Discover the world in the Discovery Sport

We’ve been keeping a close eye on the launch of the Discovery Sport over on international waters and we even celebrated the first Disco Sport that rolled off the factory line. Then we were briefly introduced to the 5+2 earlier this year at a short preview and now it is officially on sale in Malaysia!

Launched in spectacular fashion, the Land Rover Discovery Sport is available in two variants, the 2.0-litre Si4 Petrol and the 2.2-litre SD4 Diesel, the Land Rover Discovery Sport is yours at RM399,000 onwards and comes complete with a five-year or 300,000km warranty, five-year or 80,000km free scheduled maintenance and three-year roadside assistance package depending on whichever that comes first.

The Disco Sport is engineered at Land Rover’s award-winning manufacturing facility in Halewood, Liverpool, UK. With the company’s heritage in mind, the Disco Sport is created to provide best in class off road capability, on-road dynamics, interior packaging, safety innovations and use of intelligent lightweight materials.

Land Rover has given the Disco Sport a ground clearance of 600mm and a petrol engine that is capable of 237bhp and 340Nm. Opt for the SD4 Diesel engine and you will get numbers like 187bhp and 420Nm. Both engines are mated to an advanced nine-speed automatic transmission to give drivers peerless refinement, efficiency, driver engagement and off-road capability.

Efficient Driveline, the fulltime four-wheel-drive, allows the SUV to scale steep gradients of 45 degrees. That is 14 degrees more than the other competitors! Off-roaders can also opt to remove the lower trim on the front bumper to increase the approach angle further.

There are a few things that you should take note when it comes to the Disco Sport, the most important of which is the 5+2 seating configuration that has a design and engineering integrity in a compact footprint, that makes the Disco Sport smaller than many traditional five-seater SUVs. The multi-link axle that Land Rover has fitted into the Disco Sport proved crucial when penning the SUV as it had allowed the capacity to fit another two extra seats in the back.

Like all Land Rovers, the Disco Sport is also designed to offer unrivalled all-terrain performance courtesy of 600mm wading dept, optimised approach, departure and break-over angles and Terrain Response System. The system features four settings: General, Grass/Gravel/ Snow made for slippery conditions on and off-road, Mud and Ruts and Sand, these settings will allow the SUV to steering and gearbox to be precisely tailored to the demands of the terrain.

As usual you get the slew of usual active and passive safety advances, like a total of seven airbags including thorax airbags and Hill Descent Control, Gradient Release Control, Roll Stability Control and Dynamic Stability Control to name a few.

Launch attendees were treated to a ride in the brand new Disco Sport on the state of the art mobile man-made track known as the Land Rover Terrapod. The Disco Sport had to take on the challenge of a total ground clearance of 212mm and has class-leading approach, departure and breakover angles of 25, 31, and 21 degrees respectively. Trust us, it’s steep!

No word yet, on how much the diesel-powered Discovery Sport will be selling at, Land Rover has yet to announce the price, although it was still a pleasant surprise to see that the Freelander replacement priced at RM399,000 before tax.

Jerrica Leong