News : Land Rover unveils facelifted Discovery

Land Rover Discovery 4 (2)

The update of the Land Rover Discovery completed the 2014 refresh of Solihull’s model line-up. The facelifted Land Rover benefits from improved fuel consumption, subtle styling changes and improved audio systems. It will be officially launched at the Frankfurt Motor Show before but is already available to order with the first cars arriving here in mid-November.

At the front the Discovery gets a new grille and bumper plus redesigned headlights with daytime running lights with a distinctive swoop. The badging has changed too with Discovery now written on the bonnet rather than Land Rover. There are also two new alloy wheel designs while the optional Black Design Pack – which includes 20-inch black alloys – is still available.

The engine badging no longer features on the tailgate, instead it’s moved to the front doors, giving the back a cleaner appearance. Just one engine is available – the 3.0 SDV6 with 255bhp and an eight-speed automatic gearbox. It’s been improved though with economy up to 35.3mpg and CO2 down from 230g/km to 213g/km meaning a big drop in annual VED.

New features for the 2014 Discovery include Wade Sensing, Blind Spot Monitoring, Closing Vehicle Sensing, Reverse Traffic Detection and T-junction Cameras. It will also be available with a Meridian audio system. The standard system has eight speakers and 380 Watts of power, while the Meridian Surround system produces an impressive 825 Watts output and features 17 speakers.

 

Keith Adams

31 Comments

  1. I don’t like the “D I S C O V E R Y” script on the bonnet.

    I can understand that LR are trying to make their models into their own sub-brands, but makes it look like a premiership footballer edition by some European tuning house.

    • Absolutely. The DISCOVERY brand is about 1/10th as well known, respected and valuable at the LAND ROVER brand. I’ve made one huge commitment and ordered one (even though I still prefer the look of the pre facelift car!) and one of my first jobs will be to correct this horrible badging error! Roll on August or September….

    • That’s actually quite a difficult mistake to make. Look closer and check the badging. Do you see it? That’s right; there’s no sign of a “BMW”, “Audi”, “Porsche” or “Mercedes” badge, is there?!

  2. Not sure about DISCOVERY on the bonnet…. Other than that I think it still looks awesome, and I’d still love to own one. Although if they couldn’t put LAND ROVER on the bonnet I’d have it without any badges at all.

  3. Oh my god , more electronics !!! Just what Land Rover owners need , more unreliability from poor electronic architecture !Dont Land Rover pay any attention to JD reliability surveys ??
    .

  4. The drop in CO2 below the 225g threshold will help make this vehicle relevant again.

    As the owner of a Freelander 2 from new, I’d be horrified by the idea of “Freelander” being imblazoned accross the bonnet, in place of Land Rover; very tacky!

    They’re obviously very proud of their new Land Rover look as they try to apply the current front end style to the older Disco. Not sure how happliy it sits though.

  5. The drop in CO2 below the 225g threshold will help make this vehicle relevant again.

    As the owner of a Freelander 2 from new, I’d be horrified by the idea of “Freelander” being emblazoned across the bonnet, in place of Land Rover; very tacky!

    They’re obviously very proud of their new Land Rover look as they try to apply the current front end style to the older Disco. Not sure how happliy it sits though.

  6. Agreed, about the comments on the ‘Discovery’ script for the bonnet. However, I am sure if a prospective owner made enough unfavourable noises about it, Land Rover dealers would remove it and replace it with the familiar ‘Land Rover’ script for a small outlay, particularly if a sale depended on it.

    I don’t think the alloy wheel design featured in the press photo is actually one of the two new designs as this design looks rather familiar to a hardcore Disco fan such as myself.

    The Discovery is still the Land Rover model I would most love to own, after a late model Range Rover Classic, and I hope the Discovery’s legacy (which undoubtedly saved Land Rover’s bacon in the late 1980s and into the 1990s) continues. Beyond the Discovery 4 I hope there will be an all-new generation model to follow, particularly as I am getting slightly bored with the wealth of recent activity focusing on just the Range Rover portfolio and its associated premium pricing.

    I must remember to put finger to keyboard early next year for aronline, as 2014 is the 25th anniversary of the Discovery.

  7. Oh, dear, another bling bling motor for the shaven headed & tattooed classes. Moving further and further from the original Discovery concept.

    Rather have my D2.

  8. What’s with the “D I S C O V E R Y” bonnet logo? Somewhere else it was suggested that LR are attempting to push “Discovery” as a brand in its own right. Eventually will there be anything left actually called a Land Rover?

  9. I think the standard fitment of a non turbo diesel V6 (and the only engine option on it) is a big step forward for the Discovery;it pushes out a little bit more economy for your tankful and and reduces the excessively high CO2 levels to a more reasonable level. A turbodiesel V6 and the ridiculous 4.8/4.4L V8 petrol did NO favours for fuel economy nor CO2 emissions at all and were at best excessive.

  10. @ Anthony:

    Quote: ” think the standard fitment of a non turbo diesel V6 (and the only engine option on it) is a big step forward for the Discovery;it pushes out a little bit more economy for your tankful and and reduces the excessively high CO2 levels to a more reasonable level.”

    The Discovery 4 is fitted with a twin-turbocharged 3-litre diesel engine. The Discovery 3, which was superseded by the updated Discovery 4 in 2009, had a single turbocharged 2.7 litre TDV6 engine. There has never been a non-turbocharged diesel offered in the Discovery. The extra turbo actually made the vehicle slightly more economical and lower on emissions too.

  11. I though The LR Disco SDV6 was just a standard diesel engine without a turbo on it? I didn’t mean the TDV6 version. The SDV6 is a little bit more economical on the diesel, the TDV6 version pushes out a claimed 30mpg if you don’t have a leadfoot speedfreakish attitude to driving it.

  12. As I understand it The “DISCOVERY” on the bonnet is marketing. I have heard all the “family” Land Rovers will be labelled Discovery. That includes the replacement for the Freelander 5 seater and new 7 seater if it see the light of day. All the luxury vehicles are RANGE ROVERS as a brand already. Not sure if any new Defender range will follow suite.
    Personally I think it will lose something in doing this although I understand they want to streamline and simplify. I think “DISCOVERY” just above the bumper would be better as “LAND ROVER” on the bonnet has cache if I may use that pretentious term.
    Apart from that facelift is good and distinctive….IMHO

  13. Lose the lettering altogether.

    The more I look at it, the more it looks like the bonnet lettering on a Vauxhall Victor.

    A badgeless bonnet would compliment the rest of the clean line design.

  14. Back in the seventies I saw a Range Rover parked near Sloane Square with the bonnet lettering altered to read “HANG OVER”.

  15. If the ‘Discovery’ bonnet branding does make it into production – I think it looks tacky myself – then one would think that the US ‘LR4’ branding of the disco will be dropped and reverting back to the Discovery model name? or will US models retain the LR4 name and thus the full ‘Land Rover’ badge?

    Apart from the dodgy bonnet branding… I cant see much that has changed to get excited about; which in many ways isn’t such a bad thing.

  16. It doesn’t have any numberplates on it. Thats an MOT fail there.

    @Landyboy
    I work with someone who has a Defender for towing horse boxes, as a secret santa someone got her a mug with the Land Rover logo that says “Randy Lover” 🙂

    @Michael
    Good point, the Disco was sold as LR3/4 while the Freelander was sold as LR2. The title of the LR USA website says “Luxury SUVs” – they’ve positioned themselves right in that market.
    I’d assumed it was some trademark dispute with Discovery channel?
    Will there be a market for US spec LR bonnet badging? 🙂

  17. @ Michael:

    I seem to recall there is something in the official Press Release which mentions that the badging for a couple of export markets, including North America, will not change.

    @ all:

    The various comments about the ‘Discovery’ badging on the bonnet edge (which I too have previously commented on) takes me back 31 years to when the new Rover SD1 Vitesse was announced and it displayed ‘Vitesse’ graphics on the lower door flanks. Within six months the feature had become a deletable option due to a large percentage of potential buyers not liking it. Perhaps the same will apply to the ‘Discovery’ badge too.

  18. Minor update: with its final revision before the all new aluminium car next year, the engine has been revised to Euro 6 spec, meaning AdBlue (and even more electronics!), CO2 rating down to 203g (which is a bit meaningless, as it fits in exactly the same tax bands) and an improvement in the government mpg figures of around 1%, which is handy as the saving will just about pay for the AdBlue!

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