2014 Land Rover Discovery update

Land Rover’s Discovery has received a raft of updates that bring the go-just-about-anywhere SUV into line with the latest additions from the British automaker. The Discovery is a rugged, luxurious large SUV that offers more practicality and space than any other option within the Land Rover lineup, and it now benefits from fresh styling, a new engine and more tech features.

The changes to the styling are hard to notice but they consist of a new front grille, a new front bumper, new headlights with Land Rover’s modern LED daytime running lights, two new alloy wheel designs, and a revised version of the Land Rover badge.

Under the hood, Land Rover has replaced the thirsty, naturally aspirated 5.0-litre V8 with its latest supercharged 3.0-litre V6 engine. The engine delivers 250kW of power and 450Nm of torque -- which is slightly down on the 276kW/510Nm of the V8 -- via an eight-speed ZF automatic transmission.

The 0-100km/h time is said to be around 8.1 seconds, which is not bad for a vehicle that weighs around 2.5 tonnes. We’ll have to wait until the Discovery’s next generation to see it adopt the lightweight aluminium construction that the new Range Rover and Range Rover Sport models benefit from.

The rest of the Discovery range carries a pair of 3.0-litre V6 turbodiesels: the 155kW/600Nm TDV6 and the 183kW/600Nm SDV6 -- both mated with an eight-speed ZF automatic transmission and promising 8.8L/100km fuel economy.

Inside, designers have added more premium touches to align the Discovery with other Range Rover vehicles. These include more soft-touch materials, an available Meridian premium sound system, Wade Sensing technology, Blind Spot Monitoring, Closing Vehicle Sensing, Reverse Traffic Detection and T-junction Cameras.

Look out for the debut of the updated Discovery at the 2013 Frankfurt Auto Show next week, and expect it in showrooms towards the end of the year as a 2014 model.

www.motorauthority.com