New Cars ,, Promoted 2015 Land Rover Discovery Sport TD4 180 HSE Luxury Auto ,,,, Auto Show

Описание: Up to this point, our enjoyment of the otherwise impressive Land Rover Discovery Sport has been hindered by the sole occupant of its engine bay. With sister marque Jaguar claiming the first Ingenium motors off the production line, Land Rover’s compact seven-seater was stuck with the venerable 2.2-litre Ford-sourced powerplant.

For as long as that motor remained, we suggested patience would be rewarded by the all-new incoming 2.0-litre unit. Well, the time has come. The Sport is the first Land Rover to receive the Ingenium, with the Range Rover Evoque next, and almost all the important figures shrink or swell accordingly. There are two versions: a 148bhp example, dubbed E-capability, with low 129g/km CO2 emissions and most likely a very small customer base, because it can’t be had with seven seats or the nine-speed automatic gearbox, and a 178bhp variant, which will have both of these things and be bought by almost everyone, despite its higher 139g/km.

For the record, that’s 27g/km less than the outgoing motor emits and less than Audi and BMW quotes for either a Q5 or X3. It’s a similar story with fuel economy, where the Sport’s wishful claimed combined figure of 53.3 mpg marginally outstrips the wishful claimed figure of either rival. In the real world, favourable first impressions of the Ingenium are instant by recalling the particulate waft and gnawing vibrations that emanated from its predecessor at ignition.

The replacement isn’t whisper-quiet, but the fact you can’t feel it through the control surfaces or, indeed, smell it are pleasantly sizeable advances. With the start-up improved, the aluminium unit spends all its time convincing you of its better manners at low speeds. This is instantaneous, too, given that one of the old engine’s worst vices was an inability to get underway without chronic hesitation. Despite still defaulting into second gear, with first being saved for muddy offroading or towing, step-off is now seamless.

Interaction with the nine-speed transmission in general far exceeds its previously cantankerous relationship. Inevitably, the ‘box favours a prompt downshift or two, but now the foraging torque band seems cleverly pre-arranged rather than irritatingly ad hoc. This is important because, knowing that many buyers would never dream of troubling the rev limiter, Land Rover has extracted as much low-end amenability as possible. Consequently, the Sport feels urgent even on a light throttle at medium to high speeds, with an immediate, crest-of-a-wave kind of momentum.

True, the 2.2-litre motor was not short on torque, either but this is a much sleeker brand of impetus, one delivered without any nasty swell, surge or splutter. And it’s crucial that this progressiveness feels well connected to your right foot, because the rest of the Sport continues to do such a sterling job, in turn, of making you feel well connected to the road.

The Ingenium’s biddable urgency is custom made for the car’s fabulous primary ride, effortlessly extending its handling advantage over the opposition despite the continued irritation of the secondary control. If that’s the chassis’s deficiency, the engine’s is its irrepressible volume. The toneless, bustling churn experienced with the old four-pot hasn’t been eradicated in the switch to the new one, and although you’re not going to notice at the kind of low revs that the nine-speed ‘box quickly tidies you into, you will when you’re accelerating – and being noisier in this phase than, say, a modest much older 1.6 TDI Volkswagen Golf probably isn’t where a £40k SUV of the Sport’s calibre ought to be.

Don’t expect the aural quality to dampen anyone’s enthusiasm for the Ingenium, though. Truth be told, so convincing are the Discovery Sport’s merits elsewhere – practically, dynamically, aesthetically – that we’d have settled for less (not unlike the early adopters of the first examples). As it is, the car’s new-found efficiency, refinement and responsiveness allow it easily to eclipse its older sibling – and just about everything else, for that matter.

Land Rover Discovery Sport TD4 180 HSE Luxury Auto

Price £43,000; Engine 4 cyls, 1999cc, turbodiesel; Power 178bhp at 4000rpm; Torque 317lb ft at 1750-2500rpm; Kerb weight 1884kg; Gearbox 9-spd automatic; 0-60mph 8.4sec; Top speed 117mph; Economy 53.3mpg (combined);CO2/tax band 139g/km, 25%

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