REYKJAVIK, ICELAND –

What’s this then?

This, here, is the new Land Rover Discovery Sport.

Hmm. So it’s a sportier version of the Discovery?

Erm, no, not really. Rather, it’s actually a smaller vehicle that effectively takes the place of the Freelander in Land Rover’s line-up. The Discovery Sport also marks the first car to result from Land Rover’s model range reshuffling, with three distinct lines of vehicles that cater to different target markets. The Range Rover line (including the Evoque) will be positioned right at the top end, majoring on refinement and luxury. The Discovery series will focus on practicality, while the hardcore Defender line will place its emphasis on pure ruggedness.

I see. So it’s the Freelander’s replacement then?

Yes and no. While it does technically fill the void of the Freelander when that model goes out of production, Land Rover never actually set out to make the Disco Sport as such. It just happened to fit in the space vacated by the Freelander, so it’s a happy coincidence of sorts, maybe. Indeed, the Disco Sport feels like a different car altogether from the Freelander, being noticeably longer, and boasting of a sleeker stance thanks to its slightly lowered roofline. Certainly, its styling is quite befitting of its ‘Sport’ moniker, which is no surprise given that it is based upon the equally sleek Range Rover Evoque.

Cool. What else is new?

Remember when I said that the Discovery cars will focus on practicality? Well, the Disco Sport will live up to that promise, or at least, try to. It will come with the option for seven seats, which is certainly very useful, and is very much in line with the Discovery tradition. LR though are very upfront and honest about the rear seats’ capabilities, christening them as a ‘5+2’ seating arrangement. Even in their press materials the company states that the last row is best suited ‘for children or teenagers’, or ‘adults on short journeys’. That’ll be your mother-in-law then.

Right. So I assume it drives like a big ponderous school bus then, like all the other seven-seater SUVs

Not quite. Despite the growth spurt over the Freelander, the Disco Sport is still a relative compact vehicle, standing in at 4,590mm in length. This makes it smaller than most of its rivals in the market, like the BMW X3 and Audi Q5, neither of which offers seven seats. Interestingly, Land Rover also rates cars like the Hyundai Santa Fe and Nissan X-Trail as among its competitors, presumably based on the seven-seater requirement.

Those compact dimensions are one of the elements that help contribute towards the Disco Sport having a rather, erm, sporty drive. As well, the car also had a very solid base from which to start with anyway, in the form of the Evoque. Of course, the platform and structure has been modified somewhat to cope with the extra load that the rear has to handle, but nevertheless as a whole the Disco Sport feels like a truly nimble compact SUV to punt around in, with light but accurate steering and decent on-road handling manners.

The car we spent the most time with during our drive was the 2.2-litre diesel with 190bhp (for some odd reason LR feels that this variant will be a big seller in South East Asian markets, and reserved the petrol test units for the Japanese press), and the unit generally felt pretty smooth and refined, helped along by the excellent nine-speed ZF automatic gearbox that is already seeing use in the Evoque. It’s hard to make a representative judgement though, given that the cars we drove were set up to tackle the unforgiving conditions of Iceland, meaning winter tyres that compromised ride quality, and having to stick to strictly enforced speed limits for safety.

Driving in Iceland? Harsh! How did the car take it?

I’m fine, thank you. Didn’t turn into an ice cube, in case you were wondering.

In all seriousness, we faced some incredibly tricky winter conditions in Iceland, with snow-covered roads causing even our winter tyre-shod 4x4s to lose traction. Also, strong winds blowing powdery snow across the road meant that at some points, visibility was down to almost zero. For people like us who are unaccustomed to such wintry conditions, to say that they were scary will be quite the understatement.

Still, there has to be a reason for Land Rover to bring us here, other than wanting to see poor Asian journalists freeze to death in the turgid cold. Given that a car like this is bound to attract criticism that they will only be used for school runs and therefore not be a ‘real’ 4×4, having the Disco Sport tackle conditions like these will go a long way to prove that, when the going gets tough, the Disco can still get you going, as long as you tread carefully. Its Terrain Response system allows you to set the car up to take on various road conditions, by adjusting things such as the engine, gearbox, differential, suspension and steering accordingly. There are five settings: General Driving for normal road use, Dynamic (basically the lazy man setting, in which the car will tune the settings on the fly in changeable conditions), Sand, Mud and Ruts, and Grass/Gravel/Snow. Guess which one we used the most.

So you survived then?

Unless I’m writing this from an unearthly place, then yes, it seems I did. Which goes to show that the Discovery Sport is very much a capable off-roader in the classic Land Rover sense, and not just a ‘soft-roader’ like many other pretenders. To be able to tackle steep inclines in a violent snow storm is no ordinary feat, and one that is to be appreciated whether you live in Iceland or Singapore.

NEED TO KNOW: Land Rover Discovery Sport 2.2 SD4

Engine 2,179cc, 16V, turbo diesel inline-four
Power 190bhp at 3500rpm
Torque 420Nm at 1750rpm
Gearbox 9-speed automatic
Top Speed 188km/h
0-100kmh 8.9 seconds
Fuel Efficiency 6.1L/100km
CO2 161g/km

Price To Be Announced
Availability Q2 2015