Our Land Rover Discovery Sport is a real winter warmer!
Rebecca Chaplin has been finding out how the Discovery Sport deals with the colder weather. How did it get on? Let her explain
When the temperature starts dropping and snow starts settling, there’s no better place to be on the road than behind the wheel of an SUV – particularly if that wheel is heated.
Having picked up the keys for this Discovery Sport back in June, I’d forgotten that I had this wonderful feature literally at my fingertips. It was on my drive home for Christmas that I spotted it, and the realisation of what that steering wheel symbol with wavy lines meant was bliss.
Being based close to the sea on the south coast, we don’t get many opportunities to drive in the snow. However, my home town in Buckinghamshire has a much better chance of a flurry of the white stuff, and in December it really came down.
That, as you can see from the photos, was not when I was there, though. Living at the top of a steep hill – so big that they named the village after it – does mean having four-wheel drive available is handy, particularly as icy days can get a tad treacherous.
While the Discovery Sport has all of the chunky looks of a tough off-roader, inside you’re in complete luxury. The aforementioned heated steering wheel is one of those things you never thought you needed – until you’re in a car without it on a freezing morning.
They’re not the only things that heat up, though, with heated seats fitted in the front as well. These can be adjusted through three different heated settings or three different cool ones. The latter haven’t been getting much use for a while…
Although I was travelling home for Christmas alone, I managed to use every space available with the mass of goods I seemed to think I needed for the few days I would be back at my parents’ house. Presents were crammed around the car to avoid breakages, food was in the footwells, plus enough wine to inebriate a small village and outfits for every occasion.
The great thing in situations such as these is the sensor on the boot and in the door handles, which mean no fumbling with keys – perfect when you’re carrying handfuls of presents to the car, as I was, and equally useful when you’re loading shopping, pets or children into the car.
To open the boot, you can simply wave your foot under the rear of the car for completely hands-free entry, then push the button on the inside of the boot lid and it’ll close itself.
Unlocking the doors on this car is just as easy. As long as you have the key on your person, simply pull the door handle and it’ll open. Locking them is simply a case of tapping the indent on the door handle. Mind you, my success rate is about 60 per cent of the time…
By Rebecca Chaplin
HIGHLIGHT OF THE MONTH: There’s nothing like driving in the snow!
MODEL: Land Rover Discovery Sport
PRICE: £56,765
ENGINE: 2.0-litre TD4 Diesel
POWER: 177bhp
TORQUE: 430Nm
MAX SPEED: 117mph
0-60MPH: 8.4 seconds
MPG (COMBINED): 53.3mpg
EMISSIONS: 139g/km
MILEAGE (TO DATE): 15,233