Launched in 2004 in the UK, the Discovery 3 is Land Rover’s third incarnation of its legendary off roader. But this is not a face lifted compromise it is a completely new model.

Unlike a high performance sports car the Land Rover Discovery 3 has to appeal to wide audience and has to be a multi-purpose vehicle without compromise. It is the bench mark for all other off-road 4x4 vehicles. It has to be as good on-road as it is off-road, and this it achieves with distinction.

Increasingly, Land Rovers are also owned by the school run mum, the businessman, the wealthy land owner. But it must still satisfy the commercial user whilst remaining functional and aspirational.

Land Rover Discovery 3 TDV6 HSE for the UK Market has a choice of two engines, the petrol gas guzzling, V8 4394cc 295bhp, which is a derivative of Jaguar’s acclaimed AJ-V8 4.2-litre and fortunately for those of us without an oil well, the V6 2,720cc 190bhp turbo diesel engine. The quoted combined fuel consumption figure for the V8 petrol is 18.8 mpg and 27.2 mpg for the diesel automatic.

The fuel consumption is steep, averaging around 24 mpg, so be prepared for the shock of filling the car up at £80 pounds a time.

In the Disco 3 Land Rover has opted for a compacted graphite iron engine block rather than the heavy cast iron blocks of previous models.

With the windows up it was hard to tell that it was a diesel engine, although the rattle when outside gives the game away.

The petrol engines are mated to a six-speed ‘intelligent shift’ electronically controlled ZF automatic transmission. It offers a ‘sport’ mode which delivers more performance-oriented throttle responses and gear shifts, and also features Land Rover’s Command Shift operation – which gives the driver full manual control over gear changes. The TDV6 is available either with this advanced automatic transmission, or with a six-speed ZF manual gearbox.

Acceleration is nothing more than adequate – official figures are quoted as 11.7 seconds to 62 mph. In practice this seems quicker but you are moving around 3 tonnes forward in just under 12 seconds. The old TD5 model took a mighty 17.1 seconds to reach 62 mph.

Handling has been vastly improved, so keeping up with fast moving traffic is now possible.

Body roll has been minimized and levels of grip have improved, even the steering is well weighted, giving reasonable feed back for a 4x4. The Discovery 3 is now fun to drive and covering great distances is less tiring.

The level of refinement is high in the Discovery and including other features from executive models, which proves what a long way Land Rover has come.

Verdict

The Discovery 3 is a marked improvement and has been adapted to accommodate the fact that most Land Rovers never go anywhere near off-road. However, it’s still up to the job it was originally designed for.