I'm inclined to eat my words. In fact I could make a substantial meal out of all those upper and lower cases; commas, full stops, semi and complete colons; phrases, sentences and paragraphs; and, of course, pound signs: I mustn't forget the pound signs. Indeed, the pound signs should come first: a sort of typographical hors d'oeuvre.
Why am I so ready to consume a large helping of the Queen's English? Because last week, when I wrote about the Lexus 450h, I sort of implied that among SUVs and 4x4s it represented good value for money. That was until the new Discovery 4 arrived, and, notwithstanding the clever Lexus hybrid drive, I discovered that £48,000 could go a lot further, and to many different places.
The new Discovery 4 is both a technical marvel and the epitome of luxury SUV motoring. But it's more than just an SUV - it's an all-terrain, go anywhere 4x4 with an ability to climb every mountain and ford every stream - and, of course, deliver your kids to prep school in a safe and certain manner without costing the earth, in more ways than one.
Despite its 3.0-litre V6 engine, and prodigious performance, the big Disco returns almost 35 mpg on the extra-urban cycle, and more than 30 mpg on the combined. OK, it's not a lean-burning city car, but the big engine burns as leanly as technology will permit, short of running on water.
 |
 |
both a technical marvel and the epitome of luxury SUV motoring |
|
 |
|
And this can be said of any model in the line-up: from the entry level GS to the range-topping HSE you can have any engine you like as long as it's a diesel. And it's no ordinary diesel. Derived from the 3.0-litre V6 oil-burner powering the latest Jaguar XF, the Disco's engine has been fussed over and fettled to make it suitable for the kind of duty for which Land Rovers were invented.
A special sump, revised turbo charger oil-feeds, and waterproofing of all ancillaries, turns the big-hearted, big-cat engine into a power plant that will withstand the rigours of the most extreme off-roading, yet return a 0-60 time of well under 10 seconds.
Twin turbo-chargers help with the performance, although fuel-saving technology ensures that the second turbo is by-passed except when absolutely needed - for example, during heavy acceleration. But the most impressive characteristic of the LR-TDV6 engine is the phenomenal peak torque: 600 Nm at 2000 rpm. Even more impressive is the fact that five hundred of the six hundred Newton-metres are delivered just 500 milliseconds from idle. That's zero to 500 Nm in the blink of an eye.
Yet it's not all about grunt. Compared with the 2.7-litre engine it replaces, the new TDV6 is 10 per cent cleaner, and nine per cent more fuel-efficient. Moreover, it satisfies stringent EU5 emissions requirements two years before they come into force.
|
