Land Rover Discovery 2008
Amabella Tevebaugh
Although the Range Rover had originally been designed as an everyday four wheel drive car that could be used as both a utility vehicle and a family car, it had progressively moved upmarket through its life to evolve into a luxury vehicle sold at a much higher price point. The Discovery was intended to fulfill the role the Range Rover originally was intended for; a segment which was now dominated by Japanese rivals such as the Nissan Patrol, Mitsubishi Pajero and Toyota Land Cruiser. Although positioned below the Range Rover in the company's line-up, the vehicle was both longer and higher, offered more room in the back, and optionally also more seats. Space utilization became more sophisticated in later iterations, but the series keeps offering seats for seven occupants. Despite originally being sold as an affordable alternative to the Range Rover, the Discovery has also progressively moved upmarket through its successive generations to become a bonafide luxury SUV.
The second Discovery (1998) was called the Series II, and though featuring an extended rear body, was otherwise an updated facelift, which carried on the 100 in (2,540 mm) wheelbase frame and rigid, live front and rear axles of the original Range Rover into 2004.
The fifth iteration of the Discovery, introduced in 2017, no longer sports a numeric suffix. Unlike the previous two generations, it now benefits from a unitized body structure, making it lighter than its predecessor.
The Discovery was Land Rover's first model that was positioned as a family car, designed to be both fully off-road capable and suitable as a daily driver for any family, even offering more luggage space and optionally more seats than the Range Rover. The Mark I Discovery remains the only model offered as a three-door, and was the only one available with a four-cylinder petrol engine until 2017.[4]
At launch, the Discovery was only available as a three-door model; the original 64 press demonstrator examples (carrying Gxxx WAC license numbers - hence being nicknamed "G-WAC"s by Land Rover enthusiasts)[citation needed] are increasingly prized. The five-door version followed in 1990. Both were fitted with five seats, with the option to have two jump seats fitted in the boot. Compared to the Range Rover, the Discovery was given a slightly longer rear which was further extended on the series II. In order to make room for optional third row jump seats, the spare wheel had to move to the outside of the car, fitted to a side-swinging rear door, instead of the Range Rover's split tailgate. The roof of the rear section of the car was raised, to create sufficient headroom in the third row. Combined with a safari side window cluster, this gave the Discovery its own distinct look and profile.
Land Rover employed an external consultancy, Conran Design Group, to design the interior. They were instructed to ignore current car interior design and position the vehicle as a 'lifestyle accessory'. Their interior incorporated a number of original features, although some ideas shown on the original interior mock-ups (constructed inside a Range Rover bodyshell at Conran's workshops) were left on the shelf, such as a custom sunglasses holder built into the centre of the steering wheel. The design was unveiled to critical acclaim and won a British Design Award in 1989.
In 1992, the Discovery received several additions and improvements. The interior was offered in a more traditional beige as well as the distinctive (but controversial) light blue, an automatic gearbox was made available on 200Tdi models, new colours were added to the range (and the large 'compass and mountain' side decals worn by early Discoveries to disguise wavy panel fit around the rear three quarter windows were no longer fitted) and the 'SE' pack (incorporating alloy wheels, front driving lights, roof bars and a special range of metallic paints) was introduced as an option. A two-seater, three-door Discovery Commercial version, lacking rear-side windows, was later offered by Land Rover Special Vehicles.
Before 1994, the Discovery was available with either the 2.5-litre 200 Tdi engine or the 3.5-litre Rover V8. Early V8 engines used a twin SU carburettor system, switching to Lucas 14CUX fuel injection in 1990. A 2.0-litre petrol engine from the Rover stable was briefly available in a model known as the 2.0-litre Mpi I4. This was intended to attract fleet managers, since UK (and Italian) tax laws benefitted vehicles under 2.0 litres. A combination of changes in taxation and lack of power for such a heavy vehicle led to the demise of this engine, despite its fitting to several Discoveries supplied to the British royal family. One of these was notably driven by Prince Philip around Windsor Great Park, in his position as Park Ranger.
The transmission was a permanent four-wheel drive system, with a high and low range transfer box, locking centre differential at the transfer box. Similarly to the rest of the Land Rover range, the handbrake acts on the transmission at the back of the transfer box, therefore locking the rear prop shaft or both front and rear prop shafts if the central differential lock is engaged.
In 1994, many changes were made to the Discovery. It reached some markets as the "Discovery 2"; the 200Tdi and 3.5 L V8 engines were replaced with the 2.5 L 300Tdi 4-cylinder and 3.9-litre Rover V8 engines. The 300Tdi introduced a Bosch electronic emissions control for certain models and markets. At around this time, a stronger R380 gearbox was fitted to all manual models. The newer models featured larger headlamps and a second set of rear lights in the bumper. The new rear lights had their wiring configuration changed several times to meet real or expected European safety legislation. Some vehicles were left with an arrangement where the vulnerable bumper contains the only working direction-indicator lights; other examples have these lights duplicated in the traditional rear pillar location. The interior was completely revised, dispensing with most of the Conran-designed original. An all new "soft feel" dashboard was introduced (a derivative of which was also used in the run-out Range Rover Classic), which replaced most of the components from the Maestro and Montego with the switchgear and instrument pack now coming from the R17-series Rover 800. The new design allowed the fitment of airbags and a proper locking glove box replaced the zip bag of the original interior.
The 1994 model year marked the first year that the Land Rover Discovery was sold in the United States. Airbags were incorporated into the design of the 1994 model to meet the requirements of US motor vehicle safety regulations, though they were not fitted as standard in all markets. All North American specification (NAS) models were fitted with the 3.9-litre V8 from the Range Rover SE models, and later models saw a change to the 4.0-litre version of the engine.[8]
Technically speaking, the 1996-98 US models with 4.0-litre engines had the same displacement as the 3.9-litre engines fitted to the earlier 1994-95 US models; the differences between the engines involved improvements to the block rigidity and pistons, and a change from the Lucas 14CUX engine management to the distributor-less Generic Engine Management System ("GEMS"). In earlier 3.9-litre US engines, the fuel injection computer (14CUX) did not control the ignition, which was instead controlled by a traditional system with an ignition coil and distributor made by Lucas. The GEMS system was developed jointly by Lucas and SAGEM; it controlled both spark timing and fuel injection. Unlike the earlier systems fitted to Rover V8 engines, GEMS was made OBD-II compliant. This change was largely driven by the federal requirement (starting in 1996) for vehicles sold in the United States to meet the OBD-II specification.
In Japan, a badge-engineered version of the Discovery I was offered, called the Honda Crossroad. The Rover companies had a cross-holding relationship with Honda UK since the early-1980s. The relationship ended after Rover was taken over by German carmaker BMW in 1994. (Honda revived the nameplate 'Crossroad' in another small sport utility vehicle in 2007).
In the Republic of Ireland, local tax laws meant that the first ever example of a Discovery Commercial (van) was launched there in 1991. A revised version was launched in 1993, shortly after the UK market example of late 1992. The Irish examples have formed the basis of the Discovery's success and high sales there, as commercial models are on a much lower tax band.
The Series II Discovery debuted in autumn 1998, four years after BMW's acquisition of Rover Group from British Aerospace in 1994. Land Rover promoted that the Discovery Series II had been modified with 720 'differences'. The interior and exterior were reworked to be less utilitarian, but it was still clearly an evolution of the Series I. Every body panel had been altered, except the outer skin on the rear doors. The rear body was extended to improve load space, and to now accommodate full-size adults on all seven seats on the SE7 option, as well as make them all forward facing,[12][13] but at the expense of added rear overhang, which slightly reduced the car's departure angle when off-roading.
Changes to the diesel-engined models saw the 2,495 cc Td5 (in-line direct-injected straight-five engine) introduced, in line with the updated Defender models. This electronically managed engine was smoother, producing more usable torque at lower revs than its 300Tdi predecessor. The Td5 engine is often mistakenly attributed to BMW but it was derived from the Rover L-series passenger car engine and further developed by Land Rover. The 3,948 cc V8 petrol version from the Discovery 1 was replaced with the Range Rover P38 Thor 4.0-litre, Rover-derived V8. There was no actual increase in capacity over the previous 3.9-litre engine. Although the basic design of the engine was similar, it was actually quite different internally: it used a different crankshaft, had larger bearing journals with cross bolted caps, different connecting rods, and different pistons. The blocks were machined differently, to accept extra sensors for the Gems and Bosch (Thor) injection system and to allow the extra stroke of the 4.6 crankshaft. For the 2003 and 2004 model year, the Discovery II changed to the 4.6-litre V8 (though the only V8 offered in the UK continued to be the 4.0).
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