Off Road 4×4 Driving

The Land Rover Discovery 3 (or LR3 in the US), is a beautiful vehicle and much maligned, certainly here in the UK as a result of being mainly owned by housewives!

The new Disco is an excellent load lugger, crew carrier and copes with most terrain in some serious comfort. The interior is more refined than the older models, and really does start to compete with the Rangie - in fact the new Range Rover Sport is based on it (why didn’t they call it the Discovery Sport? - They’d never be able to charge £45k for it!).

The impressive thing is though that it can actually cope off road, clearance, wading and all round chugging through mud is pretty good as long as you know what you are doing. If you don’t you’re also more likely to escape, and you’re less likely to wreck your new toy through ignorance. Beware those who are upgrading from a Disco 2 or Defender though - the suspension means that underbody clearance is completely different.

For companies who need their employees to go off road or tow as part of their work, the auto version is becoming more and more popular because everything is done for you, and you won’t cost the company money in repairs - apart from the inevitable ones from having a Land Rover and using it.

If you’re intending doing some serious off roading, be warned - soaking the inside will be expensive, body panels aren’t as easy to repair as the Defender, and the electrics are far more complex!

One request though - if you’re buying this to haul the kids around - buy an MPV. This is a 3 tonne industrial and agricultural machine. It will cost you a fortune to run in fuel (though it is much better than many 4×4s), maintenance, insurance and tax, and it will draw criticism from all quarters. All 4×4s have a terrible safety record when considering other road users - especially children, and due to the false sense of security they engender you are statistically MORE likely to have a serious or fatal injury if you’re inside one (Churchill insurance suggest 4×4 drivers are 25% more likely to be involved in an accident. Admiral insurance suggest 4×4 drivers are 27% more likely to be at fault in an accident. The RAC say “You could blame some of the higher accident rate for 4×4s on size. Drivers who are new to these cars might not realise how wide they are. There is also psychology involved - if you feel more secure inside a big 4×4, you might drive with less care than you should.”. Don’t be a fashion victim - if you need a car, buy a car - not a tractor.

I’ll still admit to wanting one though!!!

Read what Clarkson thinks of the Disco.

(If you want to review the Disco 3 yourself - post it in the comments section. A couple of links are allowed. Reviews will be moderated as independently as possible.)