Topic: Test Drive: 2017 Land Rover Discovery Sport HSE Luxury

[Fobroader]

Used Defenders sell instantly for pretty good sums, Jeep sells basically every Wrangler it can stamp out, and MB sells that ridiculous G-Wagon for a price that raises even rich people's eyebrows.

There seems to be a market for a box on wheels with off-road cred even if it only goes to Costco.

Even a used, RHD Land Cruiser is worth a fortune

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[ktm525]

Moab has lots of grip so anything will look good there if you don't care about it. I think since the Sorrento lacks a low range they need to tackle things a little quick.


FWIW the public has spoken. LR has moved 1864 Disco Sports so far vs the 14 962 for the Sorrento 

Good little seller for Kia they have consistently moved over 100 k units every year since 2010.

[HeliDriver]

Some entertaining video (more on YouTube) for those blindly discounting the off-road capabilities of that big, fat, luxury blob called Discovery.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHHyOcP-1FU&t=247s

Are there any better vehicles out there that combine the same level of luxury and off-road capabilities? Not too many I can think of and not at this extent.

However, the question remains,in general, what's the point of LUXURY + OFF-ROAD?  The first answer that comes to my mind is for rich people leaving in countries with poor/no roads.  Discovery does not make a whole lot of sense in places like North America or Europe IMO... Too much car for groceries getting and soccer practice.

i will see your expensive Disco and raise you one Sorento:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcD-1u47ZRk

 

the only mods were all terrain tires (understandable), a skid plate under the oil pan and disconnecting the sway bar.

Ugh, if you understood the principals of good rock crawling, that video would make you cringe big time.

What, you mean you don't hit obstacles at 50mph?? 

I dunno. I’ve ridden Hell’s Gate on a dirt bike, and that video doesn’t really do it justice. It’s steep, and I’d be terrified to be on that in any four-wheeled vehicle, let alone a Sorrento.

And, yes, Moab rock is grippy, but I remember Hell’s Gate as being slippery as . I made it to the top okay, but my riding buddy got stuck half way and I had to walk down to help him. Was scarier walking down than riding up!

I think the rock is just really polished from all the spinning tires, and there’s also a fair coating of oil and coolant from mishaps on the way up.

[dirtyjeffer]

We already established Sorento is the answer to anything automotive. 

*Cough*

I thought I would share my experience with a 2016 Sorento in real winter conditions. Unfortunately it turned out to be an eye opener experience, the kind that makes you change your opinion about a vehicle, enough to remove it from your shopping list.

To put you in context: the temperature dropped from around freezing to -20 deg.C overnight so the snowbank you can see on the left of the Sorento was rock hard. I did not want to try to jump it and ending up perching the Kia on it. Parked behind me was a new RAV4 and behind it a vacant spot that was occupied by something big enough to punch a hole in the snowbank when it left earlier that morning.

I thought I had good luck when the RAV4 driver exited the Hotel a few minutes after me. The gentleman was a tourist from France who did not not what to do to get out. After I explained to him to back up in the spot behind him and go through the opening left by the unknown vehicle he obliged without too much trouble. The RAV4 did better than I expected.

Them came my turn to back up in the spots behind me. I could not do more than 3 ft before getting seriously stuck. It took 3 people walking nearby to help me get unstucked.  A woman had to jump behind the steering wheel and two men helped me pushed my own darn rented SUV. I then had to shoveled the snow behind the Sorento to repeat the RAV4 exercise to get out of there. The Sorento center lock feature was completely useless.

Note that the Sorento was mounted on (4) Firestone Winterforce Minerva EcoStud SUV tires.

I owned (2) Grand Cherokee that would have walked away unchallenged from this situation. I am pretty sure any Ford (even our Fusion has a much better AWD system IMO), Mazda and of course Subaru would have been able to handle this situation. The Sorento is a fine vehicle as long as you consider it as a car with somewhat higher traction and ground clearance than your average family sedan but don't expect it to be a great winter vehicle.

we discussed in that thread the issue...it was the tires...it certainly wasn't the vehicle itself...it is a very capable vehicle, as I showed in my previous post where it tackled Hell's Gate as well as my personal experience with ours, equipped with X-Ice III tires, not some cheap no name Chinese tires that Benhaze's rental unit had...Jacob also tried several times to replicate "getting stuck"...couldn't...his tester was also equipped with quality rubber as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PRGnCIzjWg&t=70s

[carcrazed]

As the only automotive brand made up exclusively of sport-utility vehicles

What about Jeep?

I wouldn't call the Patriot a SUV, though.

[Fobroader]

As the only automotive brand made up exclusively of sport-utility vehicles

What about Jeep?

I wouldn't call the Patriot a SUV, though.

Well the Evoque is not an SUV either.....its un unreliable purse with a steering wheel.

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[carcrazed]

As the only automotive brand made up exclusively of sport-utility vehicles

What about Jeep?

I wouldn't call the Patriot a SUV, though.

Well the Evoque is not an SUV either.....its un unreliable purse with a steering wheel.

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Reliability is not a characteriatic of a SUV, though. As much as don't like Evoque, it's much more capable than the Patriot.