MANCHESTER, Vt. - SUV craze? What SUV craze? There's a station wagon craze going on, even if neither the buyers nor the sellers will admit that station wagons are what's involved here.
If you really want an SUV - a vehicle that at least is capable of going off road once in a while, that has a genuinely useful four-wheel drive system, that really can haul stuff, tow a trailer, do the rough-and-tumble things that a real SUV can do - your choices are fewer.
Two brands stand out in, um, this field: anything with "Jeep" on it, or anything with "Land Rover" on it.
So even if the 2003 Land Rover Discovery comes with standard alloy wheels (on an off-roader?!?!), it still has the credentials.
Steve Haywood, chief program engineer for the revised vehicle, says there are 386 changes from last year's Disco, mostly centred on performance, refinement and dynamics.
But the one you'll notice first is the new look. As Haywood says, "You can't have a facelifted vehicle without a new face." It's a familial thing, with strong and deliberate ties to the new Range Rover, launched a few months ago. What Haywood calls "twin pocket" headlights - the high beams nestled within the lower inner arcs of the larger low beam units - not only look like Big Brother's, they provide far better output and beam pattern.
The fog lights (sorry, they're still there) are smaller, and repositioned farther up on the shallower front fascia. This results in a better "approach angle," meaning you can drive this thing up a steeper hill than before.
The profile, with the stepped roofline and so-called "alpine" windows, remains, and still makes the vehicle look rear-heavy to me. But it does provide superior headroom for back-seat riders.
The turn signals have been moved up into the main tail-light units flanking the tailgate glass, instead of being buried down in the bumper where the mud obscured them most of the time.
The 2003 interior sports higher quality trim than any Disco I've previously been in. Some of that stems from upgrades made over the past year to the outgoing model, and some comes from new colour schemes for 2003, a sombre but rich and solid-looking "Land Rover black," and a lighter, warmer "Alpaca beige." The window switches, on the leading face of the centre console storage box, are still illogically placed.
The second biggest change to the 2003 Disco is the engine.
Exclusive for North American-spec models is the 4.6-litre version of the ancient pushrod V8 that Rover bought from General Motors back in 1965, give or take, which was previously exclusive to the old Range Rover.
Its 217 horsepower is a 17 per cent gain over the former Disco's 4.0-litre version of this engine, and the 300 lb-ft of torque (at a remarkably and usefully low 2600 rpm) is a 20 per cent raise.
Land Rover claims a 0 to 96 km/h sprint time of 9.5 seconds, about two seconds quicker than before.
More to the point, the low-end grunt is perfectly suited to off-roading.
A four-speed automatic mated to a full-time four-wheel-drive system with two-speed transfer case completes the drivetrain specs.
You still have to stop, select neutral, then shove a recalcitrant lever to select low range, which seems a bit incongruous considering the push-button ease some competitors offer, and the electronic wizardry evident throughout the rest of the chassis.
Most of this alphabet soup of technological marvels on Disco 3 was actually introduced on Disco 2 in 1998. ETC is Electronic Traction Control. HDC is Hill Descent Control, which allows the vehicle to step slowly down a hill with no driver intervention on brake or gas pedal at all. EBD is Electronic Brake Force Distribution, with ABS.
And ACE (Active Cornering Enhancement) is a devilishly clever device that actually stiffens the anti-sway bars to reduce lean in corners, effectively generating close to "active" suspension handling at a fraction of the cost of a full-active system.
ACE will also disengage the sway bars altogether in off-road conditions, allowing even greater axle articulation for superior traction and ground clearance in the really rough going.
And on severe side slopes, ACE will lock the sway bars to further reduce suspension lean, and impart greater confidence to the driver.
Better on road; better off road. No compromise. Neat.
While the chassis basics are carried over, dozens of refinements - new brake pads and master cylinder, steering upgrades, reworked front suspension geometry - subtlely but effectively improve ride and handling, especially on-road.
Added sound-deadening materials and improved door seals reduce interior noise levels, and $290 million (US) worth of build quality improvements allow Land Rover to claim that this will be the best-built Discovery ever.
Cynics will say that won't take much. These vehicles haven't exactly been paragons of reliability.
What does Ford (Land Rover's new owner) know about building high-quality cars that BMW (their former owner) does not? "Ford is very good at detail," Haywood said, "chasing down a problem, measuring everything during the build process, working hard to find a solution, not just to the particular vehicle, but to the process by which it was built." Sounds pretty much like what they did with Jaguar over a decade ago, but also like a Germanic trait.
"Actually," he replied, "BMW's process was more fluid." Could it be that BMW's quality is something that is imbued in their long-time employees, not something that has to be measured, quantified, explained, the way Ford has to do it? "Maybe," Haywood allowed. But Land Rover stands behind its belief in the quality of the 2003 Disco by including all scheduled maintenance on the vehicle for the duration of its warranty period: four years or 80,000 km.
The seriousness with which Land Rover takes the off-road capabilities of its vehicles was reflected in the press drive for the 2003 Discovery. It was conducted at their off-road driving school, offered at the historic Equinox Hotel in this south Vermont town, and over half our time in the vehicle was spent on man-made training trails, mountain forest tracks. We even climbed a ski hill to have lunch at the summit of Mount Stratton.
Not that we expected the Disco 3 to be anything but capable off road. It is. What was surprising was how solidly-built, squeak- and rattle-free everything felt. Maybe there is something to this new build quality process.
The interior is still pretty narrow; wide bodies might not fit. Access to the rear seat - well, the middle row of seats - is difficult due to the narrow rear door. Making the door much bigger would require a longer wheelbase, which would compromise off-road agility. See what I mean about Land Rover's focus? The third row of seats is accessed through the side-hinged tailgate. While a clever hydraulic step hanging beneath the bumper makes this a bit easier than it otherwise might be, you won't be stepping in there in your full-length evening gown.
Actually, it's best left to young kids.
On-road, the ride and handling are better than I remember.
Indeed, they're quite remarkable considering there's a pair of solid axles underneath this vehicle. On certain types of rough roads you will feel those big heavy lumps of metal bouncing around under there, but even on washboard gravel, they stay quite composed. On smooth roads, the ride is fine.
The ACE system may not be quite as necessary an option as it was, given that the new base car is better. But if I were going to be paying the price for a vehicle like this, I'd for sure check off that box on the order form.
Speaking of which, the base but well-equipped S model lists at $49,000, the one-up SE is $54,500, and the all-singing all-dancing HSE is $56,900.
All three can be ordered with that extra pair of foldable seats in the back (which also adds a "7" to the model designation) for an extra $1,500. ACE is an option on the top two models.
The 2003 Discovery is the third (of four) major new vehicle launches for Land Rover in North America this year. An all-new Discovery based on the platform of the new Range Rover is coming in two to three years. A replacement for the ultra-rugged Defender is also on the books, as is another completely new vehicle line positioned below the new-for-us compact Freelander.
So if Land Rover doesn't have an SUV, a serious SUV, that suits your needs right now, stay tuned.
Highs Strong new engine Unsurpassed off-road agility Refinement and sophistication Lows Underlying technology getting old Narrow interior Jury out on improvements Freelance journalist Jim Kenzie (jim @ jimkenzie.com), among a group of auto writers invited to a test site, prepared this report based on sessions arranged and paid for by the automaker.
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