News : Land Rover Discovery 5 previewed before Paris launch

Keith Adams

New Discovery (1)

Land Rover has released these two teaser images of the next-generation Discovery. The pictures come ahead of its official launch on 28 September – just three days before the Paris Motor Show opens to the public.

The all-new model will take its styling lead from the 2014 Land Rover Discovery Vision Concept, sharing many of its styling cues with the Discovery Sport. This will complete the transformation of Land Rover’s model range and establish a very different design language to its Range Rover-badged sister cars. It also continues Jaguar Land Rover’s development policy, which favours evolution over revolution, and platform sharing.

The Ingenium four-cylinder and 3.0-litre TDV6-powered models will be considerably lighter and more efficient than the current 2.7-tonne car. The larger in-line six-cylinder Ingenium will follow later. They need to be more efficient – and using the aluminium platform that underpins the Range Rover, Sport and Discovery Sport makes this possible. It remains to be seen whether the new car will be as adaptable a working vehicle as the current model – certainly, it looks as though the more upmarket, lifestyle-oriented model will lose its upright rear door and Alpine windows, even if it retains its seven-seater configuration.

Gerry McGovern, Land Rover’s Chief Design Officer, said: ‘The new Discovery redefines the large SUV. Land Rover’s design and engineering teams have revolutionised the Discovery DNA to create a highly desirable, extremely versatile and hugely capable premium SUV.’

Will the Discovery lose its carefully-nurtured classless image along the way? We’ll find out at the end of the month.

New Discovery (2)

Keith Adams

32 Comments

  1. Another sure fire winner for JLR securing more jobs in Solihull. I just hope it has not gone further up the price scale from the Discovery 4.

  2. DNA looks to be in similar fashion to the Disco Sport and the Rangies but wasn’t that the Disco’s card – it was different from the other models?

  3. Admittedly I am somewhat disappointed by the styling as it appears to share no design DNA with either of its three predecessors (Discovery 3 and 4 were essentially the same generation vehicle) such as the stepped roofline. Instead it has too much visual reference to design cues found on the smaller Discovery Sport and some Range Rovers.

    A case of more of the same thing, albeit with a difference badge? It certainly won’t look like it will be comfortable with mud splattered up the sides; something the current Discovery 4 always seems to look unfazed by. More Tara Palmer-Tomkinson in designer patent leather high heels than Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle.

    Make no mistake, it will undoubtedly sell, but it certainly seems to have departed from the spirit of adventure and ‘big boys climbing frame’ functional honesty that many Discovery owners love.

  4. Wow but that is ugly, it even manages to out ugly the others..
    It screams “I’m a chav, but I’ve got money (or my husband/boyfriend/master *delete as applicable has anyway” or especially in the brown reminds me a little of Arkwright for open all hours if he had a bad case of dysentery.
    The current car is a really nice looking upgrade of the original, but this is worthy of an anti-design award, it’s what you’d get if the guy off bangla bangers had just come off a six week magic mushroom binge.
    I really really hope this is a design study!
    Incidentally, has anyone looked at the new GS in the flesh, it actually looks OK, but what happened to the boot? Did someone forget there was supposed to be one in there until the last minute? It’s tiny.

    • Same as the Mokka, got one as a hire car last year as they were out of Astras, the boot could only hold a single suitcase and hand luggage set! Back seat luggage meant we didn’t want to stop off anywhere until we got checked in.

      • But the GS is huge, where did all the space go? It’s like someone took a TARDIS and pulled it inside out.. Did they forget that the natural state of the common airbag is to be deflated?

    • Ugly?
      The styling is spot on – Managing to achieve both a more premium & futuristic look.
      Granted that colour isn’t the most flattering. It would look very handsome in silver or grey.

      It probably has now lost its “classless” image though.

  5. Have to agree with some of the comments here. The Disco was always a classy looking SUV that could take on any terrain, but this just looks overly aggressive (why do all cars now have to look aggressive? Reviewers write things like “imposing front” like it is a good thing) and blingy. I guess we’re living in the dystopian future that 1980s movies promised.

    • For some time I’ve noticed this and thought the same way.

      Would you want to like a person who scowled at you in the way most modern cars do?

  6. I think we need to see the full thing before passing too much judgement. JLR’s policy of small changes from one generation to the next had led to a lot of Range Rover models that look the same, which I find a bit dissapointing. Great sales figures though , so they obviously know what they’re doing

  7. Gawd, it looks as though it has just crawled out of a swamp . I hate to say this, but this relentless progression from LR of cars that look worse and worse, is horribly reminiscent of the 1800 / Maxi /Allegro fiasco ( except that compared with Evoque and this Disco, they were good looking )

  8. Oh, and incidentally, I do wish it would finally dawn on some of these spokespeople that cars do not have DNA ( a phrase that makes me shudder every time I hear it ) and that neither do they have the qualities of effigies in an Orthodox Church

    • They do have one thing in common with the Icons of Orthodox Christianity – governments occasionally tend to decide to smash them up for no apparent or well thought out reason..
      I think however some cars could be said to have DNA, I bet the DNA sequence of the Allegro and the Marburg virus would be surprisingly similar, as are the effects on the host organism, so to speak. Aka (for those who haven’t read Ken Alibeks excellent book) haemorrhaging from every orifice (and/or shutline).
      Quite what this abominations DNA might prove to be are as yet unknown, but it’s probably a result of either some serious after hours inbreeding (hopefully sans humans, as that would be nasty; not to mention possible serious burns) , or the early arrival of beer’o’clock on a Friday.

  9. It’s got that ‘Bitchy resting face’ that a lot of women seem to have nowadays 😀

    Why can’t they make it classy like the previous model??

  10. I have to agree with Will M, there is enough aggression on the roads nowadays, so why designers and reviewers have to make a aggressive look a virtue escapes me.

  11. “This will complete the transformation of Land Rover’s model range and establish a very different design language to its Range Rover-badged sister cars. ”

    We haven’t seen this prpoerly, but that’s my one concern, as the LR and RR vehicles are getting a bit close. The Disco 3 and RR Sport were sister cars but very different looking, whereas this to me looks too much like a RR Evoque at the front.

  12. Likely gearbox, DPF, suspension problems coupled with numerous electrical gremlins and indifferent/clueless dealerships. Either lease one or buy two so you will hopefully have one on the road at a time.

    • In 12 months and 30,000 miles this has not been my experience at all. It’s been perfectly reliable and the dealer has been pretty reasonable. My previous 4 years and 150,000 ish miles with Freelander 2’s were very similar (except for one dealer, who’s now blacklisted by me).

      Having had a half hour conversation with two of the drivers from Highways England, where they triple shift D4’s to 250,000 – 330,000 miles over 3 years, was that they are extremely reliable and (shockingly) more reliable than the Shoguns that they also use!

      Still, I’m sure that the legendary stories of unreliability will run and run irrespective of the facts.

  13. I like it but it’s a shame the alpine windows have gone.

    I also don’t find the look aggressive at all and hope that like the Discovery Sport it looks like a sensible and less blingy version of the equivalent Range Rover.

    Also good to see the man who designed the MGF still with Rover

    • He did spend several years away from Rover, only returning in 2004, which was too late to do make any design contribution to the D3 which is, I suspect, why it doesn’t also look like an Evoque!

  14. As the owner of one of the last Disco 4’s I’m bitterly disappointed by what I’ve seen so far; it really does seem that LR just don’t understand that the market for this car is completely different from the rest of the range. The D4 was the last outpost for the utterly functional Land Rover. Heck, even the fold down tailgate has gone (one of the car’s most prized features amongst owners) and now it’s just like most other estate cars. What we have year is yet another variation on the Evoque theme.

    It might sell well, but not to many of those that have previously made the Disco such a consistent seller.

  15. Additional images of a disguised Discovery 5 have been released today to support another press release relating to “intelligent seat technology”. From studying the images it suggests there is a ‘token’ reference to a stepped roofline although it is only emphasised by the inclusion of roof rails. Even then you have to look closely at the images to appreciate there is a slight variation in the roof’s profile. From a functional perspective it is not attempting to increase rear headroom for those sitting in the rear row of seats.

    The photos also suggest the Discovery 5 will have two sunroofs but there are no side Alpine windows.

  16. Good point well made “M”.

    It is a discussion about a car, not an opportunity to deride those one sees as below oneself…

  17. Only another 2 days to the official launch now! Very interested to see how brace they’ll be with the pricing..,

    Still a shame that the D4 didn’t carry on alongside it for a while (a Disco “Classic”, if you like). One for those that use them as genuine working cars and one for those who’ll take them to the golf course. That’s all the bases covered!

  18. Having seen an awful lot of photographs in the past week and been invited to the launch of the Discovery 5 I personally feel that Landrover have missed a trick here. The Discovery and its forbears had a distinctive character which in part was its appeal, here of course one would add, so did the Defender, but thats another story.Looking at the current range it would appear that all the models are morphing into the `Evoque` look. Gizmos and electronic wizardry in abundance but sometimes something needs to show individuality as a priority and not design uniformity.My wife and I are picking up a Discovery 4 in a weeks time, I feel that it will be the final vehicle that Landrover makes that can be called different and that stands out from the crowd……….or is sentimentality clouding my vision?

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