Land Rover Discovery vs Ford Everest

What's the difference?

The Land Rover Discovery D300 S is a great family-friendly 4WD wagon.

It’s quiet, refined, and supremely well appointed; it’s also very nice to drive on-road and it’s a lot of fun – and very capable – off-road. 

It’s packed full of driver-assist tech and its Pivi Pro system is a real treat to use once you’ve mastered the art, which doesn’t take long.

But you could say all of those same things about the new Defender. 

So, is the Discovery still relevant? I reckon it is … at least for the time being.

To answer the question we posed at the beginning, the Everest Tremor is very much a worthy addition to the range, but it succeeds in being an attention-grabber too. While the new Prado will certainly garner plenty of would-be buyers, and Ford will do well to keep its #1 spot in the large SUV sales race in 2025, the Everest Tremor keeps the Blue Oval in contention.

It succeeds by expanding the breadth of the Everest line-up, its more serious off-road elements - new suspension, bash plates, etc - elevate it beyond what the Sport and Trend can offer buyers. So it creates an opportunity to find new buyers to attract to the Ford showroom and draw at least some attention away from the Prado.

As always, I’ll avoid waxing lyrical about the styling of a vehicle – suffice to say, it looks good.

In terms of dimensions, this Discovery is 4956mm long (with a 2923mm wheelbase), 2220mm wide and 1888mm high.

It has a listed kerb weight of 2437kg.

Ford wanted to make sure the Tremor stood out from the Platinum, Sport and Trend models, with a tougher, more purposeful look. So they made a number of small but significant design changes.

For starters, the new suspension, wheel and tyre combination adds 29mm of ride height, so it sits taller. The Tremor also gets a unique front end, with what Ford calls an ‘off-road grille’, that includes integrated auxiliary lights into each side.

The 17-inch alloys are unique to the Tremor, too, which further differentiates the looks. There’s also unique ‘Tremor’ badging in orange and black Ford badging at the rear.

But it isn’t just about style, there’s genuine functionality to the design, with the steel bash plate underneath and recovery hooks to get you out of trouble if you need it (or help someone else out).

The Tremor is only available in four colours, and notably only 'Arctic White' is included in the price, with 'Shadow Black', 'Meteor Grey' and the unique-to-Tremor 'Command Grey' adding $700 to the price.

Inside there’s unique Tremor seats, with 'Medium Dark Grey Urban' stitching and 'Precision Grey' inserts, plus all-weather floor mats. They’re subtle elements, but they do really make the Tremor feel unique in the Everest line-up.

The interior has a real premium feel about it, but it still serves as a very practical space.

In terms of cargo space, there is 2391 litres with the second and third row stowed away; 1137 litres with the third row stowed away; and 258 litres with all rows in use.

The third-row seats can be either manually folded down into the floor to use that area as cargo space, or lifted up into a seating position.

There is a load-space cover, light, luggage tie-downs, bag hook and 12v in the rear, and two USB charging sockets for the third-row passengers.

The second row is a 60:40 electric-folding set-up with manual slide and powered recline, centre headrest and armrest, as well as map pockets, and door-moulded recesses. Second-row passengers get two USB C and one USB A charging points, air vents, air-con controls and more.

The front seats are 14-way electrically-adjustable with captain’s armrest, grained leather seat facings with Ebony interior; the Pivi Pro 11.4-inch touchscreen with digital radio, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto; as well as one USB A and three USB C points.

The Discovery has a fixed front and rear panoramic roof.

Obviously there’s no change to the space inside the Tremor compared to the rest of the Everest range, so it is still a spacious seven-seat SUV. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a major development when it comes to the space offered by Ford in its large SUV.

Namely, the launch of the new Prado and the revelation that the new hybrid system compromises the packaging in the rear of the seven-seat models, meaning the third-row seats can’t fold down into the floor and a raised riser drawer has been added.

While Toyota claims the Prado has 906L of space with the third row folded down, that’s a statistical advantage only due to the nature of the packaging.

By contrast, the Everest doesn’t have a draw and instead it’s a flat, deep floor with the third row folded down flush with the floor.

So while the Everest boot measures 898L, in practical, real-world terms the Ford is better and more usable. 

As a kicker, with the third-row seats up, the Everest claims 259L compared to the Prado’s 182L, so all around the Everest is a more practical choice for those who need to carry a lot.

As for the rest of the interior, the new seats look good and offer nice space and support up front, while the second row is good for a couple of adults or three smaller kids and the third row is what you’d expect in an SUV - tight but usable for shorter trips.

The multimedia system is unchanged, too, so it’s the same easy to use 'Ford SYNC' set-up with a tablet-style touchscreen.

One notable new feature for the Tremor is a 400W inverter with a household outlet in the second row, which is handy for road trips or camping.

The Everest Tremor is priced from $76,590 (plus on-road costs), making it just over $4500 cheaper than the Platinum but almost $2000 more expensive than the equivalent Sport.

That lines it up to compete against the Toyota Prado GXL ($79,990 + ORCs), GWM Tank 500 Hybrid Ultra ($73,990 drive-away) and the Isuzu MU-X ($74,400 + ORCs).

For that price, Ford has made some notable upgrades to enhance the Everest’s off-road ability, to give the Tremor more appeal to those who really enjoy off-road driving rather than just family buyers who want a seven-seater for the school run.

It starts with the standard 3.0-litre V6 turbo-diesel engine (unlike the 2.0-litre Ranger Tremor), along with a revised suspension package that includes Bilstein dampers and new springs, a steel bash plate as well as new General Grabber all-terrain tyres on 17-inch alloy wheels.

There are other design changes, too, but we’ll detail them in a moment in the section below.

Worth noting there are four option packs to choose from. The 'Rough Terrain Pack' costs $3500 and adds a Rough Terrain bar as well as extended underbody protection and an auxiliary switch bank.

The 'Premium Tremor Seat Pack' adds $1100 and brings a 10-way power adjustable driver’s seat, eight-way power adjustable front passenger seat as well as heated and ventilated front seats.

The $1900 'Towing Pack' adds a tow bar, integrated trailer brake controller and blind-spot monitoring with trailer coverage.

Finally, the 'Touring Pack' costs $2500 and adds a 360-degree camera view, tow car, integrated trailer brake control and 'Pro Trailer Backup Assist'.

The Discovery has a 3.0-litre inline six-cylinder twin-turbo-diesel engine – producing 220kW at 4000rpm and a whopping 650Nm at 1500-2500rpm – working with a mild hybrid system. 

Those impressive power and torque figures don’t tell the whole story of just how well the Disco’s engine is able to punch this big unit along the road at a comfortable clip and – bonus – its chunk of torque, useable across a decent rev range, comes in very handy when off-roading.

It has an eight-speed automatic transmission and an all-wheel drive system.

The Everest Tremor is only offered with the 184kW/600Nm 3.0-litre V6 turbo-diesel, a complete reversal from the Ranger Tremor, which was only available with Ford’s 2.0-litre twin-turbo diesel.

The V6 is paired to a 10-speed automatic transmission and comes standard with Ford’s permanent 4WD system, which features a rear diff lock for more challenging off-road adventures.

Ford said it made this decision to provide Everest Tremor buyers with more grunt, befitting its place at the top of the range, and provide the full 3500kg towing capacity. Although, in this day-and-age, the extra choice would have been nice, as the 2.0-litre engine is an impressive unit for its size.

Fuel consumption is listed as 7.5L/100km on a combined cycle. 

Fuel consumption on this test was 9.8L/100km. That’s sound considering I did a lot of high- and low-range 4WDing on this test and the Disco is quite a hefty unit.

The Land Rover Discovery D300 S has an 89-litre fuel tank, so, going by those fuel-consumption figures, I’d expect an effective touring range of about 860km, but remember that figure includes a built-in 50km safe-distance buffer. 

Ford claims the Everest Tremor uses 9.5L/100km of diesel, but thanks to our largely off-road first drive we couldn’t give that a real-world evaluation.

The Everest is fitted with an 80-litre fuel tank, which means a theoretical driving range of more than 840km, which is what you need for a serious off-road adventure.

The Discovery is very impressive on-road. No surprise really as it has always had a reputation as a comfortable on-road cruiser – and it's lost nothing in this latest iteration. 

It is a smooth driving experience: quiet, refined and you suffer little to no noise from outside intruding into the cabin. 

The seats are very comfortable and supportive, and that makes it perfect for long-distance trips. 

The straight-six engine and eight speed auto are a nice combination, quietly effective, and well-managed. 

Acceleration is good with sharp throttle response, so you can crack on the pace when you need to, say, for instance, from a standing start or when you need to overtake a vehicle. 

In terms of overall driving experience, there’s nothing too outrageously exciting or dynamic on offer here, because this is a large SUV, but it’s always comfortable and it’s lively enough if you want to give it the boot. There are paddle shifters if you want to get fancy with your up- and down-shifting.

It’s not all good news: visibility from the driver’s seat is a bit pinched out the rear of the Discovery (due to its styling); there is pronounced body-roll through corners; the brakes are quite spongy, with a real delayed-action feel about them; ride is a tad harsh because you are rolling along on 20-inch tyres and rims, which is something I’m not so used to; and, the steering column is manually adjustable only, which I reckon is a bit slack for such a pricey vehicle.

Given its off-road focus, Ford prioritised unsealed roads for our first experience with the Everest Tremor and we tackled some genuinely rugged terrain outside of Melbourne.

In addition to the new Bilstein suspension, new springs and new tyres, the Everest Tremor adds the 'Rock Crawl' mode to its array of seven drive modes.

It must be noted, though, that all the examples we drove on the launch were fitted with the Rough Terrain Pack, so had the extended underbody protection, which certainly helped at various times.

Having said that, the Everest Tremor acquitted itself with ease across a variety of terrain. In '4 Low' the Tremor was capable of navigating across rocks, through mud and water, and then through some extremely deep ruts.

In fact, the non-Tremor Everests Ford had on the launch were directed to avoid some of the obstacles as they would likely have struggled to conquer them. However, it must be said, that despite the extra ride height, the extended underbody protection was heavily relied on as we often found the belly of the Tremor scraping on the deeper ruts.

While Ford was keen to focus on its off-road capability, CarsGuide was able to spend an extended period driving the Tremor around Melbourne city and suburbs. Despite its size and off-road prowess, it has very nice on-road manners and felt comfortable and easy to live with in the urban environment.

In terms of safety equipment the Everest Tremor comes fitted with all the usual active elements you should expect, including 'Forward Collision Alert', 'Pre-collision Assist', lane keeping assist, cross-traffic alert and 'Reverse Brake Assist'.

Importantly, in case you can’t avoid an accident, the Everest is equipped with nine airbags, including full-length curtain airbags that extend to the third row.

As for its safety rating, ANCAP awarded the Everest a maximum five stars but did so based on the physical crash testing of the Ranger ute.

ANCAP accepted Ford technical information that demonstrates both models should, theoretically, provide the same crash performance despite the obvious differences.

However, it should also be noted that this five-star rating was awarded in 2022, prior to the latest crash testing protocols being introduced by ANCAP in 2023, so there is no clarity over how the Everest would perform to these more stringent standards; although that’s an ANCAP issue, not a Ford one.

But, just for the record, the new Prado has achieved five stars with the latest ANCAP ratings, but unless ANCAP re-tests the Everest, we can’t say with certainty how the two models compare, beyond saying they have the same ratings.

The Discovery has a five year/unlimited km warranty with five years roadside assistance.

The service plan applies over five years/130,000km (whichever occurs first) with a cost of $2650.

Ford is offering a ‘Pre-Paid Service Plan’ to cover the first five years or 75,000km worth of servicing across the Everest line-up (as well as Ranger).

This costs $1516, which averages out to just over $300 per year, but it’s worth noting that pre-paying locks in that price. Which is important, because Ford has been increasing the prices since it introduced this deal in 2022.