguar have recently adopted a new touch-screen infotainment system controlled by a software package called InControl, which is a good deal better than the woefully slow-responding and complicated multiple-menu challenge of previous generations. Nevertheless, the InControl here, at least on short acquaintance, still seems pretty slow to respond to finger taps.

Overall, we were expecting a lunch-sized portion of Beef Wellington, but the Discovery Sport experience is more like an undercooked serving of bangers and mash.

—Gordon Hard