Land Rover Discovery vs Range Rover Sport

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.

Range Rover proudly calls it its “most dynamic” model ever, and based on our first experience that’s most definitely true. Its ability to be genuinely exciting to drive on a race track is nothing short of remarkable for a brand whose history is all about off-road prowess.

On the road it shines just as brightly, with its potent engine and state-of-the-art suspension system working in unison to make for a stunningly dynamic large and luxurious SUV. And then, if you need to cut across a field or scramble up a slippery hill, it will do that too.

Range Rover’s claims of ‘breadth of capability’ is apt but arguably an understatement. I’d stop short of calling the Sport SV the obvious class-leader in the high-end, high-performance SUV market because it’s up against some seriously impressive rivals, but the Range Rover offers a broader range of ability than any of its competitors.

Note: CarsGuide attended this event as a guest of the manufacturer, with travel, accommodation and meals provided.

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.

Range Rover is a brand synonymous with big, imposing and off-road capable SUVs, not dynamic and sporty vehicles. But in recent years the Evoque and Velar have added a new layer of style and a sleekness to the brand’s reputation.

The latest generation Sport is still a big and imposing two-tonne SUV, but it’s also definitely sportier to look at and the SV changes only add to that.

It only takes a moment looking at it and it’s clear this is an SUV that means business. The 23-inch wheels fill out the guards, the air-suspension can lower the body to the ground and the aerodynamic package, including the front splitter, make for a purposeful look.

The carbon-fibre bonnet can be finished with the centre section exposed, showing off the weave of the fibres, which is a nice touch, although fake vents on the bonnet and front fenders are a bit disappointing.

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.

There are two stand-out features in the cabin, beyond the standard high-level of luxury you expect from a Range Rover Sport. 

The first is the SV-specific steering wheel with illuminated paddles, which feels solid in your hands. But the second is by far the most interesting, the so-called Body and Soul Seats (BASS), which Range Rover has developed in conjunction with Coventry University.

Available with either genuine leather or ‘ultra fabric’ and a 3D-print knit trim, the seats look great on the outside but it’s what’s inside them that’s special.

There are four audio transducers integrated into the seat back which can vibrate to the beat of whatever audio track you’re listening to. The system uses AI to detect the lower frequencies and then work out which beats to transmit.

This is technology used by musicians, Coldplay’s Chris Martin reportedly wears transducers integrated into a vest when he performs, but Range Rover is confident it will add to the ownership experience.

It’s certainly an interesting technology and a demonstration across different music genres highlights the way the system adapts to individual songs, but it’s hard not to feel like this is more of a gimmick than something an owner will use every day. 

If you don’t like listening to music with it, the Body and Soul Seats also work with a ‘Wellness’ setting that features six audio pieces (designed by Coventry University musicians) - calm, soothe, serene, cool, tonic and invigorate.

It’s probably what you need to help settle your heart rate after you unleash the full performance potential of the Sport SV.

In the back seat there’s none of this technology but they do feature heating and ventilation as well as power recline functions. There’s also four-zone climate control, so every occupant can be comfortable.

To be blunt, the Range Rover Sport SV is one of those vehicles that if you have to ask, you can’t afford. Particularly in this case, as the model has launched in a single specification level, the Sport SV Edition One, which is priced from $360,800, plus on-road costs.

That puts it into the same financial category as the likes of the Aston Martin DBX ($356,512), Porsche Cayenne Turbo GT Coupe ($364,700) and Lamborghini Urus ($409,744) - especially when we discuss some of the pricier options.

For that price the Sport SV Edition One comes with exclusive branding on the front splitter, centre console, treadplates and puddle lamps as well as a raft of standard features likely to carry-over to the 2025 model year version.

These include carbon-fibre badges, forged 23-inch alloy wheels, digital LED headlights, a carbon-fibre bonnet, 16-way electronically adjustable front seats, Meridian 'Signature' sound system, 13.1-inch multimedia touchscreen, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto and newly developed ‘Body and Soul Seats’ (more on those later).

But if you’re feeling really sporty, you can upgrade your Sport SV with lightweight carbon fibre wheels and carbon ceramic brakes.

These will cost you a staggering $16,130 and $13,500, respectively, but the wheels measure 23-inches and are the largest fitted to a production car (and are also Australian-made by Carbon Revolution in Geelong).

Unfortunately, for now at least, this is all a moot point because Range Rover Australia has already invited and sold all examples of the Sport SV Edition One, so you'll need to be patient and wait until at least 2025 to have the option to buy one.

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.

Sadly the wonderfully evocative supercharged V8 engine from the previous generation Range Rover Sport SVR is gone.

But, thankfully, in its place is a more powerful engine that’s exclusive to the Sport SV in the Jaguar Land Rover family.

It’s a 4.4-litre twin-turbo V8 petrol engine with mild-hybrid assistance, which is actually built by BMW and based on the same powertrain as you’ll find in the M5, albeit with some specific Range Rover elements for more off-road capability.

It’s also more powerful than the old supercharged V8, making an impressive 467kW of power and 750Nm of torque, which is a 44kW and 50Nm improvement over the old engine.

It’s paired to an eight-speed automatic transmission, again with a specific SV calibration for improved performance. 

And, of course, being a Land Rover, it’s also got a four-wheel drive system with full off-road systems as well as an active locking differential.

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. 

Despite all the extra power, thanks to the mild-hybrid system it’s more fuel efficient and produces less emissions than the old 5.0-litre V8.

Still, it’s all relative, and as you’d expect from a twin-turbo V8 SUV it’s still thirsty and uses 11.7-12.5-litres per 100km, based on European specifications.

The mild hybrid system uses a crank-integrated starter generator instead of a conventional alternator, providing a boost of up to 20kW and 175Nm of electrical power when needed, with the energy captured during braking and stored in a 48-volt lithium-ion battery.

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.

Before driving the Sport SV you need to understand its highly complex suspension system that allows it to be so dynamically capable. Range Rover calls it a '6D Dynamic' system, because it can control the car left and right, up and down and corner to corner. 

To achieve this the system uses a combination of hydraulic interlinked dampers, height-adjustable air springs and pitch control, which makes it a semi-active suspension set-up similar to the set-up Formula 1 race cars used to boast. 

This allows the Sport SV to sit between 10-25mm lower than the other Sport models and with its clever suspension can actually sit flatter in the corner with less pitch and roll - which is the traditional enemy of high-riding SUVs when it comes to handling.

But the suspension is only part of the story, with the intelligent all-wheel drive, rear-wheel steering, torque vectoring and the active locking rear diff all combining to produce an SUV with incredibly impressive dynamic capability.

Put simply, there’s never been a Range Rover that deserved to be driven on a racetrack. The Sport SV changes that, and thankfully the company let us loose on the challenging Portimao circuit in Portugal to put the SV through its paces.

Range Rover management was quick to stress it doesn’t expect the Sport SV to be a race track regular for its owners, but driving it on track did highlight the extreme potential it offers. 

With such a powerful engine it should come as no surprise that the Sport SV hauled down the straight, hitting 233km/h at the end of the long front straight, but with speed still rising which suggests its 290km/h claimed top speed is accurate.

Even from those speeds and with 2560kg of SUV to slow down, with the carbon ceramic brakes it was no trouble whatsoever. Instead the braking was strong and consistent across multiple laps. 

The steering is the particular highlight, with the rear-wheel steering helping to turn the Sport SV sharper and more quickly than a big SUV like this should. 

But while it impressed on the circuit, we also experienced it on some great winding rural roads across Portugal and this is where it shone even more brightly.

This is an SUV that you’ll genuinely enjoy driving with its ability to carve through corners and blast down anything resembling straight road.

But to ensure it lives up to the Land Rover badge on the front, we also drove it off-road. Nothing too serious at first, just muddy ruts, across some water and over some rocks.

But then we were guided through a course that showed off its articulation potential, which is far greater than the average owner will ever need. 

However, to achieve this Range Rover removed the carbon-fibre front splitter, so it’s not the most off-road friendly model the brand offers.

The Sport SV comes generously equipped with safety gear, as you’d expect at this price point. There’s all the usual passive safety, including airbag coverage for all occupants, and plenty of active safety including adaptive cruise control with steering assist, remote park assist and 3D surround cameras - which are used for off-roading as well as parking.

As with the rest of the Range Rover Sport range, it has been awarded a maximum five-star rating from safety agency, ANCAP.

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.

If you’re worrying about servicing costs, you’re probably shopping at the wrong end of the market, but as with the range-topping Range Rover model the price of the car is expected to include servicing for the first five years and roadside assistance for the same period.

It’s also covered by a five-year, unlimited kilometre warranty.

As with all Range Rovers the car will tell you when it needs a service depending on driving conditions. For example, if you hit the track or go off-roading it will likely need a visit quicker than if you're just commuting to and from work.