Hitting my head on the 2025 Land Rover Discovery

I have no doubt that designing a car is very difficult. Utilize parts off the shelf, design new ones, consider cost – there are a million factors at play. It’s amazing that it all comes together. But things get missed – sometimes big things. And this 2025 Land Rover Discovery offers quite a few examples.

Can a big SUV even be a big SUV if you can’t get inside?

The 2025 2025 Land Rover Discovery Metropolitan Edition Overview

I get it – you’re most likely not going to use this Disco’s ability to venture off-road. Despite all the marketing and commercials that paint an adventurous ownership experience filled with dirt and bugs, your excitement will begin and end hopping curbs at your local Publix.

Still, the ability is baked in here; it is a Land Rover after all. There’s full-time all-wheel drive, gigantic tires, and a suspension designed to tackle mud first, asphalt second. That makes it sort of like a Defender. Then there’s a Meridian Sound System, solar attenuating glass, and premium Charente Grey Metallic paint. That makes it sort of like a Range Rover. And a base price of $79,800 for this Metropolitan Edition puts it firmly between the two.

When it comes to three-row SUVs, there are a lot of options at this price point, all with off-roading ability of their own. Let’s discover (ha ha dad joke) what separates the Discovery in good and bad ways.

Performance Score: 5. Just V-8 all the Rovers

The Discovery never offered a supercharged V-8, but you know how much I love that motor, even if it’s mostly gone. I can’t help but wonder if it would help inject a little personality into this car.

Engine

Let us give some huzzahs to the fact that this inline-six, derived from Jaguar’s F-PACE, is creamy smooth – a much better option than any V-6.

Turbocharged and bolted to a seamlessly integrated 48-volt mild hybrid system, it puts out 355 horsepower and 369 lb-ft of torque. Before you ask, no, this isn’t a BMW engine in disguise like the V-8 in a Range Rover.

It’s a fine motor, very muted, with excellent throttle input – you never want an off-road SUV with a hair-trigger gas pedal. But two and a half tons is a lot of weight, and it’s a bit much to ask 355 horses to push you with much fervor. It’s never as smooth as a BMW inline-six, nor does it encourage you to rev it. Perhaps that old supercharged V-8 would more fun, as mentioned above.

Transmission

We have here a ZF eight-speed unit that never draws much attention to itself, though it stubbornly refuses to kick down when you floor the pedal.

Perhaps it’s because of all the dirt gear. There’s a twin-speed transfer box for high- and low-range, an active locking rear differential, terrain response operated by a simple knob on the dash, a four-wheel drive. It all works seamlessly, and for the most part you can leave the system in “auto” mode to let it figure out what the Discovery needs on its own.

Chassis and Steering

This is a soft car. If the GX 550 was too stiffly sprung, this is the opposite, floating, squatting and diving all over the road. If you’re on a smooth highway going straight, the Disco offers a luxurious ride. But the minute you ask it to do anything resembling handling, it’s eager to lean. Even equipped with an adaptive air suspension, the Rover feels like it’s on stilts.

Once you take it off the beaten path the situation improves. All that suspension travel makes the ruts feels 5 inches deep, not five feet. Even with all-season tires as oppose to dedicated dirt rubber, the Discovery is easily able to pull itself out of slippery mud and gravel. It’s much more capable than say, a QX80, and I don’t think a unibody structure makes it worse than the Lexus off-road – the chassis is much stiffer. Bravo.

Another bummer is the steering, which is too soft and slow to respond. Since you’ll probably be driving this on the road a lot more, it can all make the Disco a bit of a handful.

Brakes

Metropolitan Edition-exclusive black brake calipers poke our from behind the 22-inch wheels. The pedal is too soft and sluggish to respond, made worse by the dive you experience when braking. I doubt you’d get into serious trouble on the road, but you really need to dig deep into the pedal if you have to stop short.

Lifestyle Score: 5. Ouch

I have to start in the front row. Allow me to demonstrate…

You will hit your head as you get in if you’re even close to being tall. The top of the door sill is low, and even with the seat cushion all the way down, I had to duck each time. It’s the same issue I had with the Toyota Supra – a two seat sports car, not a three row SUV. Once you’re in, the seats are comfy and supportive, but I still feel my hair brushing against the headliner.

The second row is fine, though there’s oddly no sunroof until you get to the third row. First, to access it, you must move the middle row out of the way. That takes time and patience because of the myriad of NASA buttons located in the trunk (you can also access from the second row). Once you have the room to get in, you’re left with what’s best described as a really nicely-padded shelf. Hope you remembered to remove the parcel cover too.

Leave the seats up, and you’re left with a very tiny trunk that might not even fit your food shopping. If you drive around with them down, then what’s the point of a three-row SUV?

Fuel Economy: 5. Fall in-line

The 2025 Land Rover Discovery has two powertrain options, either a 296-hp turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder or this 355-hp turbocharged 3.0-liter inline-six, the latter of which employs a 48-volt hybrid system. I have something similar is my X3 M50, and it’s nearly flawless in behavior on the Discovery as well.

This Metropolitan Edition with the six gets 19 combined MPG. Opt for the four, and that rises to 21. That’s no reason to opt for the smaller engine, despite the nearly $6k difference in trim pricing. You’d never make the money back in gas on a three-year lease…and do you really want a four-cylinder hauling your two-and-a-half ton SUV around?

Comfort and Features: 7. Hard to beat a classic

I’ve been in a number of JLR products by now, and like most other manufactures, it’s a copy and paste job. But that’s fine with me – we have real HVAC buttons, a beautifully-designed interface, and clean, easy-to-read controls.

The Simple life

It’s no secret that JLR isn’t doing that well. Jaguar isn’t selling any cars, and even Land Rover isn’t bringing anything new over because of the tariff situation. That would explain why the interior of these have remained the same for many years – no R&D funding. If you go from a BMW X5 with its Times Square graphics, and sit inside this Discovery, you might question why they cost about the same.

But the fact is that this digital dash is simple and clean, as are all the dials and buttons in the easy-to-use cockpit. Try driving around in a Lexus GX and then step into this – it’s like a breath of fresh air. The off-road control knob is easy to use, as are the dials for the HVAC.

There’s a really nice Meridian sound system, heated windshield, Ebony extended leather that’s so soft to the touch, cooling center console, and all the safety systems you’d expect. Not here are things like ambient lighting and a “wow-wee” factor I suppose – I simply prefer the Discovery’s layout over other brands.

Fat cat

The Discovery has been around like this since 2017, but the design remains fresh and this Metropolitan Edition comes fully loaded. Outside, we get classy Charente Grey Metallic (an $840 option), 22-inch gloss black wheels, and really no other clues as to this being the most expensive Disco, aside from badged sill plates. You do get a lot of extras compared to the lesser Dynamic SE, which is good because this one costs nearly $15,000 more.

Any weirdness at all? The off-center license plate area in the rear as always been odd to me, but not necessarily bad. Otherwise it’s smooth and unassuming, if a bit tall in the back half. Any sense of blockiness from old Discoverys are long gone.

Other large SUVs to consider

• Land Rover Defender
• Lexus GX 550
• Infiniti QX80
• GMC Yukon

The 2025 Land Rover Discovery Metropolitan Edition is good, but limited

Every vehicle is a compromise, from a bicycle to the Lunar Module. Trade some of this for some of that. With SUVs, you trade efficiency for space.

But the Discovery makes it tough. There simply is no real trunk, and no real third row save for tiny humans, yet you carry that size penalty around with you. It’s not very engaging to drive unless it’s dirty beneath you, and this Metropolitan Edition is expensive but doesn’t necessary present as a modern $80,000 SUV.

Still, JLR products resonate with me despite their imperfections. I do think the Disco is fun off-road, and much more refined than some competitors, including its Defender sibling. It makes you feel like you’re always ready for an African safari or a commute as an evil villain. Besides, if you drive your BMW M car less than 2% of its life on a track, aren’t you pretending in a similar fashion?

So if the small doors and limited space don’t bother you and a Disco lands in your driveway, I do hope you experience more than the Publix parking lot. After all, it was built to discover.