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Thread: Disco Sport, a sheep in wolf’s clothing – you bet

  1. #1
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    Disco Sport, a sheep in wolf’s clothing – you bet

    My wife and I returned this week from an 8000km trip to Karumba, via Bourke, Thargomindah, Hungerford, Windorah, Birdsville, Boulia, Mt Isa, Lawn Hill, Burketown, Normanton, and back through Lightning Ridge. The other couple travelled in a VW Touareg.

    I purchased the DS SD4 HSE MY18 as a ‘tough’ replacement for my ‘well tested’ BMW X3, and after the sponsored Adventure Day, I was convinced that the DS would go anywhere – lifting wheels, down hills using paddles etc.

    But, in reality, the vehicle is not suited to extended rough outback travelling. Loaded with the equivalent of 5 adults and luggage, no trailer nor van, but a month’s food and drink, fridge, spare battery, Adblue (not available anywhere out there!), compressor etc., the rear of the vehicle is lowered by about 50mm, just enough to be vulnerable to stones that other offroaders can travel over.

    On the way out of Hungerford on a rough unsurfaced ‘main’ road a stone clipped the rear diff sump plug which fortunately only fell out near Thargomindah – saved by a Toyota plug and some diff oil! Could have been disastrous..

    A factory fitted Conti 235/60 R18 tyre was punctured by a stone on the unsurfaced road to Birdsville and the spare desperately required. Thank goodness for TPMS (Tyre Pressure Monitoring System – saved shredding the tyre and damaging the rim). Travelled all the way to Mt Isa, a reasonable sized town, and managed to get the puncture fixed, but could not buy this configuration tyre anywhere (just in case we needed a second spare). It would take a week to air any brand of tyre from Brisbane – so kept fingers crossed and realised that the DS tyre options do not work outback.

    Then on the way to Lawn Hill we lost the front left door moulding, which then allowed more dust to enter the cabin than we had hoped for.

    Regrettably it is not possible to fit a ‘roo bar’ to the DS, and we had two whacks, but no serious damage. We only drive during the day, so take no unnecessary risks.

    On the way back we noticed that all the tyres were very badly worn – with only 18,000 kms on the clock – turns out that the rough roads had ‘changed’ the toe-in and the tyres were scrubbing/chipping off. Have had to replace with four General Grabber AT3s.

    And the rattles in the door panels and thumping on the corrugations were deafening – turns out that the exhaust system hits the chassis when the going gets tough.

    During this trying adventure, the Touareg did not miss a beat, and I was not allowed to forget it!

    Under controlled urban offroading the DS is magnificent, but beware when the going gets rough!

    Having said all this, it was a fantastic trip – brilliant birding, great experiences, and lots of fun.
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  2. #2
    Join Date
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    Hey, that's awesome. It looks like the Disco Sport really is the successor to the Freelander 2, given some of the trips reported here!
    Life is just a series of obstacles preventing you from taking a nap.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Dec 2011
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    I wouldn't call a DS a sheep in wolf's clothing. I would call it a sheep in sheep's clothing!

    I don't know how you thought it was more than that. I would love to know what the weight of your car was when fully loaded though. I didn't think I could pack that much stuff into my DS!

    As with all vehicles with independent suspension the ground clearance will always reduce as the springs compress over ruts, creek crossings and with extra load, unlike live axle 4x4's. It is therefore very important to slow down when ground clearance is going to be reduced due to suspension compression, especially in a DS with low ground clearance to start with. Even the D4 must be driven much slower in many circumstances than a live axle vehicle and that has way more clearance that doesn't reduce with additional load.

  4. #4
    NavyDiver's Avatar
    NavyDiver is offline Very Very Lucky! Gold Subscriber
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    Family went for a test drive Disco Sports yesterday- Social media targeted me with Contact LD for a drive. Got SMS to confirm date and time. We turned up at a Doncaster Vic dealer who had no idea what it was about and blamed a guy who might have been away yesterday Interesting note I went to the same place to buy a D3 10 years ago. They tried hard to sell me a D4. Funny to note I now own an 2009D3 which I could not seem to buy there at that time.

    Noted a few interesting bits about the DS. Road and engine noise seemed a little more noticeable than my D3. Road tires noted. All the terrain control where buttons except no height controls of course and all in good locations. Steering wheel controls seemed to control everything

    I loved seeing a lady driving a freelander in a 4wd course my wife put me in once, The Freelander and driver excelled at almost everything except ground clearance where she got stuck on a log. Assume the DS would be great in all 4wd locations except ground clearance as well. Not going to add one here. More than sure most people who buy one will be very happy like the cool freelander driver noted above.

    The noise noted was compared to my drive not a issue when talking or radio.

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