Currently reading: Land Rover Discovery Sport long-term test review: practical test
Our seven-seater gets a chance to show off its people-carrying ability

My cousin is thinking about replacing her well-used Peugeot 308 SW with a new seven-seater, and the Land Rover Discovery Sport is on her shopping list. 

To help with the decision-making process, I trundled out to Oxford in our Discovery Sport and filled it up with their family of five, plus me.

That’s about as full as it’s ever going to get in my hands, but the car proved even better than expected at carrying that number of people.

The new Land Rover Discovery has been revealed - read more and get your first look here

The Discovery Sport may have a relatively compact footprint, but it never ceases to amaze me how much room there is inside.

The sliding and reclining middle row of seats provide generous leg room for occupants, particularly in their rearmost position, and moving them forwards frees up a surprising amount of space in the back.

The rearmost seats aren’t electrically operated but can be pulled up from the boot floor or folded away again quickly and easily, via a strap on the back of each seatback.

My cousin’s husband, at around 6ft tall, sat in one of them for part of our short tour around Oxford and professed to be perfectly comfortable.

Climbing in and out of the third row can be awkward for adults, though; there’s a real possibility of a head-first tumble if you’re not careful.

On occasion, I’ve noticed a rattle from the rear of the cabin, but it doesn’t signify a fault or poor build quality — just that something isn’t positioned correctly.

If you make sure that the rearmost seatbelts are tucked into their clips on the inside of the D-pillars, the middle-row seatbacks aren’t touching the load cover and the load cover is retracted, progress is much more likely to be rattle-free.

The presence of the seats in the boot floor also had me wondering where the optional space-saver spare wheel resided, so I stuck my head under the rear to investigate, and sure enough, there it was.

I can’t say I’d ever want to have to retrieve it from there on a rainy night, but carrying a space-saver is much more reassuring than a repair kit.

Land Rover Discovery Sport HSE TD4 180 auto

Read our previous reports

Comfortable cruising

First report

Price £39,400 Price as tested £42,222 Economy 33.8mpg Faults None Expenses None Mileage 6220

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Car review
The Land Rover Discovery Sport
The new Land Rover Discovery Sport is the successor to the Freelander

The Freelander's replacement goes big on prettiness and packaging, and as a result becomes the class leader

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Harry P 20 May 2016

Not worthy of comment

If the only complaint is that of a rattle and one that can easily be resolved by correctly positioning a seat back or a seat belt. Is it really worth reporting on?
Citytiger 20 May 2016

Shock horror

a vehicle built on the same platform as the mk1 S-Max and Mk2 Galaxy has enough room for 7 people, here is an idea, why not save a few quid and buy one of them instead, a brand new S-Max 180TDCI Titanium Sport Auto AWD is £10k less, which if you really need the AWD capability will be more than enough for most purposes anyway.
spqr 20 May 2016

What does this mean -

"On occasion, I’ve noticed a rattle from the rear of the cabin, but it doesn’t signify a fault or poor build quality — just that something isn’t positioned correctly"? If the writer means that when the car was put together a robot or human worker did not place a component in the correct position then that is the very definition of poor build quality. Which is par for the course in JLR products.