This week DD’s motoring columnist Brian McDaid brings us on a test run of the Land Rover Discovery Sport and ‘discovers’ that this four-by-four can both ‘whistle and chew meal’ as it functions as a very practical work vehicle like the classic four-by-fours, while also being very stylish and comfortable.
Brian also reminds you to check your tyres with the winter months approaching.
I spent the best part of a summer holiday at the wheel of an old petrol powered Land Rover that Hegarty’s garage used to tow cars in on breakdowns. It was the year of the petrol shortage and with no work for myself and my fellow petrol pump attendants , the late Andy Hegarty decided he would redeploy us and get us to cut and save the hay in a field that he owned.
It was the push button starter on the Discovery Sport that reminded me of them hazy days of summer saving the hay. As I got behind the wheel to test drive the discovery sport. In them days they had more gear ratios than it had gears and I was warned by one of my workmates to stick to the four forwards and forget about the rest.
Thunderbirds are go. A view of all the gears on a Land Rover when they arrived on the market first.
It’s forty years on and I am sitting behind the wheel of the present day Land Rover and a young sales man is giving me a grind on the gearbox and funny enough he has pressed the same stop start button and has the very same message for me, ‘just stick her into drive’, he said ‘and forget about anything else’.
Most of the Land Rovers today will be sold as automatic versions, Low and High ratios and diff lock levers have disappeared to be replace on the auto version with a switch. Which you place into Drive, Park, Neutral Reverse or Sport.
The model that I was testing also had hand pedals along the side of the steering wheel to override this excellent automatic gearbox but to be honest I couldn’t be bothered with it, when you consider that the automatic box is both quicker up to the legal speed limit and is as easy as the manual version on fuel. There’s not much point in having an excellent dog and barking yourself.
There was a time when you could spot the driver of a Land Rover instantly. He was the one with the big rip in the back of his well worn barber coat where he caught it on the door lock check getting in and out behind the big upright steering wheel of the defender.
A view on the leather interior of the Land Rover Discovery Sport complete with its switch for a gear stick on the automatic box. Photo Brian McDaid
Stepping around the Land Rover showroom in Letterkenny this week they unmistakably square box sections that made up the shape of the first Land Rovers have disappeared to be replace with slippery new stylish lines of the Evoke , Sport and Range Rovers as Land Rover fans await the arrival of the New Discovery which might make it in time for Santa.
They say that this year is going to be one of the worst in years for snow and frost , mind you they said the same thing last year as well. Nature has its way of preparing with bumper crops of berries in these harvest months so all nature’s creatures can eat their fill as the prepare to starve over the winter months. Humans don’t have to worry about looking for berries anymore. Humans only seem to panic now when the shops will be closed for one full holiday or national holiday.
Preparing for a possible winter of heavy snow we are out and about in the Land Rover Discovery Sport in HSE trim this week finished in Fuji White. Fitted with one of the new Jaguar/ Land Rover Diesel engines and matched up to a nine speed automatic gearbox with stop start technology and 180 bhp on tap these yokes can go. I know the technical buffs out there will think ‘only nine gears in a Land Rover for God ’s sake they’ve had ten in them for years!’
Whistle and Chew meal
Long before I knew it was Robbie Burns that coined this phrase,you can’t Whistle and Chew Meal. I always thought it was our local shopkeeper the late Mrs. Gallen in Glencar that created it. She would say it to me when I tried to cycle home with a stone of spuds on the bar of my bike. It comes to mind when I think of permanent four wheel drive and economy, you can’t do both which was true enough of the big four-wheel drives in the past.
So many car brands have faded out completely over this last decades, especially British makes.
Being the petrolhead that I am I didn’t need a degree in marketing to see the cracks in the theory of buying a brand and then getting the bean counters in to run the company was a road to failure. Thanks-be-to-God the Land Rover brand have come out the other side successfully going through its many new homes having to evolve in order to survive.
The is what the New Land Rover defender might look like with a possible arrival in two years time.
From January next year for the first time since 1948 you will not be able to buy a Land Rover of any sort with its spare-wheel mounted on its back door. Now it’s a get-me-home-wheel hid in the boot as the original defender disappears in the mean time. The best four by four by far as they once marked them now no longer wears there spare wheel on their back door, their heritage has brought them through.
The original four by four can now both whistle and chew meal. it’s now an excellent off-roader which is hid behind an elegantly sleek city suit and has a bonus that its as ultra efficient on fuel thanks to it new jag engine.
The Discovery Sport starts at €50,000 on the road or off the road which ever way you like, it’s a great combination of a workhorse and style.
Tyre trouble
I am sure my friend will forgive me for showing you a picture of the tyre they were running about on recently. They didn’t even notice it them selves they have since replaced it. A family car has only roughly a one square foot of contact with the road through its tyres at any given time. We depend on that contact to safely steer us around a corner and safely come to a stop.
Now if the time to check the condition of the you tyres as he head into the winter months. Photo Brian McDaid
Good tyres should have no problem dealing with all these requests in normal conditions, that is normal speeds and dry roads,
If you multiply wet roads and speed into this equation a family car can still deal with these conditions.
The one element that all the safety technology in cars cannot deal with is worn tyres, So now as the autumn and winter months close and the roads get wet and very slippery take a look at the conditions of your tyres.
Safe motoring folks!
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