After months of spy photos and teaser images, the 2017 Land Rover Discovery made its official debut at the Paris auto show. The next-gen Discovery shares design cues with its Range Rover and Discovery Sport siblings, signaling a stark evolution from the LR4 that it replaces in North America, Auto News wrote.
While the Discovery features a range of off-road friendly options, it also is filled with comfort features for trips that don’t leave the pavement.
Here’s what people are saying about the Land Rover Discovery.
“Style-wise, however, the vehicle hews more closely to the pattern of the smaller Discovery Sport. The resemblance is evident in the shape of the C-pillar, the clamshell hood, the body-size groove that runs rearward from the front fender vents, and even the way DISCOVERY is spelled out on the leading edge of the hood and on the liftgate. The windshield is more steeply raked than the outgoing model’s, and the taillights go from vertical to horizontal. Gone are the LR4’s slab side and the rear quarter-glass that extends into the roof. Vestiges of the LR4 can be seen only in the faintly stepped roofline and in the asymmetrical housing for the rear license plate.”
— Joe Lorio, Car and Driver
“Meet the new Discovery. Land Rover calls it ‘the best family SUV in the world,’ and while that’s a pretty bold claim, we have to admit, the new rig looks pretty impressive on paper — with a luxurious seven-seat interior and a bunch of technology and off-road capability. Considering we’d already seen a near-production prototype in the wild, an official photo of the front end, and several other leaked pictures, the look of the new Discovery isn’t much of a surprise. But it wears its styling well, drawing from both the Range Rover and the smaller Discovery Sport. Like the exterior, the interior design is what you’d expect in a new Land Rover. You get big, chunky controls, a 10-inch touchscreen, leather everywhere, and the Jaguar/Land Rover corporate dial-shifter.”
— Collin Woodard, Road & Track
“So sure, it’s a total suburban yuppie-mobile with power rear seats that can fold with a cell-phone app, dropping rear air suspension for easy grocery loading, a rear foot sensor for opening the tailgate, stadium seating, tons of storage cubbies, USBs in all rows, parallel and perpendicular park assist, adaptive cruise control with automatic braking, lane keep assist, and a whole bunch of other features that would make this SUV perfect for rich families from Connecticut. But that doesn’t mean this new Disco won’t kick major ass off-road.”
— David Tracy, Jalopnik
“The fact that one of the most touted features of the just-unveiled-today fifth-generation Land Rover Discovery is a smartphone app — one that lets you configure the interior seating remotely — would surely come as a shock to Maurice Wilks, the British auto exec most responsible for the creation of the original Land Rover. That first Land Rover was a no-nonsense vehicle if ever there was one, so frivolities like being able to fold down seats at will while you are still in the department store paying for your goodies might seem a bit silly to the marque’s founder. Yet, as an executive of an auto company, he surely would have seen a crowd-pleaser like the Intelligent Seat Fold technology as a sales floor wow factor and something folks would be bound to tell the neighbors about. And for that reason alone it is undoubtedly worth the considerable engineering effort that went into it. In the wrong hands the whole effort could have become a bloody mess.”
— Jack R. Nerad, Kelley Blue Book.com
“There are several reasons why you need the new Land Rover Discovery. It’s a proper seven-seat SUV, and you can configure the seats from your smart phone (no, really), it’s semi-autonomous so you’ve got an extra pair of eyes on the road, it’s leaner and cleaner than ever, it starts at $50,985 in the U.S. (43,495 British pounds) and it’s equipped with off-road capabilities that’d embarrass Bear Grylls. Then there are the connectivity options – you can option up to nine USB ports, four 12-volt charging points and an in-car 3G WiFi hotspot for up to eight devices. But mostly, well, look at it. Your average Landy this most certainly isn’t.”
— GQ
“Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that the 2017 Discovery isn’t handsome. It is. But it’s also deeply familiar, looking perhaps too similar to other current-day Land Rovers, especially the Range Rover Sport and, somewhat confusingly, the Discovery Sport, a less-expensive model family that also has three rows of seats. As the last stylistic holdout of Land Rover’s rectilinear school of design that defined its previous-generation models, the old LR4 stood out thanks to its upright utilitarianism, a style that somehow managed to be both honest and premium.”
— Chris Paukert, Road Show by CNET
“Discovery has been a phenomenal success for Land Rover, selling over 1.2 million in 27 years and introducing the brand to many loyal customers. First look at the new model is that the appliance of refinement has somehow made it less authentic and the new one looks less like what it can do than any of its predecessors. We’ll have to see what the market makes of this move.”
— Autoblog
“Previously called the LR3 and LR4 in North America, the fifth generation Discovery looks a lot more like its compact crossover cousin, the Discovery Sport. It features a tapered backside, rounded front end and sculpted accent marks along the sides that smack more of suburban chic than safari rugged.”
— Kyle Campbell, New York Daily News
“Land Rover’s recent growth spurt is based on exceptional product execution in the popular luxury SUV segments. The new Discovery continues this pattern, making it the latest premium, capable and attractive SUV to join LR’s product line. With advance seating options, a new exterior and expanded drivetrain choices the new Disco will be another hit with upmarket SUV buyers.”
— Karl Brauer, senior analyst at Kelley Blue Book
