THE zeitgeisty Land Rover Discovery Sport is almost ruthless in how it goes about its business of being relentlessly family-friendly, writes William Scholes.
Land Rover's latest hit is Angry Birds, Blue Peter and W5 on wheels, with a Happy Meal thrown into the mix for good measure; if the Bentley Continental GT Speed we drove the other week deserves an 18 from the film classification people, then the Disco Sport is a guilt-free U certificate.
For an SUV with bona fide Land Rover 4x4 hardware beneath the skin, its genius lies in how it manages to package enough space for seven passengers into a footprint smaller than an Audi Q5's.
Hitherto, if you wanted a posh seven-seat SUV - and lots of people do - a full-fat SUV like a (proper) Land Rover Discovery, BMW X5, Audi Q7 or Volvo XC90 were your options.
However, they are expensive, costly-to-run cars, leaving niches for the similarly-sized-but-cheaper Kia Sorento and Hyundai Santa Fe and the smaller-but-still-with-room-for-seven Nissan X-Trail; none of these have quite the same premium cachet, however.
There is fertile territory to be harvested, then, for an upmarket SUV with seven seats but without the bulk of a Discovery or Q7.
Enter the Discovery Sport, which is essentially a Range Rover Evoque with a high roof and space in the back seats for people taller than gnomes.
It's not all bad news for gnomes, though; you can still bring them with you, thanks to the two small seats which spring from the Disco Sport's boot floor.
In fairness to Land Rover, it calls it's seating arrangement '5+2'; adults will not thank you for being sent to the third row - they may not even be able to get in - and older children won't be thrilled either.
Despite being average-height seven-year-olds, my back seat testers weren’t completely wowed by the Discovery Sport's third row.
They complained of feeling a little hemmed in; a combination of the high back on the middle row of seats, a thick pillar behind the rear door and a rising window line in the boot all contributed. The glass roof of the test car alleviated the gloom somewhat.
The Discovery Sport arrived at Scholes Towers in a sequence of seven-seaters which included the Volvo XC90 and the BMW 2-Series Gran Tourer.
The junior testers consistently ranked the Land Rover third, and while the +2 arrangement is perfectly adequate for short journeys, it would be best to make sure that your little people are happy enough with the seats for longer trips.
None of this should detract from the achievement of the Land Rover engineers in packaging two seats in the boot in the first place.
Normally the suspension hardware of a 'proper' 4x4, as a Land Rover is contractually obliged to be, mitigates against freeing up the necessary space beneath the floor.
For the Discovery Sport, they have come up with a complex, so-called multi-link rear suspension arrangement which satisfies Land Rover's standards for off-road wheel articulation as well as liberating space for the extra seats in a compact package.
In that context, it probably sounds like nit-picking to complain about the fact that, irritatingly, there is nowhere to stow the parcel shelf on board.
The seats themselves are pulled up from the boot floor in one movement.
With the seats folded, the boot volume is a healthy, square-sided 981 litres; drop the middle row as well - creating a completely flat floor - and the volume rises to a small van-like 1,698 litres.
If there are reservations about the +2 seats, then the middle row of pews are a triumph. Leg and headroom is generous, the doors open 90 degrees and the bench can slide to increase legroom, to the merit or demerit of back-benchers.
Up-front is similarly airy, though my size 12s could have done with a little more space in the footwell.
The interior is littered with storage compartments and thoughtful touches like lots of USB sockets to charge smartphones and tablets - teens will love it.
Interior quality isn't quite up to the standard of BMW or Audi, however.
We've driven the Discovery Sport elsewhere previously, and were impressed by its blend of comfort and agility.
Thankfully, it handles Irish roads with the same easy aplomb. There is a lovely loose-limbed, relaxed gait to the Land Rover that make it an easy cruiser, yet when the road gets twistier or the surface rougher, it rises to the challenge.
Under the bonnet of the test car was Jaguar Land Rover's latest 2.0-litre diesel engine in 178bhp guise - a 148bhp version is also available - paired with a nine-speed automatic gearbox.
You might expect the SUV to be rougher and noisier than the sports saloon, but the installation of this engine and gearbox was measurably better than the same combination we tried recently in the Jaguar XE.
Not only was the engine noticeably noisy in the Jaguar, but the gearbox was also uncomfortably at odds with the car's sporting chassis.
In the Land Rover, all was in perfect harmony; quiet, refined and smooth, this was a great engine and gearbox combination. It's hard to explain what went wrong with the XE...
Indeed, the Land Rover was a more satisfying car to drive than the Jaguar; make of that what you will.
The Disco Sport has an appropriately premium price tag, with the cheapest two-wheel-drive - a two-wheel-drive Land Rover; sacrilege - version costing just over £31,000.
An SE Tech version with the 178bhp engine and automatic gearbox looks to be the sweet-spot of the range, and will set you back just over £36k.
Whichever version you go for, equipment is decent: heated seats, part-leather seats, climate control, alloy wheels, Bluetooth and a DAB radio are standard on the SE.
SE Tech adds automatic lights and wipers and an electrically-powered tailgate, which is a useful addition to a tall car like this.
HSE trim comes with toys such as xenon headlamps, a beefy sound system, electrically-adjustable seats, a reversing camera, glass roof, keyless entry and full leather upholstery.
At the top of the range is the HSE Luxury, complete with heated and cooled front seats, heated back seats and self-parking.
There is, of course, a long list of options from which to choose, making a £50k Disco Sport a distinct possibility.
By that stage, the Land Rover is too expensive. But keep the price in the mid- to high-£30ks, and it makes a stronger case for itself.
It's not especially cheap, then, but taking the family out for the day rarely is. And if you travel by Discovery Sport, at least the journey will be more comfortable and relaxed than in most rival cars.
And if you really want to bring two of your children's friends with you, at least you will have the space...
:: AT A GLANCE
Land Rover Discovery Sport HSE Luxury
Price: £43,000. As tested £47,475. Options included entertainment pack £2,500, InControl Connect £650, adaptive xenon headlamps £375, electric deployable towbar £950
Engine and transmission: 2.0-litre four-cylinder diesel turbo, nine-speed automatic gearbox, four-wheel-drive; 178bhp, 317lb/ft
Performance: Top speed 117mph, 0-60mph in 8.4 seconds
Fuel consumption: 53.3mpg (EU combined); 35.7mpg (real world)
CO2, road tax, benefit in kind: 139g/km - £130 annually - 27 per cent
Euro Ncap safety rating: Five stars (93/83/69/82)
