Supercharged appeal of Disco

In recent years the differences between the Land Rover Discovery and its Range Rover cousins have diminished as the Disco has become more up-market - particularly in the latest petrol- powered Discovery.

Considering it's powered by a supercharged 3.0-litre V6 engine (replacing the old 5.0-litre V8), the SCV6 offering would appear to have more of an eye on the tarmac than off it. A cynic might say it's aimed at someone who wants all the comforts of a Range Rover Sport or Evoque but wants to appear slightly tougher or not as pretentious.

But after a fortnight spent racking up about 1600km around our fine State, the petrol Disco showed it deserves a lot more love than that.

The petrol V6 is the unit found in the Jaguar F-Type and will also appear in the upcoming XE.

It's a ripper, both on and off- road. Travelling to Albany, it was more than happy to respond to a kick in the guts to swiftly overtake and while there was a slight whine as the supercharger did its thing it was never so loud as to become obtrusive in the quiet cabin. Considering its design is about as aerodynamic as a brick, there was surprisingly little wind noise.

The petrol now gets an eight- speed ZF auto, which has been available in diesel variants for a while. It's sublime, imperceptible at low speeds and nigh-on telepathic when you want to coax some extra performance.

And its off-road pedigree had its benefits on the sealed stuff. Significant bumps and potholes were barely felt, even at speed.

Combined with perks like a great stereo system, a heap of storage options and all the connectivity stuff you'd need, the petrol Discovery proved a great highway cruiser.

Around town it's surprisingly nimble to park. It's not as well- behaved or invigorating as other petrol-powered luxury SUVs, even in Sports mode - given it towers over the road like a skyscraper, handling isn't going to be a strong point, obviously - but there's a clear pay-off.

Basically, it's still nigh-on indestructible and unstoppable off-road. After a trip deep into the Wheatbelt - where the Disco gobbled up unsealed roads - it was time to try it on something a bit harder.

Or softer, as it were.

The petrol engine has lower torque figures than its diesel counterparts and its max outputs don't kick in until higher in the rev range but it's still ridiculously capable. Heading out on a rural property through soft sand, slushy, muddy paddocks and rocky outcrops, the Discovery took it all in its stride, with the gearbox often slipping into the correct gears and offering enough lowdown grunt to push through and over obstacles.

As always, the high ride-height and excellent visibility all around the driver's chair helped in negotiating tricky terrain.

So cynics, get back in your box. In its supercharged petrol guise, the Discovery offers off-road capability beyond most top- end vehicles, and refinement and performance beyond most dedicated off-roaders.

But, as there always is, there are some issues. One, mainly - it's a fuel guzzler.

While you'd expect high fuel use in city traffic, a vast percentage of the kilometres travelled over the fortnight were either cruising at freeway speeds or on sparsely populated regional roads. Still, it struggled to get below 13.0L/100km, up on the official figure of 12.0L/100km.

Land Rover says it has all the towing capabilities as the diesel engines but it would likely need a lot of juice to do the same work.

Plus, Land Rover continues to be stingy with its standard equipment - while you can get a number of excellent options fitted, a vehicle in this price bracket should always have, say, sat nav as standard without having to go for the range-topping HSE.

VERDICT

The supercharged petrol Discovery offers a rare combination of on and off-road capability - but given the diesel variants' frugality and performance you might want to go for an oil-burner to spend less time and money at the servo.

LAND ROVER DISCOVERY
Model SE
Price $84,900
Engine 3.0-litre supercharged V6 petrol
Outputs 250kW/450Nm
Transmission Eight-speed automatic

Thirst 12.0L/100km

COMPETITORS
TOYOTA PRADO
Model Kakadu
Price $92,120
Engine 4.0-litre V6 petrol
Outputs 202kW/381Nm
Transmission Five-speed automatic

Thirst 11.5L/100km

NISSAN PATHFINDER
Model Ti
Price $65,090
Engine 3.5-litre V6 petrol
Outputs 190kW/325Nm
Transmission CVT automatic

Thirst 10.2L/100km

JEEP GRAND CHEROKEE
Model Overland
Price $72,000
Engine 5.7-litre V8 petrol
Outputs 259kW/520Nm
Transmission Eight-speed automatic
Thirst 13.0L/100km