4x4 Mag - Land Rover Discovery - Short Term Road Test

Short Term Road Test

Landrover Discover 2.5 Di GS

Ask anybody to name a 4x4 vehicle, and most people's first reply will be "Landrover", and their second answer will probably be "Discovery". Yes, it is more than likely the most well known and popular 4 wheel drive vehicle on British roads today. Look in any supermarket carpark, and you will easily see just how popular the Discovery is, infact it's likely to be the only 4x4 in view.

I have often wondered just what it is that makes the Discovery so popular, but having never owned one, I could only guess that it must be an exceptional vehicle, with excellent build quality and superb performance. How wrong could I be.

The model in question is a 1998 GS 4 door with the good old 2.5 Di engine. This particular model had only 2,500 miles on the clock when I picked it up, and I have to admit that it looked splendid in it's dark blue metallic finish, with contrasting black five spoke alloys.

Looking around the car, I decided that it was indeed a good looking 4x4, with rugged yet stylish looks. It certainly had the look of quality that you would expect from the Landrover marque, and although this one wasn't a top model, it looked to be worth every pound of it's £????? new price.

Climbing inside I was greeted by a good solid interior, with the front seat proving to be comfortable straight away. Even inside this Landrover gave the impression of being a large and robust vehicle, designed to take the rough with the smooth. Everything seemed so solid and well put together. The driving position was very good, with the gear lever falling nicely to hand, and the pedals not too close together to make driving in wellingtons difficult. The whole cabin seemed to be very spacious, with the legroom in the back looking very reasonable. I decided that I was probably going to enjoy living with the Disco' afterall.

First impressions can be deceiving, and this one certainly was! Starting the engine gave me quite a shock. What a noise!! And the vibrations were definately not welcome. The whole dashboard was transformed from what I considered to be a solid practical design, to a vibrating rattling nightmare. With this, and the clatter from under the bonnet, I honestly thought that I had broken something. Raising the revs seemed to bring the dash back under control, but the noise levels from the engine just got worse. I decided that this was probably just a case of a cold diesel engine, and that once warm, the unit would smooth out, and the idle speed improve. It did, but not by much.

Selecting first gear proved to be a pleasant experience, which I have to admit was unexpected, the short gear lever snicked smoothly into gear, with none of the baulking I expected from a Landrover gearbox. The clutch was light and had plenty of 'feel' for what the vehicle was doing. Pulling away, I realised that this was by no means a smooth power unit. Vibrations could be felt through both the floor and the seats, although by the time the engine had reached about 3500 rpm, the vibes had died down, but the noise levels increased, with the engine now producing a dull rumble as well as the clatter of diesel knock. This was certainly an engine that encouraged the driver to 'short shift' up the gearbox, just to keep the noise levels down. At least the gearbox was a delight to use, with all gears selecting beautifully, and with suprisingly little vibration coming through the gear lever. The engine actually pulled the Disco' very well, and once the turbo came on boost at about 2000 rpm, the car suddenly picked up it's feet and surged forward, only to run out of energy again by about 3500 rpm.

Once on the move and travelling at motorway speeds, the noise from the diesel engine did die down slightly, but I have to say that I was very disappointed by the overall noise levels of this car. An old Isuzu Trooper I once owned was certainly more refined than the Disco', and the Trooper had covered some 120,000 miles! The performance was, however, very good. The car pulled cleanly up to and beyond motorway speeds, pulling strongly from 70MPH in 5th gear, and really quite smoothly as well. Only the noise levels were really a let down. Keeping up with normal road traffic was no problem at all for the Landrover, allthough the initial pulling away could be a little slow. This was probably due to either a tall first gear, or the engine not being on 'boost' yet, but once that the turbo did come in, away she went. Ignoring the strained noises from the engine compartment meant that the engine could be kept in the boost range, and so keep the Disco' flying along. It also seemed that no matter which way I adjusted the comfortable driving seat, I just couldn't get a clear view of the switches surrounding the instrument binnacle. Infact the steering wheel totally covered most of these switches, which by the way still looked as though they belonged in an old Austin Allegro or Sherpa van.

Actual ride quality was very good. The suspension on this Landrover product has obviously been developed with off road use in mind, but the designers have still mana