New Disco Sport Ordered

[BobD]

I placed an order for a new Discovery Sport today to take over the day to day duties of our D4, which we are keeping for touring and towing duties. We bought a Skoda Yeti 4 x 4 to do this job about 12 months ago and it is a good car. However, the DS will fit the bill better and have useful off road abilities as well. Hopefully it is cheaper to maintain than my D4 which has cost a lot of money since it reached about 190,000 km.


I am waiting for the new model with the Ingenium engine so it will be about three months until delivery. I have ordered an SE with 132 kW engine and a lot of options, such as the adaptive headlights, parking pack, wade sensing, dynamic driveline and suspension pack to name a few. I am also getting the 17 inch wheels which are a no cost option.

[Bytemrk]

Congratulations Bob... sounds like a nice addition!

What colour?

[Pedro_The_Swift]

The 17inch rims are an interesting choice Bob,,
not much tyre performance research done on this site!:D

What is the engine designation?

[MrLandy]

Slightly off topic, but how did you find the Yeti Bob? I know someone who is thinking of buying one. Interested to know why you're replacing it. Assume Disco Sport is larger, better on road?

[WhiteD3]

Hit the dealer up to throw in the tow bar. A mate who has had a DS for 6 months is having to pay $2700 for the tow bar!

[BobD]

Slightly off topic, but how did you find the Yeti Bob? I know someone who is thinking of buying one. Interested to know why you're replacing it. Assume Disco Sport is larger, better on road?






The Yeti is very good. My main gripe is the loud road noise, not good off road and not as quiet in general as a Land Rover product. The ride is also a bit firmer and less supple than the DS. We are tending to use it more for country driving than I anticipated and also like to go off road when we do go bush so the DS is a bit bigger, more luxurious and has significant off road capability. It also has similar fuel consumption and is not much worse than the Yeti for shopping trips. We also have two baby seats in the back for the grand kids my wife looks after every week and the larger size will be helpful for prams etc.


Having said that, the DS also has pretty loud road noise compared with the D4, which is almost silent, even on the rough chip bitumen that is common in WA. It is more acceptable than the Yeti, however, pretty similar to a Commodore hire car I drove last weekend.

[BobD]

Hit the dealer up to throw in the tow bar. A mate who has had a DS for 6 months is having to pay $2700 for the tow bar!


I will not get a tow bar since the D4 is set up for towing and touring. The dealer quoted $2500 for a factory tow bar.

[BobD]

The 17inch rims are an interesting choice Bob,,
not much tyre performance research done on this site!:D

What is the engine designation?

The engine is the 132 kW 2 l turbo diesel Ingenium. It is equivalent to the current SD4 engine which is an old design. It is supposed to have less turbo lag and is lighter, more fuel efficient and quieter than the SD4. On my test drive I didn't notice any turbo lag with the old engine. Certainly much less than the SDV6 D4.


Re the tyres, after the problems with availablilty of 19 inch and even 18 inch tyres for the D4, I want the much more common 17 inch size, which is available for the DS. Since I don't want any of the stuff that mandates the larger tyres I am sticking to the 17 inch tyres while they are an available option.

[Mamil]

Hi Bob,
Congrats on the new purchase.
I've just bought a DS too, but was too impatient to wait for the Ingenium engine so I'm picking up mine this weekend. Hopefully I won't regret it too much as I've heard mixed reviews of the Ingenium from the UK - such as less powerful than the 2.2 it replaced, quieter/smoother at idle but noisier/rougher at high revs, smaller fuel tank to make room for the supplementary adblue tank, and real world fuel efficiency more like the one it's replacing than the 'official' figures for the new engine. But the clincher for me was that there's some attractive deals to be had on the remaining 2.2 litre models and considering a DS was right at the top end of my budget it allowed me to get a car that I wouldn't otherwise have been able to afford.
I'm in Perth too, so see you around on the roads no doubt as it's still a niche car round here...

[rar110]

I know it's noisy and a left over from the FL2, but I like the 2.2 PSA motor.

Congrats on the purchase Bob. The DS is a nice vehicle. I might end up there myself in a few years. Maybe.

[Mamil]

Hey Bob,

Well I've had mine a week now and really loving it!

A few observations so far...

While the engine is definitely 'grumbly' and you know you're in a diesel, it's no worse than the other brands I test drove, though I didn't try a BMW X5 which I understand is the standard others aspire to.

Getting 8.6 L/100km around town which is a bit disappointing (might try ECO mode to improve on that), but 6.1 L/100km on a two hour round trip down to Jarrahdale today which is more acceptable.

It's already a firm ride on the 18" wheels, so I definitely wouldn't want to go 19" or 20" if I was planning on any off road stuff!

I wish I'd got memory seats (standard on the HSE and Luxury but a $1,200 option on my SE) as it's a pain to re-adjust every setting one by one after the wife has been driving it!

Here's a photo of mine in it's natural element - the woods down south - to whet your appetite while you're waiting for yours to arrive...

Cheers, Andy.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2016/07/1026.jpg

[BobD]

JRFDiscoSport's post reminded me that I got my order and discount price confirmed over the weekend and delivery is November 18. It was ordered a fair while ago but they forgot to get back to me with exact pricing and options confirmed until I rang them last weekend.


My car is a white SE with the Ingenium 180 HP diesel and 9 speed transmission. I went with different options and obviously, as you can see from the colour, I couldn't care less about spending money on improving the looks!


My options are:
Adaptive Dynamics
Active Driveline
DAB Radio
Parking Pack (for my wife who hates parking and is the main driver)
Adaptive Cruise Control
BlindSpot/Rev Traffic Detect
Surround Camera
Adaptive Xenon Headlights/LED Sig
Wade Sensing
17 inch wheels
Darkest street legal tint
Prestige Pack


I don't want an Evoque. I like the look of the Disco Sport better and it is a much more practical car for transporting grand kids around the city and for the odd country tour.


Apparently the Jaguar FPace is selling really well. The same engine is the lowest spec in the FPace and apparently it is a very nice combination compared with the higher powered engines. I have yet to drive anything with the Ingenium however.

[SBD4]

Nice choice of options Bob, wish I had ACC and queue assist in the sydney traffic at times.

Look forward to hearing how the ingenium goes.

[BobD]

My car is built and on the ship. Currently scheduled to pick it up on November 18.

[rar110]

I agree. Nice options.

[BobD]

The options available on the DS are similar to what is now on the D5. To get 17 inch wheels you have to order a lot of stuff separately rather than in a pack. Most of the packs have large wheels as part of the pack. That's why I started with an SE and optioned it up. Plus a lot of packs have other stuff that I didn't want or need, even though they may save a couple of dollars.

[BobD]

I picked up my DS yesterday and today took it for a 500km drive to Bunbury and back on an errand we needed to make.


I'm very impressed so far with the Adaptive Dynamics Suspension, Adaptive Cruise and surround camera technology. It is very comfortable but doesn't eat up the miles quite as well as my D4, which is super comfortable.


The Active Driveline is also really cool. The 4WD display shows what is happening. Even on bitumen it puts the car in 4WD and partially locks the rear diff during acceleration and then swaps back to two wheel drive as speed increases, unless 4WD is needed for traction or stability.


I managed to find a graphic on the web that shows how it works. There is a synchromeshed dog clutch at the middle diff, just behind the engine, which disengages the rear drive shaft for 2WD (front wheel drive). The rear diff is not a diff with spider gears. It has two clutches, one for each axle, on the output from the crown wheel and pinion. In 2WD the clutches are disengaged so that the whole drive line to the rear is not turning. It can then control how much torque gets to each wheel when in 4WD by fully or partially engaging each clutch as needed. This all shows on the graphic so that you can tell how much drive is going to which rear wheel. It looks very simple and effective. Under normal acceleration at every start in a straight line, both axle clutches are fully engaged and then gradually release until fully disengaged and then the tail shaft front clutch releases to make the DS front wheel drive.


My main gripe so far is that you can't see far past the windscreen so it's very difficult to tell where the front corners of the car are. The birds eye camera view which combines all four cameras and places the car in the middle with yellow lines to represent the path forward helps a lot in tight situations. You turn the steering and the yellow lines show the path of the front and back of the car on that steering line so that you can see how far you are away from any obstacles showing in the picture. Necessary when you can't see the corners of the car.

[rar110]

What's the new motor like compared to the old PSA diesel?

[BobD]

Good question but I don't really know what the old one was like. I think it's a bit quieter after only having a 15 minute drive of the old one. It has plenty of lag off the line so I don't think that is any better. Plenty of power at this early stage when you are not supposed to use heavy throttle for 3000km so I haven't pushed it too hard. The lag seems much worse than my SDV6 D4, or at least it is more annoying! Once it has had a bit of time to run in and I get used to it I will post some more comments.


My wife will be the main driver and the D4 is still our touring car of choice, so I probably won't get much of a chance to drive it for a while. My daily drive is a BMW K1600GT motorcycle!

[BobD]

Just a quick update after about 7000km.

Everything is going beautifully now after it has all loosened up a bit. Still getting around 8.0l/100km, which is not as good as expected, especially given what some people say they are getting in a D4. I get around 12 to 13 l/100 in my D4 though. I enjoy driving it nearly as much as my D4 although the D4 is the best choice for country driving. The fuel consumption read out is almost accurate, unlike the D4. The speedo is out by the same amount as the D4, though, with the odo accurate as per the D4.

I am pleasantly surprised at how quiet and refined the Ingenium motor is in most conditions. This is the same as the base motor in the D5 but is the top of the range diesel in the Disco Sport. There is plenty of power for what I need to do. I am not too happy about using Addblue and the method of filling up from little bottles only is ridiculous.

I can't see any wear at all on my 17 inch Wrangler tyres yet, so no complaints there. The ride is on the firm side so it must be getting a bit harsh with 20 inch wheels. However, it is still very comfortable.

[nismine01]

C'mon you guys, trade those D4s in and glut the market with them.[wink11]
Then and only then might I be able to afford a D4.[bigsad]

Sob.

Mike

[rar110]

Thanks for the update Bob. Any regrets on the options?

I've posted this before. It was a YouTube vid of a Oz outback European media tour with the MY15 DS.
Autovisie maakt monstertocht door Australië DEEL 1 - by Autovisie TV - YouTube (https://youtu.be/cq2ohuFBDw0)

[BobD]

No. Apart from the exorbitant cost of the options I got I love them all. Pity the D4 doesn't have a lot of them. The only thing that I think is a bit of a waste of money is the self parking system. It works but you can often do it quicker yourself. My wife who is the main driver hasn't worked out how to use it yet and still won't park unless she can drive through to another bay without backing in or out!

Apart from the adaptive cruise control, which is the best thing ever, I love the active drive line. Like the D4 e-diffs, the car pre-emptively applies the locking functions. Every take off it engages the rear drive shaft (to enable 4WD) and partially engages the clutches to each rear axle.

On a gravel road, 4WD is almost always engaged and the rear drive shaft clutches are at about half engaged, just in normal driving. As soon as you use some power the clutches engage more and if cornering the outer drive shaft clutch is engaged more than the inner one. All very clever and interesting to watch on the display.

I think it is borrowed from the Evoque. Very simple and the rest of the time the car is front wheel drive with none of the rear drive system turning to save fuel.

[SBD4]

Active drive line for any that's interested:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8sw72whrFc

[BobD]

Thanks Sean. That shows it more graphically than my description does.

[willem]

C'mon you guys, trade those D4s in and glut the market with them.[wink11]
Then and only then might I be able to afford a D4.[bigsad]

Sob.

Mike


I've got a great D3 for sale that you could afford... :)

[BobD]

I've got a great D3 for sale that you could afford... :)

Not any more. My son has bought it and we will be driving it back to Perth on Saturday, Sunday and Monday of the Easter weekend.

Looking forward to another trip across the Nullarbor. We will also be doing it in the D4 in September as part of a 3 month almost around Australia trip.

[DiscoMick]

Seen some great D4s, Rangie and Discovery Sports and Defenders around Sydney's Northern Beaches this week. None of them were even slightly dirty though.