You can never have too much of a good thing, and I think we would all agree that faster and sportier cars->ke506 fall into that category. Hot off the unveil of the all-new Land Rover Discovery Sport, we have news that JLR is looking to maybe make an even more aggressive model. In a piece posted up by the fine folks at CarAdvice, Land Rover’s director of programs Murray Dietsch is being quoted as saying the Disco Sport is not an “outwardly sporty vehicle," and that he would “like to one.”
That is a promising statement indeed, but things get even wackier. Rather than dumping a massive V-8 under the hood like it did for the Range Rover Sport SVR, Land Rover->ke46 may opt for a high-power diesel engine like Audi->ke14 uses in the SQ5. Dietsch chimed in again with “We’ve got sporty derivatives of other vehicles in Europe that have got higher output engines that are diesel, so it would be horses for courses I think.”
To round out this pile of awesome news, it seems the Range Rover and Disco Sport models won’t be the only machines getting the “go-faster” treatment. There are plans in the works to make a high-end version of every model in the family portfolio. Think about how Mercedes->ke187 uses its AMG->ke8 division.
I think this sounds like a great plan.
Click past the jump to read more about the Land Rover Discovery Sport.
Why It Matters
With SUV and crossover sales still going strong, automakers are looking for new ways to sell product and attract buyers. Most of the big names like Mercedes and Audi have moved to creating sporty editions of cars with more powerful engines and better suspension setups.
If Land Rover hopes to continue its brand growth, it will need to enter this market as quickly as possible. By starting with its newest model, it allows the company to focus on new branding and cultivating a new, sportier image that should attract new buyers, especially in the younger demographic.
Land Rover Discovery Sport
The Land Rover Discovery Sport is the newest model to come from the storied British marque and one of its most intriguing. The Discovery Sport combines the style and more urban-friendly styling of the Range Rover Evoque with a more palatable price point and the full suite of Land Rover's legendary off-road technology. The result is a machine that will work equally well on the school run as it will the weekend camping trip to the middle of nowhere.
The Disco Sport features three rows of seating for maximum usability, and it comes powered by the same 240-horsepower, 2.0-liter, turbocharged engine as the Evoque. It also comes standard with a new nine-speed automatic transmission from ZF.