The Land Rover Discovery Sport is a 5-door SUV from Land Rover, built from 2014, as electrification stopped being an experiment and the crossover took every market. Under the bonnet: 2015MY. Gerry McGovern drew it.
Where it came from
The Land Rover Discovery Sport (internal code L550) is a compact luxury crossover SUV produced by British automotive company Jaguar Land Rover since 2014. Sold under their Land Rover marque, it has been their best-selling model since 2017. Introduced in late 2014, it replaces the Freelander in a revised Land Rover range of vehicles, with Discovery joining Range Rover as a sub-brand. Contrary to its predecessor, the slightly larger car is also available in a seven seat layout.
The pre-facelift Discovery Sport is based on the JLR D8/LR-MS platform, customised for off-road applications, and is powered by a range of four cylinder petrol and diesel engines. It is the first Discovery built with a unibody structure. Land Rover described the facelifted Discovery Sport as being based on the JLR PTA platform, a rebrand of the D8. It is also used by the Jaguar E-Pace and L551 version of Range Rover Evoque.
Under the skin
Power comes from 2015MY; other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. It weighs 1744 -. It shifts through a 6–speed Getrag M66EH50 Manual transmission / manual / 8-Speed AWF8F35 / Aisin Automatic transmission / automatic (PHEV) / 9–speed ZF Friedrichshafen / ZF ZF 9HP transmission / 9-HP. The wheelbase is 2741 mm. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
In context
Its family tree is legible: it took over from the Land Rover Freelander; assembly was at Halewood. Its contemporaries in the catalogue — the Ferrari 488, the Infiniti Q50, the Ford Escort — show what else the money bought that year. Nearby in the Land Rover catalogue sit the Land Rover Defender L663 and the Land Rover Discovery series.
What it costs now
EPA combined economy is 22 mpg, about $4,100 a year in fuel at the EPA's assumptions. Condition, mileage and specification move any single car a long way from a headline figure.